thinking about thinking in education

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• Published: 08 June 2021

Metacognition: ideas and insights from neuro- and educational sciences

• Damien S. Fleur   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4836-5255 1 , 2 ,
• Bert Bredeweg   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5281-2786 1 , 3 &
• Wouter van den Bos 2 , 4  

npj Science of Learning volume  6 , Article number:  13 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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Metacognition comprises both the ability to be aware of one’s cognitive processes (metacognitive knowledge) and to regulate them (metacognitive control). Research in educational sciences has amassed a large body of evidence on the importance of metacognition in learning and academic achievement. More recently, metacognition has been studied from experimental and cognitive neuroscience perspectives. This research has started to identify brain regions that encode metacognitive processes. However, the educational and neuroscience disciplines have largely developed separately with little exchange and communication. In this article, we review the literature on metacognition in educational and cognitive neuroscience and identify entry points for synthesis. We argue that to improve our understanding of metacognition, future research needs to (i) investigate the degree to which different protocols relate to the similar or different metacognitive constructs and processes, (ii) implement experiments to identify neural substrates necessary for metacognition based on protocols used in educational sciences, (iii) study the effects of training metacognitive knowledge in the brain, and (iv) perform developmental research in the metacognitive brain and compare it with the existing developmental literature from educational sciences regarding the domain-generality of metacognition.

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Introduction

Metacognition is defined as “thinking about thinking” or the ability to monitor and control one’s cognitive processes 1 and plays an important role in learning and education 2 , 3 , 4 . For instance, high performers tend to present better metacognitive abilities (especially control) than low performers in diverse educational activities 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 . Recently, there has been a lot of progress in studying the neural mechanisms of metacognition 10 , 11 , yet it is unclear at this point how these results may inform educational sciences or interventions. Given the potential benefits of metacognition, it is important to get a better understanding of how metacognition works and of how training can be useful.

The interest in bridging cognitive neuroscience and educational practices has increased in the past two decades, spanning a large number of studies grouped under the umbrella term of educational neuroscience 12 , 13 , 14 . With it, researchers have brought forward issues that are viewed as critical for the discipline to improve education. Recurring issues that may impede the relevance of neural insights for educational practices concern external validity 15 , 16 , theoretical discrepancies 17 and differences in terms of the domains of (meta)cognition operationalised (specific or general) 15 . This is important because, in recent years, brain research is starting to orient itself towards training metacognitive abilities that would translate into real-life benefits. However, direct links between metacognition in the brain and metacognition in domains such as education have still to be made. As for educational sciences, a large body of literature on metacognitive training is available, yet we still need clear insights about what works and why. While studies suggest that training metacognitive abilities results in higher academic achievement 18 , other interventions show mixed results 19 , 20 . Moreover, little is known about the long-term effects of, or transfer effects, of these interventions. A better understanding of the cognitive processes involved in metacognition and how they are expressed in the brain may provide insights in these regards.

Within cognitive neuroscience, there has been a long tradition of studying executive functions (EF), which are closely related to metacognitive processes 21 . Similar to metacognition, EF shows a positive relationship with learning at school. For instance, performance in laboratory tasks involving error monitoring, inhibition and working memory (i.e. processes that monitor and regulate cognition) are associated with academic achievement in pre-school children 22 . More recently, researchers have studied metacognition in terms of introspective judgements about performance in a task 10 . Although the neural correlates of such behaviour are being revealed 10 , 11 , little is known about how behaviour during such tasks relates to academic achievement.

Educational and cognitive neuroscientists study metacognition in different contexts using different methods. Indeed, while the latter investigate metacognition via behavioural task, the former mainly rely on introspective questionnaires. The extent to which these different operationalisations of metacognition match and reflect the same processes is unclear. As a result, the external validity of methodologies used in cognitive neuroscience is also unclear 16 . We argue that neurocognitive research on metacognition has a lot of potential to provide insights in mechanisms relevant in educational contexts, and that theoretical and methodological exchange between the two disciplines can benefit neuroscientific research in terms of ecological validity.

For these reasons, we investigate the literature through the lenses of external validity, theoretical discrepancies, domain generality and metacognitive training. Research on metacognition in cognitive neuroscience and educational sciences are reviewed separately. First, we investigate how metacognition is operationalised with respect to the common framework introduced by Nelson and Narens 23 (see Fig. 1 ). We then discuss the existing body of evidence regarding metacognitive training. Finally, we compare findings in both fields, highlight gaps and shortcomings, and propose avenues for research relying on crossovers of the two disciplines.

Meta-knowledge is characterised as the upward flow from object-level to meta-level. Meta-control is characterised as the downward flow from meta-level to object-level. Metacognition is therefore conceptualised as the bottom-up monitoring and top-down control of object-level processes. Adapted from Nelson and Narens’ cognitive psychology model of metacognition 23 .

In cognitive neuroscience, metacognition is divided into two main components 5 , 24 , which originate from the seminal works of Flavell on metamemory 25 , 26 . First, metacognitive knowledge (henceforth, meta-knowledge) is defined as the knowledge individuals have of their own cognitive processes and their ability to monitor and reflect on them. Second, metacognitive control (henceforth, meta-control) consists of someone’s self-regulatory mechanisms, such as planning and adapting behaviour based on outcomes 5 , 27 . Following Nelson and Narens’ definition 23 , meta-knowledge is characterised as the flow and processing of information from the object level to the meta-level, and meta-control as the flow from the meta-level to the object level 28 , 29 , 30 (Fig. 1 ). The object-level encompasses cognitive functions such as recognition and discrimination of objects, decision-making, semantic encoding, and spatial representation. On the meta-level, information originating from the object level is processed and top-down regulation on object-level functions is imposed 28 , 29 , 30 .

Educational researchers have mainly investigated metacognition through the lens of Self-Regulated Learning theory (SRL) 3 , 4 , which shares common conceptual roots with the theoretical framework used in cognitive neuroscience but varies from it in several ways 31 . First, SRL is constrained to learning activities, usually within educational settings. Second, metacognition is merely one of three components, with “motivation to learn” and “behavioural processes”, that enable individuals to learn in a self-directed manner 3 . In SRL, metacognition is defined as setting goals, planning, organising, self-monitoring and self-evaluating “at various points during the acquisition” 3 . The distinction between meta-knowledge and meta-control is not formally laid down although reference is often made to a “self-oriented feedback loop” describing the relationship between reflecting and regulating processes that resembles Nelson and Narens’ model (Fig. 1 ) 3 , 23 . In order to facilitate the comparison of operational definitions, we will refer to meta-knowledge in educational sciences when protocols operationalise self-awareness and knowledge of strategies, and to meta-control when they operationalise the selection and use of learning strategies and planning. For an in-depth discussion on metacognition and SRL, we refer to Dinsmore et al. 31 .

Metacognition in cognitive neuroscience

Operational definitions.

In cognitive neuroscience, research in metacognition is split into two tracks 32 . One track mainly studies meta-knowledge by investigating the neural basis of introspective judgements about one’s own cognition (i.e., metacognitive judgements), and meta-control with experiments involving cognitive offloading. In these experiments, subjects can perform actions such as set reminders, making notes and delegating tasks 33 , 34 , or report their desire for them 35 . Some research has investigated how metacognitive judgements can influence subsequent cognitive behaviour (i.e., a downward stream from the meta-level to the object level), but only one study so far has explored how this relationship is mapped in the brain 35 . In the other track, researchers investigate EF, also referred to as cognitive control 30 , 36 , which is closely related to metacognition. Note however that EF are often not framed in metacognitive terms in the literature 37 (but see ref. 30 ). For the sake of concision, we limit our review to operational definitions that have been used in neuroscientific studies.

Metacognitive judgements

Cognitive neuroscientists have been using paradigms in which subjects make judgements on how confident they are with regards to their learning of some given material 10 . These judgements are commonly referred to as metacognitive judgements , which can be viewed as a form of meta-knowledge (for reviews see Schwartz 38 and Nelson 39 ). Historically, researchers mostly resorted to paradigms known as Feelings of Knowing (FOK) 40 and Judgements of Learning (JOL) 41 . FOK reflect the belief of a subject to knowing the answer to a question or a problem and being able to recognise it from a list of alternatives, despite being unable to explicitly recall it 40 . Here, metacognitive judgement is thus made after retrieval attempt. In contrast, JOL are prospective judgements during learning of one’s ability to successfully recall an item on subsequent testing 41 .

More recently, cognitive neuroscientists have used paradigms in which subjects make retrospective metacognitive judgements on their performance in a two-alternative Forced Choice task (2-AFC) 42 . In 2-AFCs, subjects are asked to choose which of two presented options has the highest criterion value. Different domains can be involved, such as perception (e.g., visual or auditory) and memory. For example, subjects may be instructed to visually discriminate which one of two boxes contains more dots 43 , identify higher contrast Gabor patches 44 , or recognise novel words from words that were previously learned 45 (Fig. 2 ). The subjects engage in metacognitive judgements by rating how confident they are relative to their decision in the task. Based on their responses, one can evaluate a subject’s metacognitive sensitivity (the ability to discriminate one’s own correct and incorrect judgements), metacognitive bias (the overall level of confidence during a task), and metacognitive efficiency (the level of metacognitive sensitivity when controlling for task performance 46 ; Fig. 3 ). Note that sensitivity and bias are independent aspects of metacognition, meaning that two subjects may display the same levels of metacognitive sensitivity, but one may be biased towards high confidence while the other is biased towards low confidence. Because metacognitive sensitivity is affected by the difficulty of the task (one subject tends to display greater metacognitive sensitivity in easy tasks than difficult ones and different subjects may find a task more or less easy), metacognitive efficiency is an important measure as it allows researchers to compare metacognitive abilities between subjects and between domains. The most commonly used methods to assess metacognitive sensitivity during retrospective judgements are the receiver operating curve (ROC) and meta- d ′. 46 Both derive from signal detection theory (SDT) 47 which allows Type 1 sensitivity, or d’ ′ (how a subject can discriminate between stimulus alternatives, i.e. object-level processes) to be differentiated from metacognitive sensitivity (a judgement on the correctness of this decision) 48 . Importantly, only comparing meta- d ′ to d ′ seems to give reliable assessments metacognitive efficiency 49 . A ratio of 1 between meta- d’ ′ and d’ ′, indicates that a subject was perfectly able to discriminate between their correct and incorrect judgements. A ratio of 0.8 suggests that 80% of the task-related sensory evidence was available for the metacognitive judgements. Table 1 provides an overview of the different types of tasks and protocols with regards to the type of metacognitive process they operationalise. These operationalisations of meta-knowledge are used in combination with brain imaging methods (functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging; fMRI; MRI) to identify brain regions associated with metacognitive activity and metacognitive abilities 10 , 50 . Alternatively, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to temporarily deactivate chosen brain regions and test whether this affects metacognitive abilities in given tasks 51 , 52 .

a Visual perception task: subjects choose the box containing the most (randomly generated) dots. Subjects then rate their confidence in their decision. b Memory task: subjects learn a list of words. In the next screen, they have to identify which of two words shown was present on the list. The subjects then rate their confidence in their decision.

The red and blue curves represent the distribution of confidence ratings for incorrect and correct trials, respectively. A larger distance between the two curves denotes higher sensitivity. Displacement to the left and right denote biases towards low confidence (low metacognitive bias) and high confidence (high metacognitive bias), respectively (retrieved from Fig. 1 in Fleming and Lau 46 ). We repeat the disclaimer of the original authors that this figure is not a statistically accurate description of correct and incorrect responses, which are typically not normally distributed 46 , 47 .

A recent meta-analysis analysed 47 neuroimaging studies on metacognition and identified a domain-general network associated with high vs. low confidence ratings in both decision-making tasks (perception 2-AFC) and memory tasks (JOL, FOK) 11 . This network includes the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex (mPFC and lPFC, respectively), precuneus and insula. In contrast, the right anterior dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) was specifically involved in decision-making tasks, and the bilateral parahippocampal cortex was specific to memory tasks. In addition, prospective judgements were associated with the posterior mPFC, left dlPFC and right insula, whereas retrospective judgements were associated with bilateral parahippocampal cortex and left inferior frontal gyrus. Finally, emerging evidence suggests a role of the right rostrolateral PFC (rlPFC) 53 , 54 , anterior PFC (aPFC) 44 , 45 , 55 , 56 , dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) 54 , 55 and precuneus 45 , 55 in metacognitive sensitivity (meta- d ′, ROC). In addition, several studies suggest that the aPFC relates to metacognition specifically in perception-related 2-AFC tasks, whereas the precuneus is engaged specifically in memory-related 2-AFC tasks 45 , 55 , 56 . This may suggest that metacognitive processes engage some regions in a domain-specific manner, while other regions are domain-general. For educational scientists, this could mean that some domains of metacognition may be more relevant for learning and, granted sufficient plasticity of the associated brain regions, that targeting them during interventions may show more substantial benefits. Note that rating one’s confidence and metacognitive sensitivity likely involve additional, peripheral cognitive processes instead of purely metacognitive ones. These regions are therefore associated with metacognition but not uniquely per se. Notably, a recent meta-analysis 50 suggests that domain-specific and domain-general signals may rather share common circuitry, but that their neural signature varies depending on the type of task or activity, showing that domain-generality in metacognition is complex and still needs to be better understood.

In terms of the role of metacognitive judgements on future behaviour, one study found that brain patterns associated with the desire for cognitive offloading (i.e., meta-control) partially overlap with those associated with meta-knowledge (metacognitive judgements of confidence), suggesting that meta-control is driven by either non-metacognitive, in addition to metacognitive, processes or by a combination of different domain-specific meta-knowledge processes 35 .

Executive function

In EF, processes such as error detection/monitoring and effort monitoring can be related to meta-knowledge while error correction, inhibitory control, and resource allocation can be related to meta-control 36 . To activate these processes, participants are asked to perform tasks in laboratory settings such as Flanker tasks, Stroop tasks, Demand Selection tasks and Motion Discrimination tasks (Fig. 4 ). Neural correlates of EF are investigated by having subjects perform such tasks while their brain activity is recorded with fMRI or electroencephalography (EEG). Additionally, patients with brain lesions can be tested against healthy participants to evaluate the functional role of the impaired regions 57 .

a Flanker task: subjects indicate the direction to which the arrow in the middle points. b Stroop task: subjects are presented with the name of colour printed in a colour that either matches or mismatches the name. Subjects are asked to give the name of the written colour or the printed colour. c Motion Discrimination task: subjects have to determine in which direction the dots are going with variating levels of noise. d Example of a Demand Selection task: in both options subjects have to switch between two tasks. Task one, subjects determine whether the number shown is higher or lower than 5. Task two, subjects determine whether the number is odd or even. The two options (low and high demand) differ in their degree of task switching, meaning the effort required. Subjects are allowed to switch between the two options. Note, the type of task is solely indicated by the colour of the number and that the subjects are not explicitly told about the difference in effort between the two options (retrieved from Fig. 1c in Froböse et al. 58 ).

