Nathan Burns, widely known as Mr Metacognition, helps teachers and schools make metacognition practical, clear and useful in the classroom.
In this interview, he shares his thoughts on independent learning, questioning, confidence and how schools can develop metacognitive practice.
Question 1
What first interested you in metacognition?
I remember first coming across metacognition in one of those assignments that you do during teacher training – choose a theory and apply it to your classroom. I’m unsure how I found metacognition, but I did, and began exploring it, implementing ideas into my classroom. I remember discussing it with other colleagues too, who noted that metacognition was confusing or unclear, especially as to what it looked like in the classroom. For me, it really just ‘made sense’, and so I began to move beyond implementing it in my own classroom to working with other teachers, through whole-school PD, on their developing practices.
Question 2
How would you explain metacognition simply?
Often, the simple definition is “thinking about thinking”, but I don’t believe that this does justice to the complexity of metacognition. Without making this answer complex, I believe effective metacognition is the deep evaluation of the processes that we go through in relation to the outcomes that we achieve. If, for example, you score 10/10 on a quiz, what meant that it went well? Why were you successful? Does anything need to change, and what needs to remain the same to keep doing well in future? Effective metacognitive practice includes a consideration of planning, monitoring and evaluation.
Question 3
Why is metacognition important in schools?
Metacognition underpins our ability to drive forward our own learning. Learners who are effectively metacognitive will be better at revising, self-regulation, problem-solving and areas of skill transference. It is far easier to improve as a learner if you can effectively determine your areas of strength, areas of development and how you can actually go about developing them. In schools, we’re always crying out for students to be more independent – metacognition is one of the best ways of helping to achieve this.
Question 4
What is one simple strategy teachers can try?
The most straightforward way of developing metacognition in the classroom is through teacher-led modelling. As teachers, we’re experts in our subject areas and what I often jokingly nickname “metacognitive beasts”. We have been through the questions, the exam papers and the marker feedback. We’ve studied the subject far longer, to a far higher level. We’ve, in many cases, quite literally written the curriculum. Therefore, we have so many metacognitive considerations which will be underpinning our decision-making when we are modelling to students, from the layout we choose to the key word that we focus on. We ought to make these decisions that we are taking explicit. Why have we focused on a particular line? Why are we placing emphasis on one particular cause? Taking time to talk through our own metacognition is hugely powerful.
Question 5
Can metacognition work in every subject?
Absolutely! That’s one of the best things about metacognition – that it can (and will) work everywhere. Every discipline has cognition – a range of knowledge and skills that you need to be successful. Whether that’s the ability to serve a ball in tennis or recall a formula in Maths, all subject disciplines require us to plan, monitor and evaluate. Gosh, even 2-year-olds do it when they play with blocks in EYs. So yes, metacognition can, and should, be developed across the board.
Question 6
How can teachers help pupils think about their learning?
We’ve already mentioned explicit justifications, from a modelling perspective, which help to illuminate the metacognitive thinking that students should be going through. If we’re wanting students to think deeply about their metacognition, though, we need to be questioning them. This doesn’t have to be a full-on grilling, but questions such as those shown below can have a majorly positive impact:
“Why did you choose that approach?”
“What would you do differently next time, and why?”
“What alternative approaches did you discard?”
“What knowledge did you include that you now realise didn’t need to be in there?”
Question 7
What does good independent learning look like?
One thing we can all agree on is that we are wanting independent learners! I think, generally, we have agreement over what effective independent learning looks like. Ideally, our students ask effective questions, are able to identify the precise thing that they are stuck on (not just “I can’t do it…”), don’t instantly give up, recognise the different scaffolds and supports that they have available to them to support their progress and also, really importantly, effectively independent students know when to ask for help. Being independent isn’t about doing everything on your own, but giving things a go, noting challenges and then knowing when to ask effective questions and turn for help.
Question 8
How can pupils become more confident learners?
I believe that a lot of this comes down to success. All too often, our students don’t feel this, and thus they’re not going to be confident. I also believe that a lot of this comes back to students getting too high with top grades and too down with lower grades. Naturally, we’ll be happier with higher grades and less happy with lower grades, but really, we need to be keeping an even keel. We need to reflect just as much on why we were successful as we do when we’re not quite as successful. Reflections need to come at all opportunities, so building this into our lesson routines really is quite important.
Question 9
How important is questioning in the classroom?
