Perspective Chapter: Metacognition in Early Childhood – Factors for Development and Practices of Assessment
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.
Nesrin Ozturk