ABSTRACT
Metacognitive reflection is the practice of thinking about thinking, of drawing on both cognitive and affective information and then acting intentionally on the information through synthesis and evaluation. Although students are constantly engaged in learning activities, they typically do not consider the process of how they learn. Several types of metacognitive reflection are included in this chapter, such as: questioning, logs, interviews, evaluations, and presentations. Also described in this chapter is the organizing sequence of metacognitive reflection. There are many advantages of using metacognitive reflection, including the improved learning that results from this approach, assessment possibilities, and the potential for assigning strategies as an out-of-class activity. Disadvantages include that if done in class it can take a significant amount of class time, which students may see as a waste of instructional time. Overall research on metacognitive strategies shows that teaching-designed prompts improve capacity for metacognitive reflection, student self-regulation of their work improves learning, and self-assessment improves learning. This chapter includes detailed strategies to use metacognitive strategies in online courses, along with specific prompts that may be used to encourage it. The chapter concludes with detailed descriptions of 11 active learning strategies that can be used in both onsite and online classes based on metacognitive reflection.
