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Metacognitive Knowledge

25 September, 2015 - 16:52

Metacognitive knowledge involves (a) learning processes and your beliefs about how you learn and how you think others learn, (b) the task of learning and how you process information, and (c) the strategies you develop and when you will use them. Let us say you have to learn a new language in 6 months. Here is how you would think about it, using metacognitive knowledge:

  • Learning Process: I am good at learning new languages and I think I can do this in the time period I have been given.
  • Task of Learning: To complete this task, I will need to think about the following:
    • How soon can I get information to start learning the language?
    • How long will it take me to learn the language?
    • What information is available to me to learn this new language?
    • Is this language similar to a language I have learned before?
    • Will I be able to learn the language in time?
    • How hard will it be for me to learn this language?
    • What do I need to do to learn the language?
  • The Strategies: I think learning this new language is going to take me 12 months, but I only have 6 months to prepare. I better find other ways to me meet this goal. I think I will find out if there is an accelerated language class that I can take. Maybe I should consider hiring a private tutor, or maybe I will just focus on learning the basics of the language.