GEC 1- Understanding the Self

CHAPTER 2: MANAGING AND CARING THE SELF

Lesson 2:
Learning to Be a Better Learner

Intended Learning Outcome

At the end of this lesson, the learner will be able to

1. explain how learning occurs;

2. enumerate various metacognition and studying techniques; and
3. identify the techniques that they find most appropriate for themselves.

Introduction
Knowing the "self' is not enough. Since "who you are” is partly made up of your
choices, you must also have the ability to choose especially to be better "you." In the school
setting, your knowledge of yourself should at least enable you to become a better student.
This lesson will present several techniques that you can adapt depending on your situation
and preferences in order to make you a better learner. Learning should not just mean
studying for your quizzes and exams in school. Learning could also occur outside the
confines of a book or of a classroom like when you want to acquire a new move in your
favorite sport, the skills for a certain hobby, among others. Furthermore, the techniques here
are not the only techniques available and months or years from now, new ways on how to
study better will be discovered or rediscovered. What is important at this moment is that you
learn how to learn these things.

Discussions
We are Homo sapiens or the "wise man." We think in a more complex level than our
ancestors and most, if not all, of the other beings. But being called wise, not only do we
think, but we are also capable to think about thinking like how we think of things and why we
think in a certain way about things. It is like your brain thinks about itself, thon thinks about
how it thinks about itself.

In the context of learning, studies show that when you are able to think about how
you think, how you process information, and how you utilize techniques while you are
studying, you have a higher chance of improving your learning process than those who do
not reflect on their methods.

This idea falls under the concept of metacognition. Metacognition is commonly

defined as "thinking about thinking." (Livingston 1997, 1; Papaleontiou-Louca 2003, 10). It is
the awareness of the scope and limitations of your current knowledge and skills
(Meichenbaum 1985 in American Institutes for Research 2010,. p. 1). Due to this awareness,
metacognition enables the person to adapt their existing knowledge and skills in order to
approach a learning task, seeking for the optimum result of the learning experience
(American Institutes for Research 2010, p. 1).

Metacognition is also not limited to the thinking process of the individual. It also
includes keeping one's emotions and motivations while learning in check (Papaleontiou-
Louca 2003, p. 9). Some people learn better when they like the subject, some when they are
challenged by the topic, end others if they have a reward system each time they finish a
task. The emotional state and the motivation of a person then should also be in the preferred
ideal state for that person in order to facilitate further his/her learning.

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As seen from the above mentioned definitions, metacognition has two aspects: 1)
self-appraisal and 2) self-management of cognition (Paris and Winnograd 1990 in
Papaleontiou-Louca 2003, p: 10).

Self-appraisal is your personal reflection on your knowledge and capabilities while

self-management is the mental processes you employ using what you have in planning and
adapting to successfully learn or accomplish a certain task (Paris and Winnograd 1990 in
Papaleontiou-Louca, p. 10).

ELEMENTS OF METACOGNITION

Similar concepts, usually called elements of metacognition, are metacognitive

knowledge or what you know about how you think and metacognition regulation or how
you adjust your thinking processes to help you learn better (American Institutes for Research
2010, 2).

VARIABLES OF METACOGNITIVE KNOWLEDGE

Under metacognitive knowledge are several variables that affect how you know or assess
yourself as a thinker.

1. The personal variable that is your evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses in
learning.

2. The task variable is what you know or what you think about the nature of the task as w ell
as what strategies the task requires.

3. The strategy variable refers to what strategies or skills you already have in dealing with
certain tasks (American Institutes for Research 2010, 2).

However, it must be noted that in order to make self-appraisal and self-management

work, you must have an accurate self-assessment—you must be honest about what you
know and capable of in order to find ways to utilize your strengths and improve on your
weaknesses (Schoenfield 1987 in PapateontioLouca 2003,p. 10).

Utilizing metacognitive skills, ere are other skills help you with exercising
metacognition:

1. Knowing your limits (Waterloo Students Success Office n.d., 2): as mentioned
earlier, one cannot really make any significance advancement in using metacognitive skills
without having an honest and accurate evaluation of what you know and what you don't
know. Knowing your limits also looks at the scope and limitations of your resources so that
you can work with what you have at the moment and look for ways to cope with other
necessities.

2. Modifying your approach (Waterloo Students Success Office n.d., it begins with the
recognition that your strategy is not appropriate with the task and/or that you are not
comprehending the learning experience successfully. Recognizing, for example, that you are
not understanding what you are reading, you should also learn to modify your strategy in
comprehending your material. You might want read and re-read a page for 5-minute
intervals instead of trying to finish material in one sitting. You may want to make a summary
or code for yourself instead of using keywords or highlighting sections of what you are
reading.

