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Perspective Chapter: Metacognition in Early Childhood – Factors for Development and Practices of Assessment
Nesrin Ozturk ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This perspective chapter looks at how metacognition, meaning thinking about and managing one's own thinking, develops in young children. It reports that rapid development happens between ages 3 and 7, and that children as young as 3 can show signs of it. The chapter suggests practices to support it, such as social interaction with family and peers, instruction that includes metacognitive talk, and suitable, meaningful tasks. It also describes ways to assess metacognition, including think-aloud, observation, interviews, questionnaires and naturalistic tasks.
Key points
- Earlier literature underestimated young children's metacognitive abilities.
- Between ages 3 and 7 there is rapid qualitative development in metacognition, with evidence of it from age 3.
- Supportive practices include social interactions with family and peers, instruction with metacognitive interactions, and using the language of thinking.
- Tasks should be relevant, meaningful, contextualized, structured, familiar and interesting, and e-learning can also be used.
- Assessment methods include think-aloud, observations, interviews, questionnaires and naturalistic tasks, with peer- and self-assessment to support independence.
Limitations
The abstract describes a perspective chapter and does not report a specific study, data or an evaluation of an intervention. It names no country or setting, so it cannot show how well these practices work in any particular context, including African ones.
Abstract
Metacognition is an important skill not only for school but also for life. Although earlier literature underestimated young children’s metacognitive competencies, recent research reported that between the ages of 3 and 7, there is a qualitative rapid development in metacognition, and children can show evidence for metacognition as young as 3 years old. In this sense, some practices can be employed to reduce the potential discrepancies among children and the impacts of previous scarce experiences. Those pertain to initiating social interactions with family members and peers for other- and shared-regulation, delivering instruction encompassing metacognitive interactions, and using the language of thinking during those interactions. Moreover, children should be presented with biologically valid, relevant, meaningful, contextualized, structured, familiar, and interesting tasks in an environment bearing perceptual cues to support metacognitive engagement and provoke positive emotions such as the feeling of success or motivation. Regarding recent technological developments, e-learning opportunities can also be employed. While these practices can enhance metacognition in children, assessment can be done via think-aloud, observations, interviews, questionnaires, and naturalistic tasks. Assessment should also serve to understand metacognition opportunities in an environment to calibrate children’s competencies. Finally, assessment practices should include peer- and self-assessment to support children’s independence and authenticity.