Knowing what you know
The term metacognitive knowledge is interesting. I am currently in a master's program for library science and it resembles metadata, which is information about information. These terms seem silly, an almost redundant, but they are actually very useful. For instance, from a teaching or tutoring perspective, it is very important to know what you know so that you can properly transfer that knowledge to students.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around metacognitive knowledge. Conversely, how do you know what you don't know?
I am currently teaching a course for the second time in the past year. The subject is a skill I mastered in high school and practiced for many years in the field. This time I was able to secure a classroom on the ground floor allowing me to bring training aids into the class not possible on the second floor. During the course of the lecture I was able to give in-depth demonstrations and information previously limited to power points. As a result I was able to apply my knowledge on the subject and give the students first hand reinforcement that these skills are attainable by following instruction and a lot of practice.
Thao,
The idea of metacognitive knowledge is somewhat ambiguous, so we all struggle with trying to find out what we don't know. Finding out this information, is based upon our own knowledge and experience. The "Johari Window" is an excellent concept used to define our social awareness. One of the windows, "the unknown", refers to the information/experiences that we have not had-which is kind of similar to the idea of metacognitive knowledge.
Tremayne Simpson
One of the difficulties in teaching any subject is also trying to stay current with the advances in the field. With my particular field, there are tons of technological advances every year and it is very difficult trying to stay current. I will get questions all the time from students about something new that I am not up to date on. The answer is always "I don't know. Let's find out" and we use that as an opportunity for all of us to learn something new.
Metacognition is the ability to think about thinking. It is important for students to understand how the learn and think to maximize their education.
Reading professional magazines and daily newspapers help keep me current in the health field so I can bring new issues/procedures to my students.
