Embedded HLP - What to Teach
HLP 14
Teach Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies to Support Learning and Independence
Teaching cognitive and metacognitive strategies promotes learner self-regulation and independence. Explicit instruction in cognitive and metacognitive strategies begins with the recognition of challenging learning tasks that require a strategic approach and moves to systematic instruction, multiple opportunities for student practice with feedback, and guidance related to using the strategy effectively in multiple settings and situations. Teaching and learning cognitive and metacognitive strategies involve not only understanding content but also using cognitive processes to solve problems, regulate attention, organize thoughts and materials, and monitor one’s own thinking. Cognitive and metacognitive strategy instruction is delivered in stand-alone lessons or integrated into lessons on academic content through modeling and explicit instruction. Students learn to monitor and evaluate their performance in relation to specific goals and make necessary adjustments to improve learning.
Related Publications
HLPs in Special Education Instruction Laminated Guide (#5)
| Download Leadership Guide | This resource is intended for school leaders (Administrators, Teacher Coaches, Mentors, etc.) to support their teams in effectively implementing the high-leverage practices (HLPs) in the classroom. |
| Download Faculty Guide (Higher Education) | This resource is intended to support educator preparation faculty and staff looking to embed high-leverage practices (HLPs) in professional development, implementation, teacher candidate observation and feedback efforts at their school site. |
HLP 14 Information
A recent analysis (Nelson et al., 2022) reports that the body of work examining teaching cognitive and metacognitive strategies includes 365 studies, 19 meta-analyses, and, though six studies show no-to- small impact on learning, the impact of most studies were noted as having a moderate to large impact on student learning. More specifically, recent studies provide evidence of positive effects on students’ writing skills, use of writing conventions, and written expression (Gillespie & Graham, 2014; Schumaker et al., 2019); math concepts and skills (Lee et al., 2020; Lein et al., 2020); reading comprehension (Sanders et al., 2019); and self-management (Harrison et al., 2020), to name a few.
Two prominent models, Self-Regulated Strategy Development (Graham et al., 2017) and the Strategic Instructional Model (Hock et al., 2017), have undergone significant research across multiple tasks and subject areas. Both models emphasize a similar explicit instruction sequence that is necessary for effectively teaching, learning, and using strategies. Providing such instruction to students addresses inequities in classrooms as it acknowledges that, while some learners are adept at taking strategic approaches to complex tasks and require limited prompting from educators to do so, many learners are not.
Teaching strategies to students present numerous opportunities to implement culturally inclusive pedagogies and practices (CIPP). As educators consider the unique characteristics of students such as intersectional diversity, the strategy selected for their learning and use can be a reflection of their identities. Many metacognitive strategies like the Paraphrasing Strategy (Schumaker et al., 1984) have a fun, easy-to-remember mnemonic for student remembering and activation of skills. As students learn to “RAP” an educator could show pictures of the student’s favorite rap artist, or have students create a rap poem about the strategy being used. The opportunities are limitless.