In a review article on the neural basis of EF (in which they are defined as meta-control), Shimamura argues that a network of regions composed of the aPFC, ACC, ventrolateral PFC (vlPFC) and dlPFC is involved in the regulations of cognition 30 . These regions are not only interconnected but are also intricately connected to cortical and subcortical regions outside of the PFC. The vlPFC was shown to play an important role in “selecting and maintaining information in working memory”, whereas the dlPFC is involved in “manipulating and updating information in working memory” 30 . The ACC has been proposed to monitor cognitive conflict (e.g. in a Stroop task or a Flanker task), and the dlPFC to regulate it 58 , 59 . In particular, activity in the ACC in conflict monitoring (meta-knowledge) seems to contribute to control of cognition (meta-control) in the dlPFC 60 , 61 and to “bias behavioural decision-making toward cognitively efficient tasks and strategies” (p. 356) 62 . In a recent fMRI study, subjects performed a motion discrimination task (Fig. 4c ) 63 . After deciding on the direction of the motion, they were presented additional motion (i.e. post-decisional evidence) and then were asked to rate their confidence in their initial choice. The post-decisional evidence was encoded in the activity of the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC; meta-knowledge), while lateral aPFC (meta-control) modulated the impact of this evidence on subsequent confidence rating 63 . Finally, results from a meta-analysis study on cognitive control identified functional connectivity between the pMFC, associated with monitoring and informing other regions about the need for regulation, and the lPFC that would effectively regulate cognition 64 .

Online vs. offline metacognition

While the processes engaged during tasks such as those used in EF research can be considered as metacognitive in the sense that they are higher-order functions that monitor and control lower cognitive processes, scientists have argued that they are not functionally equivalent to metacognitive judgements 10 , 11 , 65 , 66 . Indeed, engaging in metacognitive judgements requires subjects to reflect on past or future activities. As such, metacognitive judgements can be considered as offline metacognitive processes. In contrast, high-order processes involved in decision-making tasks such as used in EF research are arguably largely made on the fly, or online , at a rapid pace and subjects do not need to reflect on their actions to perform them. Hence, we propose to explicitly distinguish online and offline processes. Other researchers have shared a similar view and some have proposed models for metacognition that make similar distinctions 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 . The functional difference between online and offline metacognition is supported by some evidence. For instance, event-related brain potential (ERP) studies suggest that error negativities are associated with error detection in general, whereas an increased error positivity specifically encodes error that subjects could report upon 69 , 70 . Furthermore, brain-imaging studies suggest that the MFC and ACC are involved in online meta-knowledge, while the aPFC and lPFC seem to be activated when subjects engage in more offline meta-knowledge and meta-control, respectively 63 , 71 , 72 . An overview of the different tasks can be found in Table 1 and a list of different studies on metacognition can be found in Supplementary Table 1 (organised in terms of the type of processes investigated, the protocols and brain measures used, along with the brain regions identified). Figure 5 illustrates the different brain regions associated with meta-knowledge and meta-control, distinguishing between what we consider to be online and offline processes. This distinction is often not made explicitly but it will be specifically helpful when building bridges between cognitive neuroscience and educational sciences.

The regions are divided into online meta-knowledge and meta-control, and offline meta-knowledge and meta-control following the distinctions introduced earlier. Some regions have been reported to be related to both offline and online processes and are therefore given a striped pattern.

Training metacognition

There are extensive accounts in the literature of efforts to improve EF components such as inhibitory control, attention shifting and working memory 22 . While working memory does not directly reflect metacognitive abilities, its training is often hypothesised to improve general cognitive abilities and academic achievement. However, most meta-analyses found that training methods lead only to weak, non-lasting effects on cognitive control 73 , 74 , 75 . One meta-analysis did find evidence of near-transfer following EF training in children (in particular working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility), but found no evidence of far-transfer 20 . According to this study, training on one component leads to improved abilities in that same component but not in other EF components. Regarding adults, however, one meta-analysis suggests that EF training in general and working memory training specifically may both lead to significant near- and far-transfer effects 76 . On a neural level, a meta-analysis showed that cognitive training resulted in decreased brain activity in brain regions associated with EF 77 . According to the authors, this indicates that “training interventions reduce demands on externally focused attention” (p. 193) 77 .

With regards to meta-knowledge, several studies have reported increased task-related metacognitive abilities after training. For example, researchers found that subjects who received feedback on their metacognitive judgements regarding a perceptual decision-making task displayed better metacognitive accuracy, not only in the trained task but also in an untrained memory task 78 . Related, Baird and colleagues 79 found that a two-week mindfulness meditation training lead to enhanced meta-knowledge in the memory domain, but not the perceptual domain. The authors link these results to evidence of increased grey matter density in the aPFC in meditation practitioners.

Research on metacognition in cognitive science has mainly been studied through the lens of metacognitive judgements and EF (specifically performance monitoring and cognitive control). Meta-knowledge is commonly activated in subjects by asking them to rate their confidence in having successfully performed a task. A distinction is made between metacognitive sensitivity, metacognitive bias and metacognitive efficacy. Monitoring and regulating processes in EF are mainly operationalised with behavioural tasks such as Flanker tasks, Stroop tasks, Motion Discrimination tasks and Demand Selection tasks. In addition, metacognitive judgements can be viewed as offline processes in that they require the subject to reflect on her cognition and develop meta-representations. In contrast, EF can be considered as mostly online metacognitive processes because monitoring and regulation mostly happen rapidly without the need for reflective thinking.

Although there is some evidence for domain specificity, other studies have suggested that there is a single network of regions involved in all meta-cognitive tasks, but differentially activated in different task contexts. Comparing research on meta-knowledge and meta-control also suggest that some regions play a crucial role in both knowledge and regulation (Fig. 5 ). We have also identified a specific set of regions that are involved in either offline or online meta-knowledge. The evidence in favour of metacognitive training, while mixed, is interesting. In particular, research on offline meta-knowledge training involving self-reflection and metacognitive accuracy has shown some promising results. The regions that show structural changes after training, were those that we earlier identified as being part of the metacognition network. EF training does seem to show far-transfer effects at least in adults, but the relevance for everyday life activity is still unclear.

One major limitation of current research in metacognition is ecological validity. It is unclear to what extent the operationalisations reviewed above reflect real-life metacognition. For instance, are people who can accurately judge their performance on a behavioural task also able to accurately assess how they performed during an exam? Are people with high levels of error regulation and inhibitory control able to learn more efficiently? Note that criticism on the ecological validity of neurocognitive operationalisations extends beyond metacognition research 16 . A solution for improving validity may be to compare operationalisations of metacognition in cognitive neuroscience with the ones in educational sciences, which have shown clear links with learning in formal education. This also applies to metacognitive training.

Metacognition in educational sciences

The most popular protocols used to measure metacognition in educational sciences are self-report questionnaires or interviews, learning journals and thinking-aloud protocols 31 , 80 . During interviews, subjects are asked to answer questions regarding hypothetical situations 81 . In learning journals, students write about their learning experience and their thoughts on learning 82 , 83 . In thinking-aloud protocols, subjects are asked to verbalise their thoughts while performing a problem-solving task 80 . Each of these instruments can be used to study meta-knowledge and meta-control. For instance, one of the most widely used questionnaires, the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) 42 , operationalises “Flavellian” metacognition and has dedicated scales for meta-knowledge and meta-control (also popular are the MSLQ 84 and LASSI 85 which operate under SRL). The meta-knowledge scale of the MAI operationalises knowledge of strategies (e.g., “ I am aware of what strategies I use when I study ”) and self-awareness (e.g., “ I am a good judge of how well I understand something ”); the meta-control scale operationalises planning (e.g., “ I set a goal before I begin a task ”) and use of learning strategies (e.g., “ I summarize what I’ve learned after I finish ”). Learning journals, self-report questionnaires and interviews involve offline metacognition. Thinking aloud, though not engaging the same degree self-reflection, also involves offline metacognition in the sense that online processes are verbalised, which necessitate offline processing (see Table 1 for an overview and Supplementary Table 2 for more details).

More recently, methodologies borrowed from cognitive neuroscience have been introduced to study EF in educational settings 22 , 86 . In particular, researchers used classic cognitive control tasks such as the Stroop task (for a meta-analysis 86 ). Most of the studied components are related to meta-control and not meta-knowledge. For instance, the BRIEF 87 is a questionnaire completed by parents and teachers which assesses different subdomains of EF: (1) inhibition, shifting, and emotional control which can be viewed as online metacognitive control, and (2) planning, organisation of materials, and monitoring, which can be viewed as offline meta-control 87 .

Assessment of metacognition is usually compared against metrics of academic performance such as grades or scores on designated tasks. A recent meta-analysis reported a weak correlation of self-report questionnaires and interviews with academic performance whereas think-aloud protocols correlated highly 88 . Offline meta-knowledge processes operationalised by learning journals were found to be positively associated with academic achievement when related to reflection on learning activities but negatively associated when related to reflection on learning materials, indicating that the type of reflection is important 89 . EF have been associated with abilities in mathematics (mainly) and reading comprehension 86 . However, the literature points towards contrary directions as to what specific EF component is involved in academic achievement. This may be due to the different groups that were studied, to different operationalisations or to different theoretical underpinnings for EF 86 . For instance, online and offline metacognitive processes, which are not systematically distinguished in the literature, may play different roles in academic achievement. Moreover, the bulk of research focussed on young children with few studies on adolescents 86 and EF may play a role at varying extents at different stages of life.

A critical question in educational sciences is that of the nature of the relationship between metacognition and academic achievement to understand whether learning at school can be enhanced by training metacognitive abilities. Does higher metacognition lead to higher academic achievement? Do these features evolve in parallel? Developmental research provides valuable insights into the formation of metacognitive abilities that can inform training designs in terms of what aspect of metacognition should be supported and the age at which interventions may yield the best results. First, meta-knowledge seems to emerge around the age of 5, meta-control around 8, and both develop over the years 90 , with evidence for the development of meta-knowledge into adolescence 91 . Furthermore, current theories propose that meta-knowledge abilities are initially highly domain-dependent and gradually become more domain-independent as knowledge and experience are acquired and linked between domains 32 . Meta-control is believed to evolve in a similar fashion 90 , 92 .

Common methods used to train offline metacognition are direct instruction of metacognition, metacognitive prompts and learning journals. In addition, research has been done on the use of (self-directed) feedback as a means to induce self-reflection in students, mainly in computer-supported settings 93 . Interestingly, learning journals appear to be used for both assessing and fostering metacognition. Metacognitive instruction consists of teaching learners’ strategies to “activate” their metacognition. Metacognitive prompts most often consist of text pieces that are sent at specific times and that trigger reflection (offline meta-knowledge) on learning behaviour in the form of a question, hint or reminder.

Meta-analyses have investigated the effects of direct metacognitive instruction on students’ use of learning strategies and academic outcomes 18 , 94 , 95 . Their findings show that metacognitive instruction can have a positive effect on learning abilities and achievement within a population ranging from primary schoolers to university students. In particular, interventions lead to the highest effect sizes when they both (i) instructed a combination of metacognitive strategies with an emphasis on planning strategies (offline meta-control) and (ii) “provided students with knowledge about strategies” (offline meta-knowledge) and “illustrated the benefits of applying the trained strategies, or even stimulated metacognitive reasoning” (p.114) 18 . The longer the duration of the intervention, the more effective they were. The strongest effects on academic performance were observed in the context of mathematics, followed by reading and writing.

While metacognitive prompts and learning journals make up the larger part of the literature on metacognitive training 96 , meta-analyses that specifically investigate their effectiveness have yet to be performed. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that such interventions can be successful. Researchers found that metacognitive prompts fostered the use of metacognitive strategies (offline meta-control) and that the combination of cognitive and metacognitive prompts improved learning outcomes 97 . Another experiment showed that students who received metacognitive prompts performed more metacognitive activities inside the learning environment and displayed better transfer performance immediately after the intervention 98 . A similar study using self-directed prompts showed enhanced transfer performance that was still observable 3 weeks after the intervention 99 .

Several studies suggest that learning journals can positively enhance metacognition. Subjects who kept a learning journal displayed stronger high meta-control and meta-knowledge on learning tasks and tended to reach higher academic outcomes 100 , 101 , 102 . However, how the learning journal is used seems to be critical; good instructions are crucial 97 , 103 , and subjects who simply summarise their learning activity benefit less from the intervention than subjects who reflect about their knowledge, learning and learning goals 104 . An overview of studies using learning journals and metacognitive prompts to train metacognition can be found in Supplementary Table 3 .

In recent years, educational neuroscience researchers have tried to determine whether training and improvements in EF can lead to learning facilitation and higher academic achievement. Training may consist of having students continually perform behavioural tasks either in the lab, at home, or at school. Current evidence in favour of training EF is mixed, with only anecdotal evidence for positive effects 105 . A meta-analysis did not show evidence for a causal relationship between EF and academic achievement 19 , but suggested that the relationship is bidirectional, meaning that the two are “mutually supportive” 106 .

A recent review article has identified several gaps and shortcoming in the literature on metacognitive training 96 . Overall, research in metacognitive training has been mainly invested in developing learners’ meta-control rather than meta-knowledge. Furthermore, most of the interventions were done in the context of science learning. Critically, there appears to be a lack of studies that employed randomised control designs, such that the effects of metacognitive training intervention are often difficult to evaluate. In addition, research overwhelmingly investigated metacognitive prompts and learning journals in adults 96 , while interventions on EF mainly focused on young children 22 . Lastly, meta-analyses evaluating the effectiveness of metacognitive training have so far focused on metacognitive instruction on children. There is thus a clear disbalance between the meta-analyses performed and the scope of the literature available.

