N E P F N evada E ducator P erformance F ramework Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program Standard 4 Part 1 Secondary Mathematics

Standard 4 Module for Mathematics Part I – What and Why Goal 1: What is Standard 4? Goal 2: What are the indicators for Standard 4? Part II – Implications for Mathematics Goal 3: What activities/instruction in the classroom would provide evidence of them? Goal 4: What specific plans can be designed to implement them?

NEPF – Standard 4 Students Engage in Metacognitive Activity to Increase Understanding of and Responsibility for Their Own Learning

Metacognition is an important-sounding word for a very everyday process. We ‘metacognize’ whenever we reflect upon our thinking process and knowledge. Do I really want that bar of chocolate? Do I want to go out tonight? Am I aiming at the basket accurately? Will I hit it?

Metacognition Thinking about thinking. Or in our educational setting: Learning how to learn.

Brief Intro to Metacognition lI&feature=youtu.be Dr. Josh Walker, from the Center for Teaching and Learning at The University of Texas at Austin, gives a brief preview of what learning scientists call metacognition -- thinking about thinking 1:48 length

Promoting Metacognition One of the first steps to teaching metacognition will be to teach students that their ability to learn is not a fixed capacity.

Today’s Theory: Mindset Matters The distinguishing feature of geniuses is their passion and dedication to their craft, and particularly, the way in which they identify, confront, and take pains to remedy their weaknesses (Good, Rattan, & Dweck, 2008) IN OTHER WORDS: It’s not what you are born with that matters; it’s your mindset that matters.

Brain Capacity is Dynamic The brain is like a muscle that gets stronger and works better the more it is exercised. Too often students believe the brain is static, leading them to think talent and giftedness are permanent, unchanging personal attributes that automatically bring later success. Every time you work hard, stretch yourself and learn something new, your brain forms new connections, and over time, you actually become smarter.

What is metacognition? “Thinking about thinking” Knowledge and understanding of what we know and how we think, including the ability to regulate our thinking as we work on a task

Planning What is the nature of the task? What is my goal? What kind of information and strategies do I need? How much time and resources do I need? Monitoring Do I have a clear understanding of what I am doing? Does the task make sense to me? Am I reaching my goals? Do I need to make changes? Evaluating Have I reached my goal? What worked? What didn’t work? Would I do things differently the next time?

Metacognitive students… 1. Understand themselves as learners 2. Understand a given task 3. Understand a variety of strategies and how to use them in a variety of situations. (Jetton & Dole, 2004) Research? 1.Knowledge of one’s capacity to learn 2.Knowledge about the nature of what is to be learned 3.Knowledge about the action one can take to aid one’s thinking (Flavell, 1979)

Why haven’t most students developed metacognitive skills?

Metacognition is not often explicitly taught. It’s not just what you know—it’s what you know about what you know. Anytime a student learns, he or she has to bring in two kinds of prior knowledge: (1) knowledge about the subject (like math). (2) knowledge about how learning works. Teachers are pretty good at imparting the first kind of knowledge. We are comfortable with that. Research shows we are hit or miss with the metacognitve aspects of learning.

Spectacle of Poor Metacognition We can witness people exhibiting poor metacognition on television. For example, America’s favorite spectacle of poor metacognition : American Idol!

American Idol Start at 1:55 – 3:02 How is it related to our study? Students, especially the weakest, have an inability to accurately judge their own level of skill or knowledge.

Another Look at Poor Metacognition Dr. Stephen Chew, Samford University Created a set of Videos on “How to Get the Most Out of Studying” This excerpt is from Part 1 of 5 “Beliefs That Make You Fail…Or Succeed”. Dr. Chew shows results of comparing students’ estimate of their test grades with the actual grades. Show results graphically. (Students that are over-confident and under-prepared.) Start at 3:58-6:04

NEPF Standard 4 Students Engage in Metacognitive Activity to Increase Understanding of and Responsibility for Their Own Learning Teacher structures opportunities for self-monitored learning for all students. 2 Teacher and allstudents under-stand what studentsare learning, whythey are learning it,and how they willknow if they havelearned it. 1 Teacher supports allstudents to takeactions based onstudents’ own self-monitoringprocesses. 3

How can teachers communicate…. the learning goals? performance criteria? purpose of the lesson? What is meant by “students understand what they are learning, why they are learning it, and how they will know if they have learned it ”? Indicator 1 How can teachers... and all students understand what students are learning, why they are learning it, and how they will know if they have learned it?

How do teachers … get students to be reflective about their own thinking? structure opportunities for students to be reflective about their own thinking? provide instruction to students in self-monitoring strategies? provide self-reflection tools for students to use? What is meant by “opportunities for self- monitored learning”? Indicator 2 How can teachers... structure opportunities for self-monitored learning for all students?

What is meant by “actions based on self-monitoring”? Indicator 3 How can teachers... support all students to take actions based on students own self- monitoring processes? How can teachers … provide time for student strategy use? talk to students about what/why they are doing the lesson? discuss with students what to do next? provide time for students to share strategies with classmates? suggest actions students may include/use? get students to revise their learning strategies based on their own evaluation of how they are progressing?

NEPF – Standard 4 Students Engage in Metacognitive Activity to Increase Understanding of and Responsibility for Their Own Learning Summary

Next Steps...Part 2 What are some current learning activities that can be altered to effectively implement this standard? What might this look like in your classroom? Where will evidence of Standard 4 be found in our individual practice? How might effective implementation of Standard 4 affect student outcomes?

For additional NEPF resources rpdp.net Select NEPF Secondary Math