As shown by already being mentioned in previous answers, questioning is absolutely imperative to not just developing metacognition but also supporting learner development more generally. I have a tenuous analogy about questions and how it relates to darts. In a game of darts, you can’t just keep throwing, time after time, in the hope of hitting the double that you need, as 30 darts in (or more), your opponent will have already won. You need to take your time and throw the correct dart, hitting the target, to be successful. In-class questioning is like this, too. We need to ask questions, of course, but we can’t just keep throwing them around until we ask a question that is helpful. We need to think deeply about what thinking we want students to be doing and ask appropriate questions based upon this.
Question 10
How can metacognition help struggling pupils?
Metacognition isn’t just about identifying areas for improvement but also about understanding how to self-improve and drive forward your growth. I believe that effectively developing metacognition in the classroom will translate to students being better aware of the strategies available to them, the resources that they can turn to and the scaffolds available to support their learning. Through upskilling our students in all three of these areas, we’re going to help improve the confidence of our pupils. No one likes not knowing what to do, but we all (normally) enjoy the challenge of a problem when we know what to do or where to turn for a little help. We need to remove overwhelm for our students and equip them with the skills to be successful. This is what will turbocharge confidence.
Question 11
What mistakes do schools make with metacognition?
The biggest mistake is always around time: the belief that metacognition can be developed in a matter of weeks or a couple of half-terms. This simply isn’t possible – or at least, not if you want to do metacognition the justice that it deserves. Teachers need time to explore a range of approaches, reflecting on when they do and do not work (i.e. to be metacognitive about the metacognition!), and students need the time to develop their understanding of these approaches and frequently and independently use them themselves. Metacognition is a long-term journey that shouldn’t be rushed, which is always my key takeaway message for teachers and schools.
Question 12
How can schools introduce it without adding workload?
This is one of the great things about metacognition – if it is adding to your workload, then you’re probably doing it wrong. As mentioned in other responses, metacognition should be linked in with other areas. I’ve already discussed modelling and questioning and alluded to feedback, but it can also link in with oracy, planning, revision and many other areas. Metacognition can only develop within the context of cognition – i.e. subject knowledge and a curriculum – and therefore ought to be developed hand in hand with the other pedagogical areas that we will place a focus on in our schools.
Question 13
What have you learnt from working with different schools?
The key takeaway for me on this is that every single context is different, and every single context will need something different. No two approaches, implemented in exactly the same way in two different contexts, are going to work as effectively as if they were moulded for the specific context. Staff matter. Students matter. Priorities matter. Subjects matter. Implementation is all the more effective for considering your context deeply, recognising the key areas of development and choosing metacognitive approaches which will help develop these areas.
Question 14
What inspired you to write about metacognition?
I’ve always just ‘got’ metacognition, but I do recognise that it is a more complex theory that does have intricacies which many other pedagogical approaches don’t have. I’ve been inspired to share clearer definitions and more actionable strategies that I knew teachers and schools would need. Closing the gap between research and classroom practice is crucial, as is me sharing the experience that I am now developing by working in such a variety of different contexts. I feel like I owe those working in schools, doing an incredible job, the very best insights that I can offer to help support their practice.
Question 15
Which education ideas have influenced you most?
There’s still plenty that I remember from my own teacher training, and one particular speech still sticks out to me (but, for the life of me, I can’t remember who it was by!). In short, the speech was about the importance of teachers and that, for all too many of our pupils, we’re the only adult there for them, day in, day out. For some, we’re the only adult who speaks to them all day. The only adult who asks them how they are. This wasn’t a criticism of parents and carers but an acknowledgement that, in a world of economic strain where many people work multiple jobs and night shifts are so common, our importance as a rock, there day in, day out, cannot be understated.
Question 16
What would you change about education?
The constant, constant focus on performance data. Effective learning is so hard to measure, and this isn’t me saying that we should remove the most accurate measures that we have – well-produced assessments – but to say that processes are, typically, far more important than outcomes. Outcomes at the end of an educational cycle are important, but it is processes that, up until that point, will drive forward a student’s progress and success. But we get so hung up on end-of-topic tests, weekly quizzes, daily recorded retrieval practice and not just the end-of-term/end-of-year assessment that we’ve moved so far beyond process to just outcomes, time after time.
Question 17
What is your best advice for a new teacher?
Be there. Day after day, week after week… sometimes the best thing that you can do is be there for students. You don’t have to be the best teacher in the world to change a student’s life. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t focus on improving your practice, but to remind new teachers that those conversations on a break duty, the “have a nice night” as students leave school and the chats in a tutor time are all so, so important to providing the schooling experience that we really want all students to have.
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