Page 14 - International Perspectives on Effective Teaching and Learning in Digital Education

Maša Černelič-Bizjak and Sabina Ličen

‘thinking about thinking’ or the ability to monitor and control one’s cognitive
processes (Dunlosky & Metcalfe, 8) and comprises both the ability to be
aware of one’s cognitive processes (metacognitive knowledge) and to reg-
ulate them (metacognitive control) (Fleur et al., 1). Metacognition plays
an important role in learning and education (Pintrich, ). By fostering
metacognitive skills, learners become more effective in planning, monitor-
ing, and evaluating their cognitive activities, which enhances their overall
academic performance.
In the field of educational sciences, there is extensive research on metacog-
nitive training, but we lack a solid understanding of what methods are most
effective and why. While some studies suggest that enhancing metacognitive
skills improves academic performance (Dignath et al., 8), other interven-
tions show inconsistent results (Jacob & Parkinson, 15; Kassai et al., 19),
and there remains limited understanding of their long-term impact or trans-
fer effects. So, there is still a need to establish clear links between metacogni-
tion in the brain and its application in areas such as education. Furthermore,
educational and cognitive neuroscientists explore metacognition in different
contexts and using different methods. While cognitive neuroscientists of-
ten examine metacognition through behavioral tasks (such as Flanker tasks,
Stroop task...), educational researchers tend to rely primarily on introspective,
self-report questionnaires or interviews (Dinsmore et al., 8). It remains un-
certain to what degree these differing approaches to measuring metacog-
nition align and represent the same underlying processes. Gaining a deeper
understanding of the cognitive processes that underpin metacognition and
their representation in the brain could offer valuable insights into these as-
pects. In recent years, there has been a lot of progress in brain research, stud-
ying the neural mechanisms of metacognition (Vaccaro & Fleming, 18), and
starting to orient itself towards training metacognitive abilities that would
translate into real-life benefits, yet it is unclear at this point how these results
may inform educational sciences or interventions.
In cognitive neuroscience, metacognition research follows two paths: one
explores meta-knowledge, focusing on the neural basis of introspective judg-
ments about one’s own cognition (i.e., metacognitive judgements), and me-
ta-control with experiments involving cognitive offloading (e.g., subjects can
perform actions such as set reminders, making notes and delegating tasks)
(Risko & Gilbert, 16; Gilbert et al. ), while the other investigates execu-
tive functions (EF), also referred to as cognitive control (Fernandez-Duque et
al., ), which is closely related to metacognition.

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