ABSTRACT
Learners who are able to apply learning strategies flexibly and can monitor their learning processes will learn more efficiently as a result. Teachers who have grasped the idea of metacognition will be able to help their pupils and students to become better learners. A more practical proposal – and probably a more effective means – is to set the teaching of learning strategies firmly in the context of established classroom studies. Conventional subjects can provide a basis for teaching learning strategies, provided that subject content and subject-based skills are taught in a way which encourage transfer. The need for a learning strategies approach will become more pressing as schools move away from the reproductive modes of learning that have characterised study in the past. Those who advocate a larger role for learning strategies and metacognition in the curriculum usually envisage combining them with the learning of subject-matter and subject-specific skills.
