Reports on two related studies intended to explore the interactions among children's metacognitive abilities, their working memory capacity, the development and selection of strategies, and their performance on problem-solving tasks. Explains that in study 1 children performed a reclassification task, and in study 2 children performed a…

The idea of metalearning was originally used by John Biggs (1985) to describe the state of 'being aware of and taking control of one's own learning'. This paper explores the concept through collaborative enquiry involving researchers and higher education teachers. An evolved conception is proposed in which metalearning is a subconcept within…

This paper reviews the research conducted in the last decade on patterns in student learning, mostly in higher education. More specifically, the review focuses on a series of studies that have in common (a) the use of the Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS), an instrument aimed at measuring several components of student learning, namely, cognitive…

Recent studies have attempted to understand the processes involved in joint attention because of its relevance to both atypical and normal development. Data from a recent study of young children with autism suggests that performance on a delay nonmatch to sample (DNMS) task associated with ventromedial prefrontal functions, but not an…

Critical thinking can be explained as an effective, organized and functional cognitive process to understand our own thoughts and other people's opinions and to improve our dispositions to express ourselves. Critical thinking is a process and also dispositions about deciding what to do or believe logically. In addition it provides the possibility…

Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation as a fundamental human experience and activity. It is also the interpretation of meaning, the realization that human expression contains a meaningful component which must be recognized as such and transposed into one's own system of values and meanings. It describes what seems to happen in conversation,…

This study investigated junior high school students' use of problem-solving heuristics and metacognitive processes and the relationships that might exist between the students' use of these processes and their cognitive style. Using a computer microworld called "Nimbot" based on the ancient game of Nim, 10 seventh- and eighth-grade…

A study was conducted (1) to determine if children select some strategies more frequently than others to comprehend story categories, and (2) to find out if children are able to talk about what they are thinking and doing as they read stories from a basal reader. Subjects, 30 second grade students reading at grade level, were randomly assigned to…

This paper briefly reviews research on tasks in knowledge-rich domains including developmental studies, work in artificial intelligence, studies of expert/novice problem solving, and information processing analysis of aptitude test tasks that have provided increased understanding of the nature of expertise. Particularly evident is the finding that…

Using a definition of metacognition that distinguishes between knowledge about cognition and regulation of cognition, this paper discusses the role of metacognition in the identification and categorizing of students with learning problems. Following this discussion, the paper describes three types of cognitive skills training studies--blind,…

Implications of research into human ability and metacognition for adaptive instruction are examined. Traditionally, adaptive instruction has largely involved the adaptation of instruction to suit the cognitive idiosyncrasies of individual learners. Through the development of learning strategies and metacognitive abilities to manage them, this…

Preschoolers 4 and 5 years of age were found to use four strategies differing in temporal characteristics as they solved simple addition problems with sums of 10 or less. Three strategies had visible and/or audible aspects, and one was covert, involving retrieval from memory. The harder the problem, the more often the children used an overt…

This article focuses on two approaches to teaching reasoning and problem solving. One emphasizes the role of domain-specific knowledge; the other emphasizes general strategic and metacognitive knowledge. Many instructional programs are based on the latter approach. The article concludes that these programs can be strengthened by focusing on domain…

The article points out that the label "cognitive" has been used to designate five substantially different approaches to learning disabilities: information processing, metacognition, genetic epistemology, cognitive behavior modification, and the specific-abilities model. Despite the similar label, the instructional interventions of these approaches…

Argues for a distinction between fluency and automaticity of procedures in writing. Presents empirical results that suggest a prominent difference between skilled and less skilled writing is the extent of metacognitive control over writing subprocesses. (MS)