In-Class Activity: Metacognition

Think of Mindfulness as an innate superpower. It’s like having metacognition, which means you have a heightened awareness of what you’re thinking in the moment, as well as a heightened awareness of your understanding of what you’re thinking, and why. ― Ora Nadrich

Use your knowledge of Learning Theories to reflect on your education here at Duke.

Submitting your Work

In groups, use this shared Google Doc to record your discussion about your past experiences and your predictions about the the future. For each, use principles to justify why you think it is "good" or "bad".

In your groups, each person should take on the following roles:

• Facilitator: manages the group to stay on task, be aware of time constraints for the overall discussion, and that there is room for everyone in the conversation
• Recorder: takes notes on the discussion, including keeping track of who initiated major ideas within the discussion
• Representative: represents the group in reporting back to the class and for any discussions between groups

Specifications

Metacognition is reflecting on your experiences, and how you thought about them, to discover lessons and improvements for how you approach them in the future. Thus if, as a student, you reflect on how you learn, then you will become a better learner. When combined with knowledge of Learning Theories, scientific ways to understand and pedagogical strategies to improve how learning happens, it is an essential tool to develop Educational Technology.

• For each person, share a good learning experience (in-class, field-trip, assignment/homework, etc.) you have had at Duke and then, as a group, discuss how its success is explained by principles from any of the theories presented, the readings, or your own personal study of the topic. When reporting out to the class, pick one "best" experience to share and why your group thought it was the best.
• For each person, share a bad learning experience (in-class, field-trip, assignment/homework, etc.) you have had at Duke and then, as a group, discuss how it could be improved by principles from any of the theories presented, the readings, or your own personal study of the topic (or what it lacked if you cannot improve it). When reporting out to the class, pick one "worst" experience to share and why your group thought it was the worst.