An important caveat of educational sciences research is that metacognition is not typically framed in terms of online and offline metacognition. Therefore, it can be unclear whether protocols operationalise online or offline processes and whether interventions tend to benefit more online or offline metacognition. There is also confusion in terms of what processes qualify as EF and definitions of it vary substantially 86 . For instance, Clements and colleagues mention work on SRL to illustrate research in EF in relation to academic achievement but the two spawn from different lines of research, one rooted in metacognition and socio-cognitive theory 31 and the other in the cognitive (neuro)science of decision-making. In addition, the MSLQ, as discussed above, assesses offline metacognition along with other components relevant to SRL, whereas EF can be mainly understood as online metacognition (see Table 1 ), which on the neural level may rely on different circuitry.

Investigating offline metacognition tends to be carried out in school settings whereas evaluating EF (e.g., Stroop task, and BRIEF) is performed in the lab. Common to all protocols for offline metacognition is that they consist of a form of self-report from the learner, either during the learning activity (thinking-aloud protocols) or after the learning activity (questionnaires, interviews and learning journals). Questionnaires are popular protocols due to how easy they are to administer but have been criticised to provide biased evaluations of metacognitive abilities. In contrast, learning journals evaluate the degree to which learners engage in reflective thinking and may therefore be less prone to bias. Lastly, it is unclear to what extent thinking-aloud protocols are sensitive to online metacognitive processes, such as on-the-fly error correction and effort regulation. The strength of the relationship between metacognitive abilities and academic achievement varies depending on how metacognition is operationalised. Self-report questionnaires and interviews are weakly related to achievement whereas thinking-aloud protocols and EF are strongly related to it.

Based on the well-documented relationship between metacognition and academic achievement, educational scientists hypothesised that fostering metacognition may improve learning and academic achievement, and thus performed metacognitive training interventions. The most prevalent training protocols are direct metacognitive instruction, learning journals, and metacognitive prompts, which aim to induce and foster offline metacognitive processes such as self-reflection, planning and selecting learning strategies. In addition, researchers have investigated whether training EF, either through tasks or embedded in the curriculum, results in higher academic proficiency and achievement. While a large body of evidence suggests that metacognitive instruction, learning journals and metacognitive prompts can successfully improve academic achievement, interventions designed around EF training show mixed results. Future research investigating EF training in different age categories may clarify this situation. These various degrees of success of interventions may indicate that offline metacognition is more easily trainable than online metacognition and plays a more important role in educational settings. Investigating the effects of different methods, offline and online, on the neural level, may provide researchers with insights into the trainability of different metacognitive processes.

In this article, we reviewed the literature on metacognition in educational sciences and cognitive neuroscience with the aim to investigate gaps in current research and propose ways to address them through the exchange of insights between the two disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches. The main aspects analysed were operational definitions of metacognition and metacognitive training, through the lens of metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive control. Our review also highlighted an additional construct in the form of the distinction between online metacognition (on the fly and largely automatic) and offline metacognition (slower, reflective and requiring meta-representations). In cognitive neuroscience, research has focused on metacognitive judgements (mainly offline) and EF (mainly online). Metacognition is operationalised with tasks carried out in the lab and are mapped onto brain functions. In contrast, research in educational sciences typically measures metacognition in the context of learning activities, mostly in schools and universities. More recently, EF has been studied in educational settings to investigate its role in academic achievement and whether training it may benefit learning. Evidence on the latter is however mixed. Regarding metacognitive training in general, evidence from both disciplines suggests that interventions fostering learners’ self-reflection and knowledge of their learning behaviour (i.e., offline meta-knowledge) may best benefit them and increase academic achievement.

We focused on four aspects of research that could benefit from an interdisciplinary approach between the two areas: (i) validity and reliability of research protocols, (ii) under-researched dimensions of metacognition, (iii) metacognitive training, and (iv) domain-specificity vs. domain generality of metacognitive abilities. To tackle these issue, we propose four avenues for integrated research: (i) investigate the degree to which different protocols relate to similar or different metacognitive constructs, (ii) implement designs and perform experiments to identify neural substrates necessary for offline meta-control by for example borrowing protocols used in educational sciences, (iii) study the effects of (offline) meta-knowledge training on the brain, and (iv) perform developmental research in the metacognitive brain and compare it with the existing developmental literature in educational sciences regarding the domain-generality of metacognitive processes and metacognitive abilities.

First, neurocognitive research on metacognitive judgements has developed robust operationalisations of offline meta-knowledge. However, these operationalisations often consist of specific tasks (e.g., 2-AFC) carried out in the lab. These tasks are often very narrow and do not resemble the challenges and complexities of behaviours associated with learning in schools and universities. Thus, one may question to what extent they reflect real-life metacognition, and to what extent protocols developed in educational sciences and cognitive neuroscience actually operationalise the same components of metacognition. We propose that comparing different protocols from both disciplines that are, a priori, operationalising the same types of metacognitive processes can help evaluate the ecological validity of protocols used in cognitive neuroscience, and allow for more holistic assessments of metacognition, provided that it is clear which protocol assesses which construct. Degrees of correlation between different protocols, within and between disciplines, may allow researchers to assess to what extent they reflect the same metacognitive constructs and also identify what protocols are most appropriate to study a specific construct. For example, a relation between meta- d ′ metacognitive sensitivity in a 2-AFC task and the meta-knowledge subscale of the MAI, would provide external validity to the former. Moreover, educational scientists would be provided with bias-free tools to assess metacognition. These tools may enable researchers to further investigate to what extent metacognitive bias, sensitivity and efficiency each play a role in education settings. In contrast, a low correlation may highlight a difference in domain between the two measures of metacognition. For instance, metacognitive judgements in brain research are made in isolated behaviour, and meta-d’ can thus be viewed to reflect “local” metacognitive sensitivity. It is also unclear to what extent processes involved in these decision-making tasks cover those taking place in a learning environment. When answering self-reported questionnaires, however, subjects make metacognitive judgements on a large set of (learning) activities, and the measures may thus resemble more “global” or domain-general metacognitive sensitivity. In addition, learners in educational settings tend to receive feedback — immediate or delayed — on their learning activities and performance, which is generally not the case for cognitive neuroscience protocols. Therefore, investigating metacognitive judgements in the presence of performance or social feedback may allow researchers to better understand the metacognitive processes at play in educational settings. Devising a global measure of metacognition in the lab by aggregating subjects’ metacognitive abilities in different domains or investigating to what extent local metacognition may affect global metacognition could improve ecological validity significantly. By investigating the neural correlates of educational measures of metacognition, researchers may be able to better understand to what extent the constructs studied in the two disciplines are related. It is indeed possible that, though weakly correlated, the meta-knowledge scale of the MAI and meta-d’ share a common neural basis.

Second, our review highlights gaps in the literature of both disciplines regarding the research of certain types of metacognitive processes. There is a lack of research in offline meta-control (or strategic regulation of cognition) in neuroscience, whereas this construct is widely studied in educational sciences. More specifically, while there exists research on EF related to planning (e.g. 107 ), common experimental designs make it hard to disentangle online from offline metacognitive processes. A few studies have implemented subject reports (e.g., awareness of error or desire for reminders) to pin-point the neural substrates specifically involved in offline meta-control and the current evidence points at a role of the lPFC. More research implementing similar designs may clarify this construct. Alternatively, researchers may exploit educational sciences protocols, such as self-report questionnaires, learning journals, metacognitive prompts and feedback to investigate offline meta-control processes in the brain and their relation to academic proficiency and achievement.

Third, there is only one study known to us on the training of meta-knowledge in the lab 78 . In contrast, meta-knowledge training in educational sciences have been widely studied, in particular with metacognitive prompts and learning journals, although a systematic review would be needed to identify the benefits for learning. Relative to cognitive neuroscience, studies suggest that offline meta-knowledge trained in and outside the lab (i.e., metacognitive judgements and meditation, respectively) transfer to meta-knowledge in other lab tasks. The case of meditation is particularly interesting since meditation has been demonstrated to beneficiate varied aspects of everyday life 108 . Given its importance for efficient regulation of cognition, training (offline) meta-knowledge may present the largest benefits to academic achievement. Hence, it is important to investigate development in the brain relative to meta-knowledge training. Evidence on metacognitive training in educational sciences tends to suggest that offline metacognition is more “plastic” and may therefore benefit learning more than online metacognition. Furthermore, it is important to have a good understanding of the developmental trajectory of metacognitive abilities — not only on a behavioural level but also on a neural level — to identify critical periods for successful training. Doing so would also allow researchers to investigate the potential differences in terms of plasticity that we mention above. Currently, the developmental trajectory of metacognition is under-studied in cognitive neuroscience with only one study that found an overlap between the neural correlates of metacognition in adults and children 109 . On a side note, future research could explore the potential role of genetic factors in metacognitive abilities to better understand to what extent and under what constraints they can be trained.

Fourth, domain-specific and domain-general aspects of metacognitive processes should be further investigated. Educational scientists have studied the development of metacognition in learners and have concluded that metacognitive abilities are domain-specific at the beginning (meaning that their quality depends on the type of learning activity, like mathematics vs. writing) and progressively evolve towards domain-general abilities as knowledge and expertise increase. Similarly, neurocognitive evidence points towards a common network for (offline) metacognitive knowledge which engages the different regions at varying degrees depending on the domain of the activity (i.e., perception, memory, etc.). Investigating this network from a developmental perspective and comparing findings with the existing behavioural literature may improve our understanding of the metacognitive brain and link the two bodies of evidence. It may also enable researchers to identify stages of life more suitable for certain types of metacognitive intervention.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the University of Amsterdam for supporting this research through the Interdisciplinary Doctorate Agreement grant. W.v.d.B. is further supported by the Jacobs Foundation, European Research Council (grant no. ERC-2018-StG-803338), the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant no. DiGYMATEX-870578), and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (grant no. NWO-VIDI 016.Vidi.185.068).

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Fleur, D.S., Bredeweg, B. & van den Bos, W. Metacognition: ideas and insights from neuro- and educational sciences. npj Sci. Learn. 6 , 13 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-021-00089-5

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Center for Teaching

Metacognition.

Thinking about One’s Thinking |   Putting Metacognition into Practice

Thinking about One’s Thinking

Initially studied for its development in young children (Baker & Brown, 1984; Flavell, 1985), researchers soon began to look at how experts display metacognitive thinking and how, then, these thought processes can be taught to novices to improve their learning (Hatano & Inagaki, 1986).  In How People Learn , the National Academy of Sciences’ synthesis of decades of research on the science of learning, one of the three key findings of this work is the effectiveness of a “‘metacognitive’ approach to instruction” (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000, p. 18).

Metacognitive practices increase students’ abilities to transfer or adapt their learning to new contexts and tasks (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, p. 12; Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Scardamalia et al., 1984; Schoenfeld, 1983, 1985, 1991).  They do this by gaining a level of awareness above the subject matter : they also think about the tasks and contexts of different learning situations and themselves as learners in these different contexts.  When Pintrich (2002) asserts that “Students who know about the different kinds of strategies for learning, thinking, and problem solving will be more likely to use them” (p. 222), notice the students must “know about” these strategies, not just practice them.  As Zohar and David (2009) explain, there must be a “ conscious meta-strategic level of H[igher] O[rder] T[hinking]” (p. 179).

Metacognitive practices help students become aware of their strengths and weaknesses as learners, writers, readers, test-takers, group members, etc.  A key element is recognizing the limit of one’s knowledge or ability and then figuring out how to expand that knowledge or extend the ability. Those who know their strengths and weaknesses in these areas will be more likely to “actively monitor their learning strategies and resources and assess their readiness for particular tasks and performances” (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, p. 67).

The absence of metacognition connects to the research by Dunning, Johnson, Ehrlinger, and Kruger on “Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence” (2003).  They found that “people tend to be blissfully unaware of their incompetence,” lacking “insight about deficiencies in their intellectual and social skills.”  They identified this pattern across domains—from test-taking, writing grammatically, thinking logically, to recognizing humor, to hunters’ knowledge about firearms and medical lab technicians’ knowledge of medical terminology and problem-solving skills (p. 83-84).  In short, “if people lack the skills to produce correct answers, they are also cursed with an inability to know when their answers, or anyone else’s, are right or wrong” (p. 85).  This research suggests that increased metacognitive abilities—to learn specific (and correct) skills, how to recognize them, and how to practice them—is needed in many contexts.

Putting Metacognition into Practice

In “ Promoting Student Metacognition ,” Tanner (2012) offers a handful of specific activities for biology classes, but they can be adapted to any discipline. She first describes four assignments for explicit instruction (p. 116):

• Preassessments—Encouraging Students to Examine Their Current Thinking: “What do I already know about this topic that could guide my learning?”

• Retrospective Postassessments—Pushing Students to Recognize Conceptual Change: “Before this course, I thought evolution was… Now I think that evolution is ….” or “How is my thinking changing (or not changing) over time?”
• Reflective Journals—Providing a Forum in Which Students Monitor Their Own Thinking: “What about my exam preparation worked well that I should remember to do next time? What did not work so well that I should not do next time or that I should change?”

Next are recommendations for developing a “classroom culture grounded in metacognition” (p. 116-118):

• Giving Students License to Identify Confusions within the Classroom Culture:  ask students what they find confusing, acknowledge the difficulties
• Integrating Reflection into Credited Course Work: integrate short reflection (oral or written) that ask students what they found challenging or what questions arose during an assignment/exam/project
• Metacognitive Modeling by the Instructor for Students: model the thinking processes involved in your field and sought in your course by being explicit about “how you start, how you decide what to do first and then next, how you check your work, how you know when you are done” (p. 118)

To facilitate these activities, she also offers three useful tables:

• Questions for students to ask themselves as they plan, monitor, and evaluate their thinking within four learning contexts—in class, assignments, quizzes/exams, and the course as a whole (p. 115)
• Prompts for integrating metacognition into discussions of pairs during clicker activities, assignments, and quiz or exam preparation (p. 117)
• Questions to help faculty metacognitively assess their own teaching (p. 119)

Weimer’s “ Deep Learning vs. Surface Learning: Getting Students to Understand the Difference ” (2012) offers additional recommendations for developing students’ metacognitive awareness and improvement of their study skills:

“[I]t is terribly important that in explicit and concerted ways we make students aware of themselves as learners. We must regularly ask, not only ‘What are you learning?’ but ‘How are you learning?’ We must confront them with the effectiveness (more often ineffectiveness) of their approaches. We must offer alternatives and then challenge students to test the efficacy of those approaches. ” (emphasis added)

She points to a tool developed by Stanger-Hall (2012, p. 297) for her students to identify their study strategies, which she divided into “ cognitively passive ” (“I previewed the reading before class,” “I came to class,” “I read the assigned text,” “I highlighted the text,” et al) and “ cognitively active study behaviors ” (“I asked myself: ‘How does it work?’ and ‘Why does it work this way?’” “I wrote my own study questions,” “I fit all the facts into a bigger picture,” “I closed my notes and tested how much I remembered,” et al) .  The specific focus of Stanger-Hall’s study is tangential to this discussion, 1 but imagine giving students lists like hers adapted to your course and then, after a major assignment, having students discuss which ones worked and which types of behaviors led to higher grades. Even further, follow Lovett’s advice (2013) by assigning “exam wrappers,” which include students reflecting on their previous exam-preparation strategies, assessing those strategies and then looking ahead to the next exam, and writing an action plan for a revised approach to studying. A common assignment in English composition courses is the self-assessment essay in which students apply course criteria to articulate their strengths and weaknesses within single papers or over the course of the semester. These activities can be adapted to assignments other than exams or essays, such as projects, speeches, discussions, and the like.

