5.+Thinking+About+our+Thinking+(Metacognition)

"Metacognition", I thought.

Where had I heard of that before?

Of course, the term is found quite frequently in an AP Language class, but the context of it being on a habit of mind portfolio seemed strange, to say the least. However, as the second quarter and end of first semester progressed, I found myself thinking that I was thinking more and more frequently.

A fine example can be found in how I test. At first, I shot out any answer that I believed was 'right', usually without any context considered, or afterthought. However, as my grades did not reflect any growth, I began to wonder exactly where I was going wrong. Yes, a lot of my answers were 'right', but they simply were not relevant to the matter at hand. So for the second test of the semester, I tried thinking about how I take the test. This time, instead of trying to just make a laundry list of what was 'right', I asked myself "what does the teacher want?" What does Mrs. Knowles want me to write down, so that she knows I learned this chapter?

As my grades kept getting better and better, I started to realize exactly how essential metacognition was, not only in academic life, but in life in general. Attached is what I believe to be progress in my grades in this class (Figure 5). I bleeped out the actual assignments for privacy sakes, but the trend ca be seen even with so little information, a trend caused by increasing metacognition. Thinking both outside of the box, and getting the bigger picture, truly do affect your performance