Topics will include metacognition (starting with a bang!), assessment, learning theories, individual differences, inclusion and more.<\/p>
Who will this be useful for?<\/strong><\/p> The best part: all of this will be delivered for free straight to your inbox every Sunday morning, so you can enjoy it with your coffee \u2615 (if you want to be one of the 7,000 people reading the newsletter, sign up here<\/a>!)<\/p> Let’s start with a topic that is really key both to the concorso and to learning and teaching: metacognition. It sounds like a big, scary word but I promise you it will be a lot clearer and practical when you get to the end of this reading.<\/p> Let me tell you the story of a learner of mine, Francesco (a pseudonym)<\/strong>. Francesco is a B2-level student who had a big issue when he started learning with me: he needed to pass the IELTS test to take a university degree in English but he always failed the listening section.<\/p> After reassuring him and scratching a little under the surface, I learned that Francesco did *tons* of listening practice, literally test after test. He didn’t prepare much for any of them and while he listened, he often panicked and lost his concentration.<\/p> What changed things for him? <\/strong>A new regimented listening schedule with good listening methodology and, of course, a properly pedantic teacher (yours truly): everything he needed to become a metacognitive learner.<\/strong><\/p> The term metacognition is traditionally associated with American psychologist John Flavell.<\/strong><\/p> But what does metacognition (metacognizione<\/em>) mean?<\/p> It means “thinking about thinking” \ud83d\udcad<\/strong><\/p> It means knowing about our cognitive processes and being able to control, organise, monitor, adapt and reflect on them.<\/p> Metacognition is often divided into metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive strategies.<\/p> Metacognitive knowledge<\/strong> is what we think about ourselves as learners, about the task we’re trying to accomplish and about the strategies we can use to tackle it.<\/p> For example, we might think of ourselves as naturally bad listeners and we might think of listening as an uncontrollable and unpredictable task.<\/p> Metacognitive strategies<\/strong> are the executive actions that we take to learn better. These strategies can be of 3 types:<\/p> Why do we need metacognition, you ask? Metacognition helps learners become more active and responsible for their learning, which results in better motivation. Plus, gaining control over learning helps them panic a little less, which never hurts.<\/p> So, can you guess what Francesco was doing wrong?<\/p> He was doing lots of practice (which was great) but he wasn’t doing it very metacognitively (I swear <\/em>this word exists).<\/p> What did I do to help him?<\/p> <\/p>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.languaged.org\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/01\/annie-spratt-oOEz7c7V3gk-unsplash-800x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>Metacognition and Francesco’s story<\/strong><\/h2>
What does metacognition mean… in practice?<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.languaged.org\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/01\/qwejfjdlsksdfhbn-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/strong>Well, first and foremost because it helps us gain control of our learning. If we understand what is happening as we learn, we understand what’s going well and what needs to change: this makes it more unlikely that we’ll hear the usual “ma prof, perch\u00e9 mi ha messo 4??” (the bane of our existence, I know).<\/p>How I helped Francesco develop his metacognition<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.languaged.org\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/01\/Goh.jpg\")