As these examples illustrate, for students to become more metacognitive, they must be taught the concept and its language explicitly (Pintrich, 2002; Tanner, 2012), though not in a content-delivery model (simply a reading or a lecture) and not in one lesson. Instead, the explicit instruction should be “designed according to a knowledge construction approach,” or students need to recognize, assess, and connect new skills to old ones, “and it needs to take place over an extended period of time” (Zohar & David, p. 187).  This kind of explicit instruction will help students expand or replace existing learning strategies with new and more effective ones, give students a way to talk about learning and thinking, compare strategies with their classmates’ and make more informed choices, and render learning “less opaque to students, rather than being something that happens mysteriously or that some students ‘get’ and learn and others struggle and don’t learn” (Pintrich, 2002, p. 223).

• What to Expect (when reading philosophy)
• The Ultimate Goal (of reading philosophy)
• Basic Good Reading Behaviors
• Important Background Information, or discipline- and course-specific reading practices, such as “reading for enlightenment” rather than information, and “problem-based classes” rather than historical or figure-based classes
• A Three-Part Reading Process (pre-reading, understanding, and evaluating)
• Flagging, or annotating the reading
• Linear vs. Dialogical Writing (Philosophical writing is rarely straightforward but instead “a monologue that contains a dialogue” [p. 365].)

What would such a handout look like for your discipline?

Students can even be metacognitively prepared (and then prepare themselves) for the overarching learning experiences expected in specific contexts . Salvatori and Donahue’s The Elements (and Pleasures) of Difficulty (2004) encourages students to embrace difficult texts (and tasks) as part of deep learning, rather than an obstacle.  Their “difficulty paper” assignment helps students reflect on and articulate the nature of the difficulty and work through their responses to it (p. 9).  Similarly, in courses with sensitive subject matter, a different kind of learning occurs, one that involves complex emotional responses.  In “ Learning from Their Own Learning: How Metacognitive and Meta-affective Reflections Enhance Learning in Race-Related Courses ” (Chick, Karis, & Kernahan, 2009), students were informed about the common reactions to learning about racial inequality (Helms, 1995; Adams, Bell, & Griffin, 1997; see student handout, Chick, Karis, & Kernahan, p. 23-24) and then regularly wrote about their cognitive and affective responses to specific racialized situations.  The students with the most developed metacognitive and meta-affective practices at the end of the semester were able to “clear the obstacles and move away from” oversimplified thinking about race and racism ”to places of greater questioning, acknowledging the complexities of identity, and redefining the world in racial terms” (p. 14).

Ultimately, metacognition requires students to “externalize mental events” (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, p. 67), such as what it means to learn, awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses with specific skills or in a given learning context, plan what’s required to accomplish a specific learning goal or activity, identifying and correcting errors, and preparing ahead for learning processes.

————————

1 Students who were tested with short answer in addition to multiple-choice questions on their exams reported more cognitively active behaviors than those tested with just multiple-choice questions, and these active behaviors led to improved performance on the final exam.

• Adams, Maurianne, Bell, Lee Ann, and Griffin, Pat. (1997). Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook . New York: Routledge.
• Bransford, John D., Brown Ann L., and Cocking Rodney R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school . Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
• Baker, Linda, and Brown, Ann L. (1984). Metacognitive skills and reading.  In Paul David Pearson, Michael L. Kamil, Rebecca Barr, & Peter Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of research in reading: Volume III (pp. 353–395).  New York: Longman.
• Brown, Ann L. (1980). Metacognitive development and reading. In Rand J. Spiro, Bertram C. Bruce, and William F. Brewer, (Eds.), Theoretical issues in reading comprehension: Perspectives from cognitive psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and education (pp. 453-482). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Chick, Nancy, Karis, Terri, and Kernahan, Cyndi. (2009). Learning from their own learning: how metacognitive and meta-affective reflections enhance learning in race-related courses . International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 3(1). 1-28.
• Commander, Nannette Evans, and Valeri-Gold, Marie. (2001). The learning portfolio: A valuable tool for increasing metacognitive awareness . The Learning Assistance Review, 6 (2), 5-18.
• Concepción, David. (2004). Reading philosophy with background knowledge and metacognition . Teaching Philosophy , 27 (4). 351-368.
• Dunning, David, Johnson, Kerri, Ehrlinger, Joyce, and Kruger, Justin. (2003) Why people fail to recognize their own incompetence . Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12 (3). 83-87.
• Flavell,  John H. (1985). Cognitive development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Hatano, Giyoo and Inagaki, Kayoko. (1986). Two courses of expertise. In Harold Stevenson, Azuma, Horishi, and Hakuta, Kinji (Eds.), Child development and education in Japan, New York: W.H. Freeman.
• Helms, Janet E. (1995). An update of Helms’ white and people of color racial identity models . In J.G. Ponterotto, Joseph G., Casas, Manuel, Suzuki, Lisa A., and Alexander, Charlene M. (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (pp. 181-198) . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Lovett, Marsha C. (2013). Make exams worth more than the grade. In Matthew Kaplan, Naomi Silver, Danielle LaVague-Manty, and Deborah Meizlish (Eds.), Using reflection and metacognition to improve student learning: Across the disciplines, across the academy . Sterling, VA: Stylus.
• Palincsar, Annemarie Sullivan, and Brown, Ann L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities . Cognition and Instruction, 1 (2). 117-175.
• Pintrich, Paul R. (2002). The Role of metacognitive knowledge in learning, teaching, and assessing . Theory into Practice, 41 (4). 219-225.
• Salvatori, Mariolina Rizzi, and Donahue, Patricia. (2004). The Elements (and pleasures) of difficulty . New York: Pearson-Longman.
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• Schoenfeld, Alan H. (1991). On mathematics as sense making: An informal attack on the fortunate divorce of formal and informal mathematics. In James F. Voss, David N. Perkins, and Judith W. Segal (Eds.), Informal reasoning and education (pp. 311-344). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F. (2012). Multiple-choice exams: An obstacle for higher-level thinking in introductory science classes . Cell Biology Education—Life Sciences Education, 11(3), 294-306.
• Tanner, Kimberly D.  (2012). Promoting student metacognition . CBE—Life Sciences Education, 11, 113-120.
• Weimer, Maryellen.  (2012, November 19). Deep learning vs. surface learning: Getting students to understand the difference . Retrieved from the Teaching Professor Blog from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/deep-learning-vs-surface-learning-getting-students-to-understand-the-difference/ .
• Zohar, Anat, and David, Adi Ben. (2009). Paving a clear path in a thick forest: a conceptual analysis of a metacognitive component . Metacognition Learning , 4 , 177-195.

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What Is Called Thinking in Education?

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Part of the book series: Contemporary Philosophies and Theories in Education ((COPT,volume 16))

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The chapter takes the problem space outlined by Martin Heidegger in his famously controversial lecture series What is called thinking? as a starting point to discuss which forms of thinking, which methods and bodies of knowledges in the academic discipline of education are promoted, and which are marginalized and devalued by narrow concepts of objectivity and rationality. I will focus on two questions in particular: Which forms of thinking do we intend to encourage and foster through education? And secondly, which forms of thinking and knowledge production are called for when we consider education and upbringing in the educational sciences, and what is the role of educational philosophy in this context? Building on Alice Crary’s work in Beyond Moral Judgment (2007), I argue that the critique of narrow conceptions of rationality and objectivity should not lead to a dismissal of these notions but rather to their broadening so that the cultivation of our affective and emotional sensitivities is understood as part and parcel of developing a rational and objective understanding of the world. Starting from such a revised conception of rationality, I further argue that it is one of the main tasks of philosophy of education, to keep alive the sense that it is possible and worthwhile to address the moral dimension of education in serious and rational argument without falling prey to a narrow focus on moral judgment nor to certain problematic forms of moralistic arrogance.

• Critical thinking
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An earlier version of this chapter is published as Schumann, C. (2017). Was Heisst Denken in der Pädagogik? In M. Spiker & Stojanov, K. (eds.). Bildungsphilosophie. Disziplin – Gegenstandsbereich – Politische Bedeutung (pp. 243–256). Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft.

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Some postmodern approaches could be placed here and, depending on interpretation, quite possibly also Richard Rorty’s idea of philosophy as a voice in the ongoing dialogue of mankind.

Here we could place approaches within educational theory which emphasize the importance of dialogue in education, following authors like Jürgen Habermas and other theorists.

A very instructive example of the blind spots and difficulties that a narrow focus on moral judgments and the most exact possible formulation of moral principles can lead to can be found in Kwame Anthony Appiah’s critical examination of Peter Singer’s theses (cf. Singer 1972 ) in Der Kosmopolit (Appiah 2007 , pp. 192–194). Appiah stresses, countering Singer, that “our moral intuition is often more secure than the principles to which we refer to explain it” (Appiah 2007 , p. 193) and that very different principles can be derived from Singer’s example. The moral rigor of Singer becomes particularly apparent when Appiah plays through other variants of the consequences that we can draw from the thought experiment of the drowning child from what he calls the Singer Principle. Through different contextualizations of the principle, especially in the detailed and informed discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies to combat world poverty, Appiah not only makes clear what it would mean to adequately do justice in practice to the complexity of the moral questions judged by Singer according to general principles, but he also clearly shows the paradoxical consequences that can result from a rigid moralism of Singer’s manner and opposes this with a context-sensitive pragmatism.

Appiah, K. A. (2007). Der Kosmopolit . München: Beck.

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Claudia Schumann

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Schumann, C. (2020). What Is Called Thinking in Education?. In: Strand, T. (eds) Rethinking Ethical-Political Education. Contemporary Philosophies and Theories in Education, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49524-4_11

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• Learning & Education

Thinking about thinking

What is metacognition and how can it help students learn, annie brookman-byrne.

Metacognition is the ability to think about and regulate one’s own thoughts. Teaching metacognitive strategies can improve learners’ performance at school. This makes it a good, evidence-based target for intervention.

What is metacognition?

A simplified definition of metacognition is “thinking about thinking”, but metacognition also encompasses the regulation  of these thoughts – the ability to change them. It is a step further than simple awareness of thought processes, incorporating the ability to alter thoughts and behaviours. Explicitly teaching learners strategies for metacognition has been shown to lead to improvements in attainment .

Encouraging metacognition is therefore a relatively straightforward and cheap way to improve learning. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) describes metacognition approaches as having “consistently high levels of impact”, while acknowledging that they can also be a challenge to implement.

However, we must be cautious not to overstate the impact metacognition can have on learning. Like mindsets , metacognition is sometimes revered as an easy fix, when in fact there are of course many factors affecting learning. Teaching metacognitive strategies can also be challenging for the educator. On the other hand, metacognition is disregarded by some who fear it is simply the latest buzzword in the teaching profession.

Modelling metacognitive strategies through thinking aloud helps students learn techniques

Showing learners examples of metacognitive thinking, through thinking aloud, is one of the key recommendations for enhancing metacognition. There are three key phases in metacognition: planning, monitoring, and evaluation. Each of these phases can be modelled by the teacher or parent who is helping the learner, demonstrating how to approach a problem verbally. This can be done through asking a series of questions .

During the planning phase, before starting on the task, questions address how previous work relates to the current work, how best to start the task at hand, and how the goal can be achieved. The aim here is to increase awareness of different strategies, and to help students choose a strategy and draw on prior work.

“What seems to be important is that metacognitive strategies are taught explicitly and in relation to specific tasks.”

In the monitoring stage, while the task is underway, a teacher might ask whether the current approach is working, and what can be improved, in order to encourage students to change their strategy if necessary. After the task has finished, during the evaluation stage, questions relate to whether or not the goal was reached and what would be better next time.

Metacognitive strategies should be taught explicitly

These are just examples of the kinds of questions that can guide and encourage metacognitive thinking. The EEF website contains many more examples and a detailed description of how they can be used in the classroom. What seems to be important is that metacognitive strategies are taught explicitly and in relation to specific tasks, as opposed to in an abstract manner where learning skills are taught without being applied to real tasks.

“Encouraging metacognition doesn’t require expensive specialist equipment, and is thought to have its biggest impact on disadvantaged students.”

Metacognition is a particularly appealing target for improving learning because it doesn’t require expensive specialist equipment, and is thought to have its biggest impact on disadvantaged students. There is a good evidence base , and there are great resources freely available online to support teachers and parents. If metacognition is the latest buzzword in teaching, then it’s for good reason.

How to help students think about their own thinking

• Model planning, monitoring, and evaluation through thinking aloud. • Ask questions to increase students’ awareness of different strategies. • Teach metacognitive strategies explicitly and in relation to specific tasks.

Very interesting and thinking for the next couple of days. Bernard

very simple explanation

[…] way to build agency is to teach students how to reflect using metacognition. Reflecting on experiences (whether behavioral or academic) helps students move forward from a […]

[…] a June 2018 BOLD blog post, Annie Brookman-Byrne describes metacognition this way: “[M]etacognition is ‘thinking about […]

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Developing Critical Thinking

• Posted January 10, 2018
• By Iman Rastegari

In a time where deliberately false information is continually introduced into public discourse, and quickly spread through social media shares and likes, it is more important than ever for young people to develop their critical thinking. That skill, says Georgetown professor William T. Gormley, consists of three elements: a capacity to spot weakness in other arguments, a passion for good evidence, and a capacity to reflect on your own views and values with an eye to possibly change them. But are educators making the development of these skills a priority?

"Some teachers embrace critical thinking pedagogy with enthusiasm and they make it a high priority in their classrooms; other teachers do not," says Gormley, author of the recent Harvard Education Press release The Critical Advantage: Developing Critical Thinking Skills in School . "So if you are to assess the extent of critical-thinking instruction in U.S. classrooms, you’d find some very wide variations." Which is unfortunate, he says, since developing critical-thinking skills is vital not only to students' readiness for college and career, but to their civic readiness, as well.

