CHAPTER III

MANAGING AND CARING FOR THE SELF

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
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 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 classroom, like when you
want to acquire a new move in your favorite sport, or 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 will learn these things.

ACTIVITY

How Do You Think About Thinking?

Answer the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) and evaluate yourself as a learner. A copy
of the MAI can also be downloaded from the following link:
https://www2.viu.ca/studentsuccessservices/learningstrategist/documents/
MetacognitiveAwarenessInventory.pdf

ANALYSIS

Answer the ff questions, then write your answers in the space provided.

1. Do you agree with the results of your MAI? Why or why not?
2. Make a list of you “Top 5 Tips/Secrets for Studying” based on your personal
experiences/preferences. Share your answer in class.
3. Does your MAI result consistent with your personal Top 5 Tips/Secrets for Studying?

ABSTRACTION

We are Homo sapiens or the “wise man.” We think in a more complex level than our ancestors
and most, if not all, of 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, then thinks about how it thinks about itself.

In the context of learning, studies show that when you are able to thinks 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; Papaleontiou-Louca 2003). It is the awareness of the scope
and limitations of your current knowledge and skills (Meichenbaum 1985 in American Institutes for
Research 2010). Due to this awareness, metacognition enables the person to adapt their existing
knowledge and skills to approach a learning task, seeking for the optimum result of the learning
experience (American Institutes for Research 2010).

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). Some
people learn better when they like the subject, some when they are challenged by the topic, and 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 further facilitate his or
her learning.

As seen from the above-mentioned definitions, metacognition basically has two aspects: (1) self-
appraisal and (2) self-management of cognition (Paris and Winnograd 1990 in Papeleontiou-Louca
2003). Self-appraisal is your personal reflection on your knowledge and capabilities while self-
management is the mental process 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 2003).
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).

Under metacognitive knowledge, there are several variables that affect how you know or assess
yourself as a thinker. First is the personal variable, which is your evaluation of your strengths and
weaknesses in learning. Second is the task variable, which is what you know or what you think about the
nature of the task, as well as what strategies the task requires. Lastly, strategy variable refers to what
strategies or skills you already have in dealing with certain tasks (American Institutes for Research 2010).

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 an capable of in
order to find ways to utilize your strengths and improve on your weaknesses (Schoenfield 1987 in
Papaleontiou-Louca 2003).

Going back to the activity, review your MAI results and your answers during the analysis. Do you
feel that the results do not represent you? Rather than dismissing the test or the results if you feel any
incongruence to your perception, try to analyze if your answers were accurate and think of the specific
instances when you were learning something. Think also of the various factors that make that learning
experience successful and enjoyable for you, including your emotions and motivations at that certain
period.

By doing the above reflection, you are actually utilizing metacognitive skills. According to
Waterloo Student Success Office (n.d.), the following are other skills that can help you in exercising
metacognition:

1. Knowing your limits. 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 do not 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. It begins with the recognition that your strategy is not appropriate
with the task and/or that you do not comprehend the learning experience successfully.
Recognizing, for example, that you are not understanding what you are reading, you should
learn to modify your strategy in comprehending your material. You might want to read and
reread a page in five-minute intervals instead of trying to finish the 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. This is basically browsing over a material and keeping an eye on keywords, phrases,
or sentences. It is also about knowing where to search for such key terms. For example, you
might want to look at the introduction first or the Abstract. The Tables 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. This is not just about repeatedly talking, writing, and/or doing what you have
learned, but also trying to make a personal interpretation or summary of the learning
experience. One of the fun ways to do this is by imagining yourself being interviewed about your
task. As you try to convey what you have learned from the resources, you can 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. As the name implies, this is trying to test your comprehension of your 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 on what you have learned but also on how you learned it. After the experience, you
should also ask 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 about 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” means that when you commit a mistake, you do not dismiss it as
insignificant or you do not 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.

Using these strategies, you can at least identify four types of metacognitive learners (Perkins
1992 in Cambridge International Examinations 2015). First, the “tacit” learners are unaware of their
metacognitive processes although they know the extent of their knowledge. Second, the “aware”
learners know some of their metacognitive strategies but they do not plan on how to use these
techniques. Third, “strategic” learners, as the name implies, strategize and plan their course of action
toward a learning experience. Lastly, the “reflective” learners reflect on their thinking while they are
using the strategies and adapt metacognitive skills depending on their situation.

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 courses.
You should have the capability to study things on your own as well as accurately evaluate your progress.

This is one of the benefits of using metacognitive techniques and strategies. Another benefit is
the compensation and development of cognitive limitations of the learner because the student is now
aware of his/her capabilities. Various researchers also showed significant improvement in academic
performance in any subject and across age range. The student also enabled to transfer knowledge from
one context into another (Cambridge International Examinations 2015).

Other tips that you can use in studying are the following (Queensland University of Technology
Library n.d.):

1. Make an outline of the things you want to learn, the things you are reading or doing, and/or the
things you remember.
2. Break down the task in smaller and more manageable details.
3. Integrate variation in your schedule and learning experience. Change reading materials every
hour and do not put similar topics together (e.g., try studying English then Mathematics instead
of English then Filipino together). Also include physical activities in your planning.
4. 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 even 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 what you have written when the incubation period is done.
5. Revise, summarize, and take down notes, then reread them to 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—tomorrow, for instance—and they just
review the day before some evaluation or exercise. If you are that kind of person, you may still
motivate yourself and have that feeling or urgency at the last minute but by using the
aforementioned techniques, your “cramming” need not to 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. Engage what you have learned. Do something about it. On a reading material for example,
highlight 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.
 As you were reading this topic, were you aware of your metacognitive processes? What changes
did you feel as you try to use the metacognitive strategies and skills? We encourage you to utilize and
adapt the aforementioned techniques in whatever learning experiences you are about to accomplish
and find enjoyment and success in learning.

APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT

Scenario: You are about to study for your final examinations and it is as if the universe conspired
for a heavy finals week, all you subjects provided at least three new reading materials and topics one
week (7 days) before the examination period. Create a diagram or schedule using at least five of the
metacognitive strategies, skills, and studying techniques mentioned in this lesson on how you would
prepare for the next seven days before your final examinations