Learning about Thinking and Thinking about Learning: Knowledge and Skills for the Growth of Lifelong Learners

In an increasingly complex and interconnected world it is ever more important that students develop intellectual and practical skills for lifelong learning. Panel reports by the AAC&U (2002, 2007) call for “higher education to help college students become intentional learners who can adapt to new environments, integrate knowledge from different sources, and continue learning throughout their lives.” Intentional, or “expert,” learners are more purposeful, they are self-directing, their knowledge is better organized, they are more successful in accessing, integrating, and applying their knowledge, and they are more aware of themselves as learners. Expert learners characteristically display metacognitive knowledge (about the learner, learning tasks, learning strategies, and content), metacognitive control (planning, monitoring, and self-evaluation), and reflection (a critical link between knowledge and control of the learning process).

If an important goal of higher education is to help students become expert learners, then our curricula should reflect that aim. Most post-secondary instruction, however, remains focused on disciplinary content. Courses specializing in critical thinking and strategies for college success are largely unsuccessful because skills leaned in these courses do not transfer well; research suggests that instruction on metacognitive knowledge and skills needs to be embedded within each discipline. Such instruction need not “displace” disciplinary content, but can instead be used to support (“wrap”) learning of that content.

Both of us include explicit instruction about learning, metacognition, and reflection in all of our geology courses. We use a variety of activities (e.g., readings, discussions, reading reflections, knowledge surveys, journals, portfolios) to help students set learning goals, self-assess their content mastery, develop their metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation skills, and reflect on the motivation and value of their learning. These activities constitute only a small fraction of total points awarded in each course, but student performance on these activities correlates well with their final grade.