During guided reading sessions, students with learning disabilities often complete an assignment correctly but are unsure how they arrived at the answer. They might reread the same sentence multiple times or hesitate to begin a task, unsure which strategy to apply.
This uncertainty reveals a deeper challenge: students may know the content but lack awareness of how to monitor or explain their thinking. For educators pursuing advanced preparation through Florida Gulf Coast University’s Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Special Education online program, applying metacognitive strategies is a powerful way to help these students gain clarity, confidence and academic progress.
What Are Metacognitive Strategies and Their Importance?
“Metacognition is a powerful cognitive process that involves thinking about your own thinking. It’s the ability to step back and become aware of your thought processes, strategies and approaches to learning,” note the authors of The International Educator (TIE), “In essence, it’s like having a conversation with yourself about how you learn, solve problems, and make decisions.”
Metacognitive strategies help students become conscious of how they approach learning. These tools guide learners in planning tasks, monitoring progress and evaluating results – practices that improve both academic outcomes and independence. For students receiving special education services, these strategies are crucial in bridging the gap between instruction and meaningful understanding. Without this support, they may struggle to generalize strategies from one context to another or feel overwhelmed by open-ended tasks. Metacognitive instruction provides a structured approach to navigating these challenges.
Examples of Strategies
Educators can introduce metacognition in manageable ways that become part of daily instruction. The Cornell Center for Teaching Innovation, which offers other reflective exercises, notes the importance of metacognitive strategies in empowering students to take control of their learning experience. Here are some examples of effective strategies:
- Think-Alouds: Teachers verbalize their thought process during tasks, such as solving a math problem or making sense of a reading passage, which leads to self-questioning and decision-making.
- KWL Charts: By asking the questions “What do I know?”, “What do I want to know?” and “What did I learn?”, students can engage their prior knowledge, set learning goals and reflect on new understanding.
- Goal-Setting and Checklists: Breaking assignments into smaller steps, accompanied by visual checklists, gives students clarity on what to do and helps them monitor their progress.
- Peer Discussion and Reflection: Encouraging students to share strategies reinforces metacognitive habits and normalizes different approaches to learning.
Benefits of Implementing Metacognitive Strategies in the Classroom
The academic impact of metacognitive instruction is well-documented. A report from the Education Endowment Foundation found that students gained an average of eight additional months of progress in classrooms where metacognitive and self-regulation strategies were integrated into instruction.
Beyond academic gains, these strategies promote independence. When students can analyze how they learn best and adapt their strategies, they become more confident and less reliant on prompts or corrections. For students with disabilities, this shift toward self-directed learning can be transformational, especially when it comes to behavioral issues. Metacognition and self-regulation work in tandem to shape how students learn – while metacognition involves the ability to think about one’s own thinking (planning how to approach a task, monitoring progress and evaluating outcomes), self-regulation also adds the emotional and behavioral dimension.
Challenges Educators Face
Despite their value, metacognitive strategies can be challenging to implement. With so much to cover, there are often time constraints and curricular demands that leave little room for reflective practices. Students with disabilities may also not initially grasp the purpose of metacognitive strategies, perceiving them as additional work. Teachers must therefore be strategic in how and when they introduce reflection, making its value explicit.
Professional development plays a critical role. Without training, educators may lack the tools to differentiate these strategies for students with diverse needs. At Florida Gulf Coast University, the Instructional Approaches for Exceptional Populations and Teaching Methods of Emotional and Behavior Disorders courses within the M.Ed. in Special Education program emphasize ways to scaffold these techniques, preparing teachers to embed them seamlessly into content-area lessons.
When teachers are well prepared to guide students through this process, the classroom shifts from a place of passive learning to one of active discovery. With tools and frameworks provided by programs like Florida Gulf Coast University’s online M.Ed. in Special Education, educators can help students not only succeed in school, but also understand how they got there and where to go next.
Learn more about Florida Gulf Coast University’s online Master of Education in Special Education program.