"It's important to recognize that critical thinking is not just something that takes place in the classroom or in the workplace, it's something that takes place — and should take place — in our daily lives," says Gormley.

In this edition of the Harvard EdCast, Gormley looks at the value of teaching critical thinking, and explores how it can be an important solution to some of the problems that we face, including "fake news."

About the Harvard EdCast

The Harvard EdCast is a weekly series of podcasts, available on the Harvard University iT unes U page, that features a 15-20 minute conversation with thought leaders in the field of education from across the country and around the world. Hosted by Matt Weber and co-produced by Jill Anderson, the Harvard EdCast is a space for educational discourse and openness, focusing on the myriad issues and current events related to the field.

An education podcast that keeps the focus simple: what makes a difference for learners, educators, parents, and communities

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Design Thinking in Education: Perspectives, Opportunities and Challenges

The article discusses design thinking as a process and mindset for collaboratively finding solutions for wicked problems in a variety of educational settings. Through a systematic literature review the article organizes case studies, reports, theoretical reflections, and other scholarly work to enhance our understanding of the purposes, contexts, benefits, limitations, affordances, constraints, effects and outcomes of design thinking in education. Specifically, the review pursues four questions: (1) What are the characteristics of design thinking that make it particularly fruitful for education? (2) How is design thinking applied in different educational settings? (3) What tools, techniques and methods are characteristic for design thinking? (4) What are the limitations or negative effects of design thinking? The goal of the article is to describe the current knowledge base to gain an improved understanding of the role of design thinking in education, to enhance research communication and discussion of best practice approaches and to chart immediate avenues for research and practice.

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Design Thinking in Education

Design Thinking is a mindset and approach to learning, collaboration, and problem solving. In practice, the design process is a structured framework for identifying challenges, gathering information, generating potential solutions, refining ideas, and testing solutions. Design Thinking can be flexibly implemented; serving equally well as a framework for a course design or a roadmap for an activity or group project.

Download the  HGSE Design Thinking in Education infographic  to learn more about what Design Thinking is and why it is powerful in the classroom.

Design Consultation for projects, session, and courses, including active learning and facilitation strategies.

Brainstorming Kits including Post-it notes, Sharpie markers, and stickable chart paper.

Physical Prototyping Cart with dozens of creative, constructivist supplies, including felt, yarn, foil, craft sticks, rubber bands, Play-Doh, Legos, and more.

For more information about TLL resources or to check-out brainstorming or prototyping materials, contact Brandon Pousley .

Other Resources  There are dozens of ready-made activities, workbooks, and curricular guides available online. We suggest starting with the following:

Stanford — d.school  and the  The Bootcamp Bootleg IDEO — ' Design Thinking for Educators ' and the  Design ThinkingToolkit Business Innovation Factory —  'Teachers Design for Education'  and the TD4Ed Curriculum Research —  Design Thinking in Pedagogy  —  Luka, Ineta (2014). Design Thinking in Pedagogy. Journal of Education Culture and Society, No. 2, 63-74.

• Our Mission

Design Thinking in Education: Empathy, Challenge, Discovery, and Sharing

As a model for reframing methods and outcomes, design thinking reconnects educators to their creativity and aspirations for helping students develop as deep thinkers and doers.

"Design thinking gave me a process to weave through all of the project–based learning experiences I create with my kiddos."

"As a leader of a #NextGen school, design thinking is our continuous innovation process."

"Design thinking reminds me all the time why I became an educator; it all starts with empathy."

An Oasis for Educators

The quotes above -- full of insight and affirmation -- are just some of the many that I've heard from educators taken by the power of design thinking and moved to bring it into their practice. When we started the @K12lab at Stanford's d.school back in 2007 we began with a hunch that design thinking would be a great tool for educators to deploy in their classrooms and schools, and that ultimately, it would be a useful process for kids working through interdisciplinary challenges. What we found in our initial prototypes -- launching an innovation lab space, creating a design thinking professional development experience, and running student-facing design challenges for middle- and high-school classes -- was that the design thinking process functioned as a kind of oasis for educators, reconnecting them to their creativity and aspirations for helping students develop as deep thinkers and doers, not just as test takers.

In the last few years, the field has witnessed an explosion of interest in design thinking, nationally and internationally. You can literally see its growth mapped on the Design Thinking in Schools map and in the internationally booming Design for Change student challenge platform. The spread of design thinking also shows up in new national efforts like IDEO’s Teacher’s Guild platform and the very active Twitter chat community built around #DTK12chat . Educators are also supporting each other as design thinkers in regional collaborations like Atlanta’s #AK12DC, a collection of 30 public and independent schools working to accelerate design challenges, and Henry Ford Learning Institute 's work in Michigan to gather regional enthusiasts and design thinking leaders.

As the movement for design thinking in education broadens and deepens, many practitioners are flexibly customizing the design thinking process in their own contexts. Coming from the d.school, I particularly love seeing the teachers and leaders with whom we work sharing how they moved from the process we taught them (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test) to language that works in their own context. For example, check out Mary Cantwell’s DEEPdt or Urban Montessori's incorporation of design thinking in their core values .

4 Modes for Developing Your Practice

If you're considering how to embrace design thinking in your school culture, I believe you should focus on four critical modes underlying the process:

1. Lead with empathy.

Empathy is, of course, the root of human-centered design. Leading with empathy builds on the classic definition of "walking in someone else's shoes" to get us out of our own heads and into the lived reality of others so that we can understand the implicit needs and root causes of the situations in which we work. Leading with empathy means pushing yourself to get closer to people, and to do so consistently, publicly, and with conviction.

How do you do it? Listen more; talk less. Immerse yourself in how others experience your school or program. Adopt a beginner's mind and use all of your senses to notice what's happening around you. At the d.school, we believe in these practices so much that we're issuing a Shadow a Student challenge from our School Retool project to illuminate the power of leading with empathy. If you want to step into empathy, it will be a great way to get started.

2. Challenge assumptions.

This is the opposite of "keep calm and carry on." Challenging assumptions means that when confronted with a problem, you seize the opportunity to do better than you've done before. Useful phrases to build into your lexicon are "What if. . . ?" and "How might we. . . ?" Just the simple act of introducing the language of possibility can start the shift from how we've always done things to the potential for a reframe. Reframing is critical for innovation, but it's also a way of moving from a deficit point of view to an asset focus. Challenging assumptions lets us see what both children and adults are truly capable of doing. Harnessed for good, challenging assumptions steers you in the direction of more effective policies and practices because you're willing to see things differently.

3. Make experiments happen.

Here's the rub. "Just do it" is more than a pitch for selling sports gear. It means try something and learn from it. We can tangle ourselves in all kinds of knots about "embracing failure," but what really matters is trying something, letting people know that you're trying it, and generating opportunities for feedback. You'll learn the most from what doesn't work.

When you find yourself sitting in one more meeting to make a plan for a plan, just stop and say, "What could we try in order to figure this out?" This sets you on the path to experiment with quick hacks and low-resolution prototypes. Whatever you try will point you in the direction of what's next. At the d.school, we call it a bias toward action : Don't talk -- do. And when you do, then you observe, reflect, and try again to get it right.

4. Share your process.

Design cannot thrive in isolation. As you share your empathy work or your experiments, share what's hard, not just what's shiny and new. You can share those things as well, but we'll all learn more when you share your process, warts and all.

I invite you to investigate how leading with empathy, challenging assumptions, and making experiments happen can deepen your teaching or leadership practices. And as you do, please share what you've learned -- you may have discovered what we've yet to imagine.

What Is Systems Thinking in Education? Understanding Functions and Interactions in School Systems

Schools, districts, and classrooms are dynamic environments, full of energy and talent. Managing them calls for creative leadership and teaching approaches. Leaders in education need to anticipate how interconnected aspects of schools interact and affect each other.

Systems thinking in education offers a valuable approach for teachers working to build student engagement. The approach also helps leaders organize schools by harnessing their assets. American University’s EdD in Education Policy and Leadership trains educators to apply systems thinking and other effective leadership approaches to transforming schools for the better.

The Systems Thinking Model

An education system is composed of many interdependent components working together. How well these components operate and interact determines the system’s health.

Education systems at the national, state, and local levels consist of interacting parts, including:

• Laws and regulations
• Funding and funding policies
• Schools and administrative offices
• Teachers and staff
• Books, computers, and instructional materials
• Students, parents, and communities

Those seeking to improve an education system might choose to analyze the system’s parts. In this way, they can identify individual characteristics of each part and evaluate how it functions. While this approach can offer some benefits, it has limitations. It stops short of examining the relationships between the parts.

For example, limited school funding might result in high student-teacher ratios and inadequate supplies for students. These factors then lead to lower levels of student achievement which, in turn, puts further strain on teachers to help their students meet achievement benchmarks, and so on.

Responding to the growing demands placed on US education, solving problems such as achievement gaps, and dealing with shrinking school budgets are significant challenges. To face them effectively, educators need to value their system’s high level of interconnectivity and interdependency.

Applying Systems Thinking in Education

Systems thinking is a mindset that helps educators understand the complex education system in a more holistic way. Teachers and administrators using systems thinking might ask questions such as:

• How might cuts to arts education impact student performance in math?
• How can policies linking teacher salaries to standardized test scores affect a low-achieving school’s ability to attract accomplished teachers?

The goal is to consider several possible scenarios to find solutions to interconnected challenges.

Helping teachers solve classroom management issues, for instance, may involve addressing missing support structures in classrooms, such as a need for special education teachers, or adjusting student schedules to give time and space for children to unwind and release their energy.

As a mindset, systems thinking guides educators to deliver thought-provoking, engaging lessons. It encourages school leaders to coordinate districts and manage schools with improved efficiency. It can also replace piecemeal approaches to implementing policies with organized and systematic approaches that bring success across the board.

Specifically, educators can use systems thinking as a framework to structure classrooms and deliver instruction, while school and district leaders can apply it to their management and organizational styles. Additionally, administrators can use systems thinking as an approach to restructuring educational systems or schools.

Systems Thinking in the Classroom

Systems thinking can be a powerful classroom tool, giving students a participatory role in the learning process. By viewing teaching through a systems thinking lens, educators can help students recognize how seemingly disparate systems interact, identifying meaningful connections in the world around them. This not only deepens students’ understanding of specific subjects, but also strengthens their critical thinking abilities.

For example, teachers at Orange Grove Middle School in Tucson, Arizona, used a systems thinking approach to develop a project that strengthened their students’ abilities to analyze and problem solve. They tasked students with developing plans for a new national park that met specific design requirements: parks needed to be attractive to users, inflict limited environmental harm, and respect an Indian burial ground on the chartered land.

During the process of developing their designs, students discovered connections between the social, ecological, and economic components of the project.

Leadership and Systems Thinking

Systems thinking in education empowers education leaders to align school initiatives, improve instruction, increase efficiency, eliminate waste, and strengthen student outcomes.

For example, by closely monitoring student data, administrators can adjust budgets to allow for the purchase of the instructional materials they need most.

A systems thinking approach lets administrators build systems that do the following:

• Recognize and adapt to changes (technological advances, policy reforms), coordinating with other parts of the system fluidly
• Include mechanisms that allow for self-reflection and self-correction
• Process information quickly and make it available to all parts of the system
• Distinguish between situations that need adjustments and those that need overhauls

Discover How an EdD in Education Policy and Leadership Prepares Education Leaders to Excel

Building collaborative cultures in districts and schools calls for a holistic, innovative approach. Systems thinking in education allows education leaders to not only recognize the relationships between the different components of a school system but also use them to solve problems.

Explore how American University’s EdD in Education Policy and Leadership cultivates the knowledge and expertise leaders in education need to confront obstacles and transform schools.

The Role of Educational Leadership in Forming a School and Community Partnership

Path to Becoming a School District Administrator

5 Effective Principal Leadership Styles

Getting Smart, “Why School System Leaders Need to Be Systems Thinkers”

Journal of School Leadership , “Sources of Systems Thinking in School Leadership”

The Learning Counsel, “What Is Systems Thinking in Education?”

Medium, “How to Practice Systems Thinking in the Classroom”

Systems Thinker, “Revitalizing the Schools: A Systems Thinking Approach”

Systems Thinker, “Systems Thinking: What, Why, When, Where, and How?”

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Design Thinking has been widely recognized as an alternative way of thinking and methodology for problem solving in Education institutions from K-12 to Grad Schools in educational institutions such as Stanford, MIT, Darden School of Business at Virginia University, Carnegie Mellon and many more. Read about their courses, programs, research and other involvement with design thinking on this page.

See our listing of courses and programs offered by all Universities and other institutions on the Education page .

This is a follow on article to our original article "5 Design Thinking Examples for Students" .

What are Design Thinking Tools? Design thinking is an approach to problem-solving that is centered around understanding the needs and experiences of end-users. It is a creative and innovative approach that is used by designers and organizations to develop effective solutions to complex problems. Design thinking tools are a set of methods and techniques that facilitate the design thinking process. In this article, we will discuss some of the most popular design thinking tools and their benefits.

1. Empathy Mapping

Design thinking training has become increasingly popular in recent years, with businesses and organizations around the world looking to develop their innovation and problem-solving capabilities. While design thinking can be a powerful tool for creativity and innovation, there are also some potential pitfalls and limitations to its use. In this article, we will critically examine design thinking training, looking at its strengths and weaknesses, and providing recommendations for how to make the most of this approach.

Design thinking has emerged as one of the most popular frameworks for creative problem-solving. It has been used by businesses, startups, and non-profits around the world to develop innovative solutions to complex challenges. As a result, the demand for design thinking certification has increased significantly. However, the question remains, is design thinking certification necessary, and does it truly add value to the process of design thinking?

Welcome to our educators page. We hope that we can support you on your journey to discover and use Design Thinking to help the next generation to become more confident in using creativity to solve problems.

Why is Design Thinking important for students?

21st Century Learning and Innovation Skills are the skills that will be essential for students to possess to thrive in the increasingly complex life and work environments in the 21st century. These include:

• Creativity and Innovation • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving • Communication • Collaboration

Applying Design Thinking internally, within a group, community or to ourselves. This is a new application of the Design Thinking Methodology.

An internal application in this sense can have two meanings. First, the internal application of design thinking tactics within a group, organization or community, and second, the internal application of design thinking to one’s own self and life.

