ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses ways to build the foundation for a metacognitive approach to learning. It is written with a focus on learning in a child-centred, play-based environment such as the nursery, it is useful reading for any teacher beginning a metacognitive approach in their classroom. Taking a metacognitive approach in the nursery is about raising the children's awareness of how they are learning and giving them the language. It is highly likely that the children are not always aware that they are learning. They makes a model, listening to a story, playing in the water or sand or chasing each other around on trikes. Over the course of our research into developing metacognitive awareness for pupils in schools we have noted that a typical reaction in the initial stages of the programme is that metacognition just cannot be possible with the under-fives. The chapter explains how the metacognition can be embedded into the nursery schools.
