About the Project

Why Metacognition Sparked My Interest

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When COVID-19 became a pandemic, students all around the world had to go through tough situations where what they were used to doing was no longer available. I was doing my IGCSEs when COVID-19 hit Korea. There were significant changes in how the school operated, starting with online classes and virtual assemblies.

Online classes meant that some students were feeling less engaged with the lessons. To some, it was the perfect opportunity to catch up on sleep. Others struggled to meet deadlines as there was less of an imminent penalty. Personally, my productivity reached an all-time low due to the stress of having to sit in front of a screen for almost half of my waking hour. After a day of 'school', I did not feel like doing anything else.

As an aspiring psychologist, I wanted to understand my behaviour and be able to bounce back to the life I had before. That's when I came across the notion of 'metacognition':

a way of learning about your learning.

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Meta-cognition gave me a powerful boost when I became an IB student. Much of what I was doing already (reflecting on my work, being resilient and taking risks with the ways I approach the tasks, etc) was a quality that the IB thought highly of. I was able to adapt to the requirements of a successful student doing the IB quickly and easily.

Our school's curriculum is like no other - the difference is made even clearer when I talk to my friends back in Seoul. As a school, I'd like to think that we value the process of learning more than the outcome (although in most cases, successful outcomes seem to follow the process). This is already a step towards better learning strategies. However, I came to a realisation that, unfortunately, students sometimes choose less effective methods just because they're more used to that. I wanted to help them realise what meta-cognition can do for their potential.

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Project Aims, Details & Outcomes

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When I first thought about this project, one thing was clear: interactiveness is key for successful engagement. Students would need to be able to take this project into their own learning. My vision for this project is to promote better learning strategies through metacognitive thinking.

The project presents itself as a multi-platform program where a website and a partner app (search "Study Secrets" in the App Store/Google Play Store) are used to fully explore the concept of metacognition and the ways to apply its strategies in everyday learning situations.

I have tried to ensure that both the app and the website are interactive (i.e. students can try the strategies out themselves) and self-paced; both of which are important metacognitive principles. The main focus is on making application to real-life situations easier for students.

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The app consists of a 7-day course where the students will learn about different strategies using metacognition. The website holds more detailed information about the theory and guidelines for teachers in implementing metacognition in class.

The whole project will take us to around half-term, where I will be sending out a survey to gather feedback from the students who have used the app/website in order to gauge the effectiveness of the program and whether they have learnt some valuable skills that can be used in the future.