Can Design Thinking help you solve your own problems?

Talk to any educator, parent, or policy maker and you will inevitably hear about the many problems that exist in education. It’s not for lack of trying—millions of people are working across the country to find new solutions for our schools. And yet we’re struggling to find new answers that make a real difference. 

Recently IDEO, the design and innovation firm where I work, collaborated with San Francisco Unified School District to develop a new vision for their food system.

This case study focuses on a Design Thinking Workshop for primary school learners. The aim of the workshops was to provide learners with a new set of skills which they can employ when problem solving for real world challenges.

Building resilience is essential for cities that face increasing uncertainty and new challenges that threaten the well-being of its citizens. This is especially important when looking at the diversity and complexity of potential shocks and stresses. 

This study shows that a short, 3-day intervention can make a positive impact on young female youths’ perceptions of STEM, pro-social attitudes, creative confidence, and career pathways. It does this by creating a “hook” or stimulating interest among youths to have a more favorable opinion about working in STEM.

The study’s second finding is that persistent gender norms are hard to overturn and require additional interventions.

This very informative article discusses design thinking as a process and mindset for collaboratively finding solutions for wicked problems in a variety of educational settings. Through a systematic literature review the article organizes case studies, reports, theoretical reflections, and other scholarly work to enhance our understanding of the purposes, contexts, benefits, limitations, affordances, constraints, effects and outcomes of design thinking in education.

Specifically, the review pursues four questions:

As children move from kindergarten, through middle school, and to high school, instruction shifts from stories to facts, from speculation to specifics, and imagination fades from focus. Design Thinking provides an alternative model to traditional ways of learning academic content by challenging students to find answers to complex, nuanced problems with multiple solutions and by fostering students’ ability to act as change agents.

In her doctoral paper Loraine Rossi de Campos explores the use of Design Thinking in a school district for a 4-5 grade school.

How to use design thinking to make great things actually happen by Tim Brown and Roger L. Martin. In this great HBR article, the authors look at design thinking in Finance with two case studies, one from MassMutual and the other from Intercorp. Group of Peru.

In this article highlighting the development of the acceptance of Design Thinking, they discuss how Design Thinking helps to create the artifact that creates the new solution as well as the intervention/s that brings the artifact to life.

Ever since it became clear that smart design led to the success of many products, companies have been employing it in other areas, from customer experiences, to strategy, to business ecosystems. But as design is used in increasingly complex contexts, a new hurdle has emerged: gaining acceptance (for the new solutions).

Read more...

Reham has been working at Mohammed bin Rashid school, a public school in Dubai, for the last five years as a Design & Technology Teacher. She teaches grades 3 to grade 8 students. Prior to working as a teacher, Reham was an architect and worked at an engineering consultancy where her duties included designing buildings using Autocad and 3d Max software. 

In an ever changing society of the 21st century, there is a demand to equip students with meta competences going beyond cognitive knowledge. Education, therefore, needs a transition from transferring knowledge to developing individual potentials with the help of constructivist learning. A Scheer, C Noweski,  C Meinel , University of Potsdam, Germany.

Design Thinking is the most effective method of teaching constructivist learning.

Developing environmental sustainability strategies, the Double Diamond method of LCA and design thinking: a case study from aged care. Journal of Cleaner Production, 85, 67-82. Stephen J. Clune*, Simon Lockrey.

The Stanford University d.school  -  Design Thinking Bootcamp Bootleg , Design Thinking tools and the  Resources page . have gone through a number of iterations to refine the exercises and tools. The Bootleg offers the latest version (as of May 2020) for people to download and use for free.

Watch this video from Nathan Shedroff on design strategy and the merging of business and design. In this video Nathan very clearly articulates the difference between design and design thinking and discusses how design needs to mesh with business and business with design. Well worth watching.

Watch Video...

Admissions needs to communicate consistently at each touchpoint. Prospective students and families want to assess whether this educational experience is the right fit for them. Current students and alumni are asking for Maize and Blue landmarks to build the Michigan Tradition across campus.

Design Thinking is a powerful approach to problem solving and supports schools in moving toward a more hands-and minds-on, challenge-based curriculum. We want kids to be engaged right? You won't believe how well Design Thinking engages kids.

Watch this video...

Design Thinking in daily life is about creating creative and collaborative workflows engineered to tackle big projects and prototyping to discover new solutions.

And although we have K-12 schools incorporating design thinking into their curriculum and instruction, as well as educators attending  design thinking workshops  at places like the d. School at Stanford, what does design thinking in daily life really look like in K-12 classrooms and schools?

If we want our students to think critically, consider the needs of others and then develop solutions to solve real problems, design thinking project ideas offer a useful framework to make that happen. Are you looking to give it a try this year? Here are 6 design thinking project ideas that take students through the 5 stages – empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test – and get them digging deeper.

This video showcases three projects during this year’s Design Thinking Club. Each group of students used the design thinking method to help improve a school experience or help a teacher in need.

David Lee walks us through three Design Thinking projects. It's a great example of how the process works and the type of results that it produced.

Watch the kids go through the process and produce really great solutions. It is inspiring.

Watch here...

In this presentation from the Hathaway Brown School in Ohio, teachers will learn about the design thinking process, how it ties to the 21st century skills and how to conduct workshops for different grades. It provides a good overview for teachers who want to try Design Thinking in their classroom.

There are not that many Design Thinking project examples for students on the web. Most design thinking project examples are aimed at working professionals i.e. engineers, marketing, business people, and are not really great project examples for K-12 and college students to grasp how the process works. Nor is it easy to understand how they apply to your particular problem or passion.

The Stanford d.school's Design Thinking Workshop is a powerful tool for developing innovative solutions to complex problems. The workshop combines empathy, creativity, and critical thinking to develop unique and effective solutions to a wide range of problems. This article will explore the how long the workshop should take, and some tips and tools to ensure a successful Design Thinking Workshop.

How Long Should the Workshop Take?

The way we are educating students is not the way that they will have to work to succeed in the world. When last did you see students working together in teams and collaborating on problem solving? Education is an individual pursuit in a world that needs team thinking and collaborative skills.

Listen to her TED Talk...

Too often, we hear students say they want to leave West Virginia because there are limited opportunities and few things to do. Simulated Workplace Entrepreneurship Education Pathway (SWEEP) turns that notion on its head and empowers students to generate and create those opportunities

Design Thinking is a creative process that helps you design meaningful solutions to problems in the classroom, at your school, and in your community. This Design Thinking toolkit and Designer's Workbook provides you with instructions to explore Design Thinking with your students. Using the Design Thinking toolkit will help you to get your students engaged in the classroom in ways that are hard to achieve through other exercises.

Design thinking offers a creative yet structured approach for addressing large-scale challenges. 

We offer a summary of the webinar,   Design Thinking: Education Edition , which discusses design thinking principles and process, describes real-world examples of design thinking in action, and offeres possibilities for how you might introduce the approach into your own organization.

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What public k-12 teachers want americans to know about teaching.

Illustrations by Hokyoung Kim

At a time when most teachers are feeling stressed and overwhelmed in their jobs, we asked 2,531 public K-12 teachers this open-ended question:

If there’s one thing you’d want the public to know about teachers, what would it be?

We also asked Americans what they think about teachers to compare with teachers’ perceptions of how the public views them.

Related: What’s It Like To Be a Teacher in America Today?

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to better understand what public K-12 teachers would like Americans to know about their profession. We also wanted to learn how the public thinks about teachers.

For the open-end question, we surveyed 2,531 U.S. public K-12 teachers from Oct. 17 to Nov. 14, 2023. The teachers surveyed are members of RAND’s American Teacher Panel, a nationally representative panel of public K-12 school teachers recruited through MDR Education. Survey data is weighted to state and national teacher characteristics to account for differences in sampling and response to ensure they are representative of the target population.

Overall, 96% of surveyed teachers provided an answer to the open-ended question. Center researchers developed a coding scheme categorizing the responses, coded all responses, and then grouped them into the six themes explored in the data essay.

For the questions for the general public, we surveyed 5,029 U.S. adults from Nov. 9 to Nov. 16, 2023. The adults surveyed are members of the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, a nationally representative online survey panel. Panel members are randomly recruited through probability-based sampling, and households are provided with access to the Internet and hardware if needed. To ensure that the results of this survey reflect a balanced cross section of the nation, the data is weighted to match the U.S. adult population by gender, age, education, race and ethnicity and other categories.

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, the teacher survey methodology and the general public survey methodology .

Most of the responses to the open-ended question fell into one of these six themes:

Teaching is a hard job

About half of teachers (51%) said they want the public to know that teaching is a difficult job and that teachers are hardworking. Within this share, many mentioned that they have roles and responsibilities in the classroom besides teaching, which makes the job stressful. Many also talked about working long hours, beyond those they’re contracted for.

“Teachers serve multiple roles other than being responsible for teaching curriculum. We are counselors, behavioral specialists and parents for students who need us to fill those roles. We sacrifice a lot to give all of ourselves to the role as teacher.”

– Elementary school teacher

“The amount of extra hours that teachers have to put in beyond the contractual time is ridiculous. Arriving 30 minutes before and leaving an hour after is just the tip of the iceberg. … And as far as ‘having summers off,’ most of August is taken up with preparing materials for the upcoming school year or attending three, four, seven days’ worth of unpaid development training.”

– High school teacher

Teachers care about their students

The next most common theme: 22% of teachers brought up how fulfilling teaching is and how much teachers care about their students. Many gave examples of the hardships of teaching but reaffirmed that they do their job because they love the kids and helping them succeed. 

“We are passionate about what we do. Every child we teach is important to us and we look out for them like they are our own.”

– Middle school teacher

“We are in it for the kids, and the most incredible moments are when children make connections with learning.”

Teachers are undervalued and disrespected

Some 17% of teachers want the public to know that they feel undervalued and disrespected, and that they need more public support. Some mentioned that they are well-educated professionals but are not treated as such. And many teachers in this category responded with a general plea for support from the public, which they don’t feel they’re getting now.

“We feel undervalued. The public and many parents of my students treat me and my peers as if we do not know as much as they do, as if we are uneducated.”

“The public attitudes toward teachers have been degrading, and it is making it impossible for well-qualified teachers to be found. People are simply not wanting to go into the profession because of public sentiments.”

Teachers are underpaid

A similar share of teachers (15%) want the public to know that teachers are underpaid. Many teachers said their salary doesn’t account for the effort and care they put into their students’ education and believe that their pay should reflect this.

“We are sorely underpaid for the amount of hours we work and the education level we have attained.”

Teachers need support and resources from government and administrators

About one-in-ten teachers (9%) said they need more support from the government, their administrators and other key stakeholders. Many mentioned working in understaffed schools, not having enough funding and paying for supplies out of pocket. Some teachers also expressed that they have little control over the curriculum that they teach.

“The world-class education we used to be proud of does not exist because of all the red tape we are constantly navigating. If you want to see real change in the classroom, advocate for smaller class sizes for your child, push your district to cap class sizes at a reasonable level and have real, authentic conversations with your child’s teacher about what is going on in the classroom if you’re curious.”

Teachers need more support from parents

Roughly the same share of teachers (8%) want the public to know that teachers need more support from parents, emphasizing that the parent-teacher relationship is strained. Many view parents as partners in their child’s education and believe that a strong relationship improves kids’ overall social and emotional development.

“Teachers help students to reach their potential. However, that job is near impossible if parents/guardians do not take an active part in their student’s education.”

How the U.S. public views teachers

While the top response from teachers in the open-ended question is that they want the public to know that teaching is a hard job, most Americans already see it that way. Two-thirds of U.S. adults say being a public K-12 teacher is harder than most other jobs, with 33% saying it’s a lot harder.

And about three-quarters of Americans (74%) say teachers should be paid more than they are now, including 39% who say teachers should be paid a lot more.

Americans are about evenly divided on whether the public generally looks up to (32%) or down on (30%) public K-12 teachers. Some 37% say Americans neither look up to or down on public K-12 teachers.

In addition to the open-ended question about what they want the public to know about them, we asked teachers how much they think most Americans trust public K-12 teachers to do their job well. We also asked the public how much they trust teachers. Answers differ considerably.

Nearly half of public K-12 teachers (47%) say most Americans don’t trust teachers much or at all. A third say most Americans trust teachers some, and 18% say the public trusts teachers a great deal or a fair amount.

In contrast, a majority of Americans (57%) say they do trust public K-12 teachers to do their job well a great deal or a fair amount. About a quarter (26%) say they trust teachers some, and 17% say they don’t trust teachers much or at all.

Related: About half of Americans say public K-12 education is going in the wrong direction

How the public’s views differ by party

There are sizable party differences in Americans’ views of teachers. In particular, Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say:

• They trust teachers to do their job well a great deal or a fair amount (70% vs. 44%)
• Teaching is a lot or somewhat harder when compared with most other jobs (77% vs. 59%)
• Teachers should be paid a lot or somewhat more than they are now (86% vs. 63%)

In their own words

Below, we have a selection of quotes that describe what teachers want the public to know about them and their profession.

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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

Bigger picture thinking needed in education, says Rays of Hope

Rays of hope's mahlatse mabaso says certain things cannot be ignored in the efforts to help learners truly succeed..

Rays of Hope, an NGO that provides educational and psycho-social support to learners in impoverished Alexandra, believes big-picture thinking is needed in education if the country to overcome the challenges that are affecting the sector.

This is the view held by Rays of Hope’s Mahlatse Mabaso, who said the education sector was afflicted by violence and safety concerns due to a severe lack of physical resources, such as school libraries and computer labs. Mabaso said there was, however, a deeper issue that needs to be addressed within the education system if these challenges are to be overcome.

“Learners do not exist in a vacuum. As social beings, their attitudes, behaviours, abilities, and successes all depend on their social environments and the social contexts they are exposed to,” Mabaso said. “We cannot ignore these things if we want to be able to help our learners truly succeed. We must consider the needs of the whole child, with a holistic approach to education.”

Challenges in the modern education system

Mabaso said the modern education system as it is known has not evolved much since the early 1900s, with its roots in the US based on principles introduced by American business magnate John D Rockefeller. According to his approach, the goal of education was to be ‘vocational’, that is, to teach young people the skills necessary to enter the workforce as employees.

“The world is a vastly different place now, compared to when the initial ideas and approaches to education were formed,” said Kerryn Allagappen, a writer in the content, development and production division of Regenesys Business School. “The issue with the education system at present is that children are taught that there’s only one way to be successful, and that’s through academia. But at the end of the day, we need to be able to assess whether you have the knowledge and skills, as well as the capability to use these for your own good and the good of others,” Alagappen said. “Our understanding now is that education is meant to assist the individual to flourish, which is why there needs to be a focus on emotional, physical, and spiritual intelligence.