3. Skimming (Waterloo Students Success Ottjce n.d., 2) : this is basically browsing over
a material and keeping an eye on keywords, phrases, or sentences. It is also knowing where
to search for such key terms. For example, you might want to look at the introduction first or

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the abstract. The table of contents can also provide you with a quick guide to the contents of
the book. Introductory paragraphs, headings or subheadings, and conclusions can also
provide you with an overview of the whole material. This technique works best when you
want to get an idea about the contents of a reading material, when you are trying to read
through several materials in a limited time frame, or when you want to focus on certain
details, among others.

4. Rehearsing (Waterloo Students Success Office n.d., 2): this is not just repeatedly
talking, writing. and/or doing what you've learned but also trying to make a personal
interpretation or summary of the learning experience. One of the fun ways to do this is
imagine yourself being interviewed about your task and as you try to convey what you have
learned from the resources, you will also insert your opinions or other personal take on the
matter, Just be sure that the key concepts are well understood and are still in-line with the
source material even with multiple rehearsals.

5. Self-Test (Waterloo Students Success Office n.d., 2): as the name implies, this is trying
to test your comprehension of your learning experience or the skills you have acquired
during learning. While some materials already come with tests like this book, you can still
create tests for yourself. You can make essay questions or definition of terms test while you
are reading or watching a material. You can challenge yourself in completing a task
successfully, maybe in a given period of time, for example doing 50 free throws with at least
90% success rate. Self-test does not only focus also on what you have learned but how you
learned it. You should also ask after the experience questions like "What strategies did I
use? "How successful were my learning strategies?" "How can I further improve my learning
skills?"

Other strategies that you need to develop include asking questions as well as
questioning your methods, self-reflection, finding a mentor or support group if necessary,
thinking out loud (though you have to be considerate of others also when doing this), and
welcoming errors as learning experiences. For clarification, “welcoming errors" does not
mean seeking them or consciously making them as much as possible. The phrase means
that when you commit o mistake, you do not dismiss it as insignificant or you do try to avoid
responsibility of the results. You must process them to learn every lesson that you can take
about yourself, about the topic, and other people or things. By having a more positive
attitude toward mistakes, you will also have the courage to venture into new and unknown
learning experiences that may one day interest you.

TYPES OF METACOGNITIVE LEARNERS

Using these strategies, you can at least identify four types metacognitive learners (Perkins;
1992 in Cambridge International Examinations 2015, 2).

1. "TACIT" learners are unaware of their metacognitive processes although they know the
extent of their knowledge.

2. “AWARE” learners are aware of some of their metacognitive strategies but using
techniques are not always planned.

3. “STRATEGIC” learners, as the name implies, strategize, and plan their course of action
toward a learning experience.

4. "REFLECTIVE" learners reflect on their thinking while they are strategies and will adapt
their metacognitive skills depending on the situation.

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As you may have noticed already, the goal of metacognition is for the student to be a self-
regulated learner. Education should not be limited by the capabilities of the teacher, the
content of school textbooks, the four corners of the classroom, and the duration of the
academic year or your courses.

BENEFITS IN USING METACOGNITIVE TECHNIQUES

1. One should have the capability to study things on his/her own as well as accurately
evaluate his/her progress.

2. Another benefit is the compensation and development of cognitive limitations of the

learner because of the student is now aware of his/her capabilities.

Various researches also showed significant performance improvement in academic

performance in any subject and across age range (Cambridge International Examinations
2015, 2). The student is also enabled to transfer knowledge from one context into another
(Cambridge International Examinations 2015, 2).

Other tips that you can use in studying are the following:

1. Making an outline of the things you want to learn, the things you are reading or doing,
and/or the things you remember;

2. Breaking down the task in smaller and more manageable details;

3. Integrating variation in your schedule and learning experience. Change reading material
every hour and do not put similar topics together (ex. Try studying English then Mathematics
instead of English then Filipino together). Also include physical activities in your planning;

4. You may also try to incubate your ideas. First, write your draft without doing much editing.
Let the ideas flow. Then leave your draft at least overnight or around 24 hours—some do
not look at it for a week—and do something else. After a given period, go back to your draft
or prototype and you might find a fresh perspective about it, Sometimes, during incubation,
you suddenly have ideas coming to you. Write them down in a notebook first and do not
integrate them into the draft yet. Review then when the incubation period is done;

5. Revising, summarizing, and taking down notes then rereading them might help you
minimize cramming in the last minute especially when you have a weakness in memorizing
facts and data. Some people are motivated when the deadline is very close—for example,
tomorrow—that they just review the day before some evaluation or exercises. If you are that
kind of person, you may still motivate yourself and have that feeling of urgency at the last
minute but by using the aforementioned techniques, your "cramming" need not be a
desperate attempt to learn but only as a way to energize your brain as you make a final
review of the things you have already been studying for a week or so before;

6. You should also engage what you have learned. Do something about it. On a reading
material for example, highlights keywords and phrases, write your opinions about the matter
on a separate notebook, or create a diagram or concept map. Some people also learn best
by copying the key paragraphs word for word. You may want to look for other definitions and
compare or contrast materials. Use your new knowledge during discussions—just do
something about it.