Cornish, M. M. & Cantor, P. A. (2008). "Thinking about
thinking: it's not just for philosophers:" using metcognitive journals to
teach and learn about constructivism. Journal
of Early Childhood Education, 29, 326-339.
This article describes the use of 'metacognitive journals' in an early childhood teaching program. The emphasis was on cultivating students' metacognitive potential as they learned about constructivism. Implementation of metacognitive journals is discussed with specific guidance toward scaffolding this activity. Then, ways that journals affect students' learning and how they inform teaching are identified.
Noted Quotes
"...we realized that students need substantial support in becoming aware of, examining, and monitoring their own thinking. Now we routinely provide the list of thinking prompts and show some examples of students' journal entries from previous semesters." (p.330-331)
"Because students are free to write in their own words about their developing understanding, we glean a much better sense of what they understand than if they simply summarized what they had read or heard in class." (p.334)
Under the title Promote Metacognitive Abilities:
"Metacognitive skills can and should be taught. It is advisable to have a repertoire of strategies to draw upon, for example: providing thinking prompts; sharing sample entries; modeling thinking aloud; and facilitating interactions among students to make metacognitive tools available to one another. Strategies like these provide scaffolding for students as they develop their metacognitive skills." (p.336)
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1 comment:
This article sounds interesting. I have always used journals at beginning of lessons to engage the students' prior knowledge and to get them into the mood for the class. I am now thinking about using journaling towards the end of a class in order for the student to reflect upon what they have learnt for that day.
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