Integrating social and emotional learning

For children in Alex, learning isn’t a linear experience. Poverty, for instance, plays a major role in their lives and impacts their schooling careers. Crime and violence at home or within their community also influence how they navigate the learning journey. All these social issues combine to create volatile classroom environments that are not conducive enough to learning, said the academic dean at Regenesys Business School, Dr Sibongiseni Kumalo.

“We often see worrying instances of violence in children, bringing weapons into school. The problem of gangsterism and the environment in which these children grow up normalises carrying a knife around, even at such a young age. We then see children, at the slightest provocation, pulling knives on their peers or teachers,” Kumalo said. He said the frustration that learners feel because of the circumstances they face in life in general, not just in academia, and their inability to express these feelings in appropriate or healthy ways, is what exacerbates many of the challenges currently faced in schools.

Khumalo said social and emotional learning emerges as an important tool to be integrated into the education system to be able to advance the goal of a more holistic educational environment for all learners. Essentially, he said, social and emotional learning teaches learners to find constructive ways to deal with their emotions and frustrations with one another in a respectful manner.

Through social and emotional learning, learners gain self-awareness, learn to better understand and unpack their thoughts and emotions, and in the process develop a higher level of empathy for others. “Humans are social beings. To be social is to consider the self in the context of others. We are all also holistic beings with a purpose, different values, and different ways of learning and understanding the world.

“All these complexities need to be taken into consideration when building educational frameworks for today’s learners. We can’t focus solely on learning when the environment, for instance, is not conducive enough for this to take place successfully.” “It’s for this reason that Rays of Hope embraces a holistic strategy to providing care and support to children in Alex that considers the whole child,” Mabaso added.

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Making Professional “Me” Time For Innovation, Deep Thinking, and Personal Development

Education IT staff need to find “me” time, or margin, for professional development and learning opportunities.

In the fast-paced world of educational technology, IT professionals find themselves perpetually inundated with tasks, demands, risk management, crisis mitigation, and other challenges. From troubleshooting technical issues to managing complex systems and budgets, their days are bustling with little time left over for the kind of deep thinking and innovation that drives progress in the field. 

These school district employees are responsible for the very foundation of the educational institution’s technological infrastructure, and they play a crucial role in impacting the teaching and learning process. However, the need for more margin – more breathing room in their days and in their lives – has become increasingly apparent. 

Making Professional “Me” Time 

I left a corporate IT career after ten years to serve in public education and never looked back. After being a public school technologist for the past thirty years, I will retire this year from serving students and teachers to the best of my ability in the same central office of the same school district nestled in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains in beautiful Eastern Tennessee.

I have often talked about one day writing a book about the many best practices that exist in both the private and the public sectors. One thing that I believe the corporation I worked for did much better than the field of education was making time for me, as an IT professional, to grow, learn, and expand my knowledge base within the confines of my regular work schedule. In addition, any continuing education, including advanced degrees, workshops, or conferences, was encouraged and funded, fully or partially. Imagine my surprise when I first questioned the school district human resources team about continuing education cost-sharing opportunities and was told there were no such options! 

The same goes for “thought time” built into the work schedule. As a corporate IT employee, it was acceptable to take a few moments during the workday to read and reflect on an industry article or seek the advice of a colleague about a software tool. 

But if I wanted to do this in my district, I had to be intentional about creating these professional learning and development opportunities. 

If you’re an education IT professional, here are a few suggestions:

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• Seek out other like-minded colleagues and professionals for collaboration, brainstorming, and thought partnering. 
• Attend conferences outside the district and seek out workshops, training events, and other opportunities to learn and grow. 
• Sign up for professional publications and spend time vetting articles and ideas. 
• Schedule time in your calendar outside work hours to conduct research on emerging trends and technological advances. 
• Spend time at home reading professional journals and books to stay abreast of the rapidly changing technology field. 

Corporate America careers can be demanding and exhausting, but so can public education jobs. It is almost unimaginable to me when I consider the changes I have witnessed during my own career in edtech. 

If I could leave public school districts with one piece of advice as I retire, it would be to build in time for innovation, deep thinking, and rejuvenation for your people. They need some margin in their professional space. Not only will your employees be happier, more productive, and more content, they will likely be healthier as a result. That must be win-win! 

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Beverly Miller was the first IT Director for the Greeneville City Schools in Greeneville, Tennessee, a role she held for 17 years before being promoted to Assistant Director of Schools, a position she has now held for 9 years. She is passionate about providing best-in-class tools backed up by extraordinary customer service and support to the people she serves and leads.

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Designing Our Future: Humanities-Centered Teaching, Learning, and Thinking in the 21st Century

 Call for Proposals for Special Issue

Interdisciplinary Humanities  

Designing Our Future: Humanities-Centered Teaching, Learning, and Thinking in the 21st Century  

Editors: 

Katy Hanggi, Chair & Associate Professor, Dept. of Focused Inquiry, Virginia Commonwealth University

Julianna Grabianowski, Assistant Professor of Business, Doane University

Jared List, Associate Professor of Spanish, Doane University

Special Issue Description

What does the future hold for the humanities? Now, perhaps more than ever, the humanities have the opportunity and the urgency to innovate and adapt to the shifting dimensions of the twenty-first century. The humanities provide valuable habits of minds and skills that prepare students for their professional and personal lives. They teach us about the human condition: how we relate to each other; how we understand and work with differing perspectives; how we express ourselves; how we act ethically; and, how we better come to know ourselves. The disciplined university has traditionally organized the humanities within majors, minors, certificates, and general education courses. This structure creates silos where subjects are taught within a particular discipline with an occasional slippage into other disciplines. With the increasing corporatization of the university and the shrinking of higher education, the humanities have become subject to market forces and student demand, positioning academics to continually demonstrate the “value” of their program, degree, or course.

To push against this rigid structure, some colleges and universities are being creative and innovative with the humanities. Some are trying to infuse the humanities in places where traditionally they have been absent, and some are reconceptualizing and repackaging them. For example, how do the humanities give us a roadmap to determine the ethical boundaries of the non-human, cyborgian networks of knowledge generated by artificial intelligence? Or, how does the growing emphasis on incorporating multidisciplinary “real-world” problem-solving in general education courses demonstrate the necessity of humanities thinking? 

Thus, this special issue which aims to highlight the strategies and unique ways in which we are adapting and responding to the shifts in higher education. What we note is rather than a focus on disciplinary content, we see an emerging emphasis on humanities thinking and its “real-world” application. We have obstacles to confront and many possibilities before us. For example, the pandemic has shown that higher education can pivot quickly, and with those changes, many of us are seeing the speed of change continue to increase amidst the challenges colleges and universities face. Do we continue to operate within and make small changes to the siloed structures that have defined the American university? Or can we imagine new configurations and ways of thinking about our disciplines, courses, and pedagogies that empower us to design our futures?  

Accordingly, we invite scholars to contribute essays that engage with the following questions: 

• How do we center the humanities in interdisciplinary work through meaningful and productive collaborations?
• How do we design humanities courses or programs that generate student interest and demonstrate their value?
• How do we survive the shrinking of higher education amidst an unknown future?
• In what ways can the humanities be positioned as central to institutions’ strategic priorities?
• How can we capitalize on higher education’s emphasis on experiential learning and career preparedness to strengthen our offerings?
• How can innovative pedagogies inform new approaches to the humanities?
• How can online learning be leveraged to extend the reach of what the humanities tell us how to relate to another?
• How does the growth of generative AI impact humanities education in productive, innovative ways?
• What are institutions’ creative responses to the obstacles of interdisciplinarity?
• How do we prepare graduate students for a higher education landscape that is unlikely to provide them with full-time employment in academia?
• How are community colleges drawing connections between the humanities and workforce readiness? 

Proposal Submission Guidelines and Process

Submit essay proposals to [email protected] by  Friday, April 26, 2024 , including the following information: 

• Proposed essay title
• Abstract of 250 words 
• Name(s) of author(s) and academic affiliation(s)
• Brief bio(s) (100 words of less) of author(s)

Essay Guidelines

Essays will meet the following norms:

• 5,000 to 7,000 words (including notes) 
• double spaced, 12-points Times New Roman font, 1” fully-justified margins
• adheres to latest version of  The Chicago Manual of Style
• Endnotes only (notes should show full citations followed by shortened citations for the same sources; single-spaced and 10-points Times New Roman font))
• no bibliography
• quotes over three lines in length need to be in a free-standing block of text with no quotation marks, indented on the left side of the block, and starting the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented 1/2 inch from the left margin while maintaining double-spacing;
• permissions to reprint images and illustrations, if any, are the responsibility of the author and should be arranged for and paid before submitting the article;
• sent electronically in MS Word file to editors

Important Dates and Timeline

• Essay proposals deadline: Friday, April 26, 2024
• Notification of accepted essay proposals: Friday, May 10, 2024
• Completed essay deadline: Friday, September 20, 2024
• Anticipated publication: Spring/Summer 2025

Essay proposals will be evaluated on relevance to topic, originality, and clarity. Essay drafts will undergo a double-blind peer review process where reviewers will evaluate originality, clarity, and documentation, and scholarly contribution to decide if the essay is suitable for publication, in need of revision, or not publishable.  

About the Journal We encourage you to take a look at past issues  here  to familiarize yourself with the journal and the published works. Per HERA’s website, “The Humanities Education and Research Association's Scholarly Journal:  Interdisciplinary Humanities is a refereed scholarly journal, published three times a year. The journal accepts articles that deal with ‘any learning activities with content that draws upon human cultural heritage, uses methods that derive from the humanistic disciplines, and has a purpose that is concerned with human values.’ Articles dealing with the interdisciplinary humanities or humanities education at all levels (K-12, college, and adult learning) are welcome, as are creative works of poetry, fiction and non-fiction that reflect the journal's interests and the themes of specific issues.” 

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Are you thinking about suicide how to stay safe and find treatment.

Hopelessness may lead you to think about suicide. Learn how to stay safe, get through a crisis and find treatment.

When life does not seem worth living anymore, it may seem that the only way to find relief is through suicide. When you're feeling this way, it may be hard to believe that you have other options.

Take a moment to step back and separate your emotions from your actions. When you feel depressed and think there's no hope, it's much harder to make reasonable decisions. But problems that bring on suicidal feelings can be treated.

It may not be easy, and you might not feel better overnight. Eventually, though, the sense of hopelessness — and thoughts of taking your life — will lift.

Get help right away

If you think you may hurt yourself or take your life, get help right away by taking one of these actions:

• Call a mental health specialist.
• In the U.S., call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline , available 24 hours a day, every day. Or use the Lifeline Chat . Services are free and private.
• U.S. veterans or service members who are in crisis can call 988 and then press "1" for the Veterans Crisis Line . Or text 838255. Or chat online .
• The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the U.S. has a Spanish-language phone line at 1-888-628-9454 (toll-free).
• Call 911 or your local emergency number.
• Seek help from your doctor or another health care professional.
• Reach out to a close friend or loved one.
• Contact a minister, spiritual leader or someone else in your faith community.

Learn ways to cope and solve problems

Do not try to manage suicidal thoughts or behavior on your own. You need professional help and support to overcome the problems linked to thoughts about taking your life.

Your doctor or mental health professional can help you learn different ways to cope and solve problems. Consider talking about these coping strategies with people who know you well, such as family members or trusted friends.

You may be urged to do things you do not feel like doing, such as talking with friends when you'd rather stay in your bedroom all day. It will get easier to do these things as they become habits.

Make a plan for life

Create a written plan of action or a "safety plan" with your mental health professional. You can refer to this plan when you're thinking about suicide or are in a crisis. A safety plan includes what makes you think about suicide and how you can cope with those thoughts. Learn to spot your warning signs early, so you can put your plan into action.

Your plan is a checklist of activities and actions you promise to do to stay safe when you have thoughts of suicide, such as:

• Contact your doctor, therapist or crisis center to help you cope with thoughts of taking your life.
• Call a supportive family member or friend who can help you cope with your suicidal thoughts.
• Try specific healthy and enjoyable activities when negative thoughts start to intrude.
• Review why your life is valuable and the reasons to live.

Even if the immediate crisis passes, see a doctor or mental health professional. This will help you get the right treatment for suicidal thoughts and depression so that you do not always have to be in crisis mode.

As part of your plan, take these steps:

• Follow your treatment plan. Commit to taking your medicine as prescribed and attending all treatment sessions and appointments.
• Keep a list of contact names and numbers available. Include your doctors, therapists and crisis centers that can help you cope with thoughts of taking your life. Include friends or loved ones who agree to be available as part of your safety plan.
• Remove possible means of killing yourself. This may include ridding your home of guns, razors, or other objects you could use to hurt or kill yourself. If possible, give your medicines to someone who can keep them for you and help you take them as prescribed.
• Schedule daily activities. Activities that calm and comfort you can make a difference — such as listening to music, watching a funny movie or visiting a park. Or try something different. Because physical activity and exercise may reduce depression symptoms, think about walking, jogging, swimming, gardening or trying a new activity.
• Get together with others. Create your support network by reaching out to friends, family and people who care about you and are there when you need them. Try to be social, even if you do not feel like it. This will help keep you from becoming isolated.
• Join a support group. Joining a support group can help you cope with suicidal thoughts and help you learn that there are many options in your life other than suicide.
• Stay away from drugs and alcohol. Rather than numb painful feelings, alcohol and drugs can increase suicidal thoughts and the chance you'll harm yourself. Alcohol and drugs can make you more impulsive and more likely to act on feelings to harm yourself.
• Avoid risky websites on the internet. Stay away from chatrooms, social media sites or websites that may urge suicide as a way to solve your problems.
• Write about your thoughts and feelings. Consider writing about the things in your life that you value and appreciate, no matter how small they may seem at the time.

Look beyond thoughts of suicide

The hopelessness you feel as you consider suicide may be the side effect of a very hard situation or an illness that can be treated. This emotion can be so overpowering that it clouds your judgment and leads you to believe that taking your life is the best, or only, option. But with help, you can change how you think about your situation:

• Keep in mind that suicidal feelings are temporary. With the right treatment, you can learn how to help yourself feel better about life again. Asking others for support can help you see that you have other options and give you hope about the future.
• Create a list of your reasons to live. This list can include being alive for your pet, your children, a favorite relative or best friend, or something that you enjoy doing at work or at home. It does not matter what the list includes, but finding a sense of purpose in your life can make a difference.

