METACOGNITIVE ABILITY: A CURRICULUM PRIORITY

Abstract

This paper reviews the concept of metacognition and argues that metacognition should be viewed as a general and pervasive aspect of cognitive development. Metacognitive skills are required for school success and schooling itself provides an excellent environment for fostering these skills. Metacognitive skills are not currently an articulated aspect of the curriculum but perhaps they should be. Metacognitive skills develop when the individual is faced with both the need to know and a source of information about strategic processes that work. Schooling requires these skills and presents many opportunities in which both need and strategy can be made explicit.