By getting proper treatment and using effective coping strategies, you can learn to manage or rid yourself of suicidal thoughts and create a more satisfying life.

There is a problem with information submitted for this request. Review/update the information highlighted below and resubmit the form.

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• Understanding suicidal thinking. Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. https://www.dbsalliance.org/crisis/suicide-prevention-information/understanding-suicidal-thinking/. Accessed April 14, 2023.
• Frequently asked questions about suicide. National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-faq. Accessed April 14, 2023.
• Suicide prevention information. Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. http://www.dbsalliance.org/crisis/suicide-prevention-information/. Accessed April 14, 2023.
• Schreiber J, et al. Suicidal ideation and behavior in adults. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/search. Accessed April 14, 2023.
• How to help in an emotional crisis. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/mental-health/help-emotional-crisis. Accessed April 14, 2023.
• American Academy of Pediatrics. Brief interventions that can make a difference in suicide prevention. https://www.aap.org/. Accessed April 14, 2023.
• Pearce M, et al. Association between physical activity and risk of depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry. 2022; doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0609.
• The lifeline and 988. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/current-events/the-lifeline-and-988/. Accessed April 14, 2023.
• If you are feeling suicidal. Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. https://www.dbsalliance.org/crisis/suicide-prevention-information/if-you-are-feeling-suicidal/. Accessed April 14, 2023.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. After an attempt: A guide for taking care of your family member after treatment in the emergency department. https://sprc.org/online-library/after-an-attempt-a-guide-for-taking-care-of-your-family-member-after-treatment-in-the-emergency-department/. Accessed April 14, 2023.
• Kennebeck S, et al. Suicidal ideation and behavior in children and adolescents: Evaluation and management. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/search. Accessed April 15, 2023.
• American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Suicide safety: Precautions at home. https://www.aacap.org/. Accessed April 14, 2023.
• Hall-Flavin DK (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic. April 21, 2023.
• Recovery is possible. MentalHealth.gov. https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/recovery-possible. Accessed April 19, 2023.
• Moscardini EH, et al. Suicide safety planning: Clinician training, comfort and safety plan utilization. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; doi:10.3390/ijerph17186444.
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Brief interventions for managing suicidal crises. https://afsp.org/brief-interventions-for-managing-suicidal-crises. Accessed April 17, 2023.

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As youths grapple with climate anxiety, they turn to activism, education for hope

As a child, Stephanie Salgado Altamirano would rush to the shores of Omoa on her semi-annual family visits, a secluded beach in her home country of Honduras. It felt like her family’s precious secret. 

But the beach grew more crowded each year — not with people, but junk. 

RELATED: Lethal inaction: The era of 'eco-anxiety' is here. What is it and how does it apply in Wisconsin?

Altamirano and her family started to wear shoes on the beach to avoid the needles and plastic jutting out of the sand. She’d always try to clean the beach, but it was too much for one child. And the next day, the junk was there again.

“That was the first time I can actually remember feeling hopeless and powerless,” Altamirano, 22, said, her voice strained with emotion. “Not being able to get back to how it was originally, because it was out of our control, was hard to hear as an 8-year-old. It was heartbreaking.”

Years later, as a student at Vel Phillips Memorial High School in Madison, Altamirano would understand that the problems tainting Omoa Beach — and the lack of potable water, Honduras’ deadly hurricanes and the rise of painful diseases like chikungunya virus and dengue fever — were all connected to climate change.

Related: Climate change's impact on human health is already here — and is 'potentially irreversible,' report says

Related: Warmer weather means longer mosquito seasons. List of US cities with the biggest increase

“I remember thinking, ‘My God, where are we headed, and why are people not paying attention?’” Altamirano said.

Altamirano isn’t alone in that line of questioning, a jolting one that elicits fear, anxiety and existential worry for the future. 

Youth, in general, are stressed about the climate, exhibiting signs of “climate anxiety.” 

The term refers to the negative emotions people feel when they think about climate change, according to Judy Braus, the executive director of the North American Association for Environmental Education. It affects everyone differently and can lead to depression, the inability to act, anger or hopelessness.

“The climate anxiety piece is worrying about climate to the point where it's affecting your ability to actually respond in a positive way,” Braus said. 

A 2022 national survey by EdWeek Research Center found that 37% of 14- to 18-year-olds are anxious when they think about climate change. About 34% said they feel afraid, and 30% said they feel helpless. 

What's more, certain populations of children are even more vulnerable to climate change-related mental health struggles due to poverty, racism, gender, disability and other factors, according to a 2023 report from the American Psychological Association .

In Wisconsin, climate change is top of mind for young people, up there with political division and gun violence, according to a 2023 report from Wisconsin State Office of Children’s Mental Health .

One of the key ways to help youths navigate these complex feelings about climate change is to talk about them, according to Braus.

That’s where environmental education comes in: helping youth understand the environment and their ability to make a difference. 

Environmental education gives students knowledge and agency to make change

Environmental education is not new to Wisconsin. It was one of the first states to have standards, which were established in 1935. While the standards have changed since the 1930s, students today learn about the relationships between natural and cultural systems and the effects humans have on those systems.

In fact, the Badger State is the birthplace of Earth Day, celebrated for the first time in 1970 , after state Sen. Gaylord Nelson suggested a day devoted to environmental education to become better stewards. Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22.

At Fox River Academy, an environmental charter school in Appleton , environmental education is woven into virtually all aspects of students’ learning. 

More: Three Milwaukee area schools honored by U.S. Department of Education for environmental work

More: Milwaukee area school districts are using the great outdoors to further student learning

While the school teaches that climate change is happening, it tries not to take a doom-and-gloom approach, focusing instead on what’s being done through individual actions or environmental policies to combat it.

"We make changes as individuals through knowledge, how powerful knowledge is, and then sharing that knowledge," said Joann Kasper, a teacher at Fox River Academy.

On a dreary Thursday afternoon, Kasper's middle schoolers headed to the woodsy expanse behind their classroom to “nature journal” — drawing and observing natural phenomena occurring around them, hypothesizing what natural event took place.

Skyler Ayres, a sixth-grader, busily sketched the roots of a great oak. She suspected a hole beneath its roots was the den of “a very large chipmunk.”

Skyler has been receiving an environmental education since kindergarten. She loves nature so much it’s a struggle to pick her favorite thing about it. But if she had to choose, she’d say it's animals, especially endangered species. 

“I love animals for their beauty and their impact on the ecosystem,” Skyler said. “Animals need to eat other animals so they can survive. Once they die, they go into the soil, and that helps the soil so other things can grow better. It’s the circle of life.”

Humans have done a lot of harm to these precious ecosystems, Skyler said, and she’s worried about the continued effect deforestation will have on a system she admires. She isn’t as worried about how climate change will affect her, but she does worry about the animals.

She has some ideas about what humans can do to help them.

“If someone cuts down a tree, they should plant two trees,” Skyler said. “Cutting down trees takes away habitats and makes cities larger, which makes human things larger. More cars, more gas. So if you cut down a tree, plant two trees, so animals have a chance to survive.”

Moira Letourneaux and Madhumathi Sankar, sixth-graders at Fox River Academy, said they're nervous about the future of the climate. But, like Skyler, they have hope.

“I hope factories come less and less, and then pollution will become less and less and then the world will become good again,” Moira said. 

If they could fix one thing about the environment, it would be the people. 

“The people are the reason that this happened,” according to Moira.

But sometimes people don’t listen when it comes to the environment, Madhumathi said. She said she can get people to pay attention by showing them what to do, like respecting the outdoors. And if enough people show each other what to do, people can make a lot of change.

More: Hundreds of Wisconsin schools are teaching with a focus on environmental education

“If you believe in them, that is,” she said. 

"One piece of plastic —" Moira said. “Can make a whole change,” Madhumathi added, finishing her friend’s sentence.

Connecting with nature has profound impacts on youth mental health

Climate anxiety isn’t necessarily on the minds of younger kids yet. But environmental education can still have profound effects on their mental health. 

Green Bay mother Leah Weakley has a first-grader, Emerson, who attends the environmental school Wequiock Elementary. Students get hands-on environmental instruction like tending gardens and raising chickens on the school’s grounds. 

For Weakley, it’s important her kids get an environmental education because she doesn’t want them glued to their electronics. 

“I wanted to kind of break them of that and to make sure that they know when they’re stressed, there’s always nature,” she said.

While Weakley’s children aren’t experiencing climate anxiety, per se, they are developing connections to nature through their environmental education that positively affect their emotional well-being. 

Weakley’s daughter, Evelyn, attends Oak Learning Center, a half-day 4K program where students spend most of their time outdoors exploring nature. Evelyn, who previously wasn’t big on the outdoors, now loves being outside.

“She is my little nature girl now,” Weakley said. 

Spending time in nature has been linked to lower stress, improved attention, better mood and reduced risk of psychiatric disorders, according to the American Psychological Association.  

Having access to nature and green spaces also has a lasting effect on children. A study of over 900,000 Denmark residents between 1985 and 2003 found that children who had low exposure to green spaces were 55% more likely to develop a mental illness than children with abundant green space access.  

Jessica Medina is also a Wequiock parent with two sons, Jack and Austin, in third and first grades, respectively. 

Her sons are more active since they started attending Wequiock and are more likely to spend time outside than to play video games.

While she hasn’t talked with her sons about climate change, she does talk with them about the mental health benefits of being outside.

“I feel like it helps their mood,” Medina said. “I’m hoping in the future they still remember that like, ‘Hey, if you’re feeling down, go for a walk.’”

Activism helps youth channel their climate anxiety into positive community influence

Most 15-year-olds don’t find themselves at a long conference table holding energy executives accountable, but Isak Drangstveit, now 17, learned the power of activism from an early age.

Drangstveit has been part of green clubs since he was in middle school. Such clubs are voluntary groups that educate students on environmental issues and encourage them to take action to improve their environment.

As a student representing his green club, he had scheduled a meeting to ask Waunakee Utilities what steps it was taking to reduce its carbon footprint and expand renewable energy. At the meeting, Drangstveit felt intimidated. He wasn't prepared for the line of questions he was asked, and he felt like their seating him at this cartoonishly long table was part of a power move.

Drangstveit surprised himself in the end by pointing out that WPPI Energy — of which Waunakee Utilities is an executive member — produced more coal energy than the national average.

He realized that, for environmental changes to happen, "we need to talk to our politicians, especially if (energy executives) aren't going to move progress along," Drangstveit said. That meeting with Waunakee Utilities "broke everything loose" for him, even if that night didn't lead to any direct changes.

Drangstveit is one of thousands of youths pushing to make big and small changes in their communities. And Drangstveit knows all about that.

Drangstveit, a resident of Waunakee, grew up in Crandon, a hotbed for the decadeslong environmental activism in the battle over Exxon attempting to mine metallic sulfide . Crandon has become synonymous with the power of grassroots organizing after the town and tribal nations successfully fought to protect the land against the world’s largest energy company. In fact, Drangstveit's great-grandfather helped lead the charge in the successful fight against Exxon.

Drangstveit is young enough that the Crandon mines were the stuff of lore, but the stories have inspired him since he can remember. He remembers being in fifth-grade science when the concept of climate change took on a new and frightening meaning.

“All of a sudden I realized, like, ‘Wait a minute, the woods, which is pretty much my home, could die; it could go away in my lifetime,’” Drangstveit said. “That was an instant fear.” 

Fear quickly turned into action. 

In fifth grade, he petitioned to get the plastic water bottles sold in the school cafeteria removed. Although he was unsuccessful, he didn't beat himself up over it because "it never works the first time."

Then, he started a green club at his middle and intermediate schools. In high school, he joined the already-established group ECO, which stands for "environmentally compassionate organization.”

Eventually, he joined Action for the Climate Emergency , a national organization that educates and supports young people to get involved in climate solutions, and created a local chapter in Waunakee. And he petitioned the Waunakee Village Board to form a sustainability committee starting his sophomore year of high school.

The committee was not formed until February of this year, but in late March, the village president nominated Drangstveit to sit on that committee; his nomination is awaiting full board approval.

According to Braus, collective action through individual work is the ultimate goal of a climate education.

“It's really thinking about how … can you take action in your community? What can you do in your house and work (and) at school that can make a difference and contribute to a healthier world?” Braus said.

But action can also make people feel better about the future, said Linda Hall, director of the state Office of Children’s Mental Health. It’s something she and her team have noticed functions as an antidote to the sense of futility and betrayal so many young people associate with climate change.

“We’ve noticed that when students, especially high school and college students, feel they have agency to impact the world around them, that it contributes to their well-being,” Hall said. “In that process, youth are developing skills and social connections that will help them into adulthood.”

At 22, Altamirano is putting those skills to practice. Her anxiety has calmed since she started getting involved in climate change policies, but in high school, she felt apprehensive about the future. She didn’t see the point of going to college or having kids “if the planet was going to ruins anyway.” 

But she kept learning about her environment and what she could do. She started making connections between climate change, immigration and racial justice, all of which brought her back to her roots in Honduras. 

Those lessons came to a head when she organized and co-led Madison’s youth-led climate strike her senior year of high school in 2019.

“I think all that climate anxiety built up, and it just exploded in the best way possible,” Altamirano said. “Nobody could stop younger Stephanie.”

Not even her parents, who worried about their green card-carrying teenage daughter, could stop her from speaking on the steps of the state Capitol. But taking a cue from climate activist Greta Thunberg , she knew she couldn’t stay silent.

More than 1,000 students walked out of their classrooms as part of the youth climate strike on Sept. 20, 2019, an international day when thousands of students across the country and abroad participated in solidarity with Thunberg, who went on strike every Friday at her school to draw awareness to climate change.

“I realized the worst thing I could do with my anxiety was foster it, isolate it,” Altamirano said. “What always brings me back to hope now is my friends who are also doing the work, being passionate alongside me.”

Danielle DuClos is a Report for America corps member who covers K-12 education for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at  [email protected] . Follow on Twitter  @danielle_duclos.  You can directly support her work with a tax-deductible donation at  GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA  or by check made out to The GroundTruth Project with subject line Report for America Green Bay Press Gazette Campaign. Address: The GroundTruth Project, Lockbox Services, 9450 SW Gemini Drive, PMB 46837, Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105 .

Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at  [email protected]  or view her Twitter profile at  @natalie_eilbert . If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "Hopeline" to the National Crisis Text Line at 741-741.