List of Metacognitive Strategies

Strategies that could be used as metacognitive strategies include but are not limited to the following:

• Reading the objectives of the material if they are stated before the reading material

• Prereading (surveying)

• Asking questions such as;

• What is this material about?

• Do I already know something about this?

• Should I read this quickly or slowly?

• What do I need to know?

• Did I learn all the important ideas?"

• Identifying main ideas and details by using section headings or questions in the text or margin

• Reading and reviewing short sections to make sure you understand the content before moving on

• Making inferences

• Formulating hypotheses

• Making predictions

• Drawing conclusions

• Self motivation tactics including:

• Positive self-talk

• Recognizing and understanding your moods

• Relaxation tactics including:

• Deep breathing

• Muscle relaxation

Prereading
Prereading (surveying) the material lets you know about how difficult the material is going to be and lets you prepare for reading it properly. You need to know about how much time it will take to get through the material. It might take more than one sitting. If the material will take a long time to read, you might employ strategies to help you get through it such as rewarding yourself with a break for getting through a certain number of sections (hopefully more than one). You need to know if you will probably need a notebook. You will know the objectives of the material. Knowing these things will help you prepare for reading and remembering the material.

Questioning
As you read, ask yourself questions such as What is this material about?, Do I already know something about this?, Should I read this quickly or slowly?, What do I need to know?, and Did I learn all the important ideas? Questions like those above will help you determine what you know and don't know. They will help you organize the material. They will help you identify areas that you need to study more carefully.

Using Headings
Identify main ideas and details by using section headings or questions in the text or margin. This helps prepare you for learning by recalling prior knowledge about the subject areas that will be discussed. You also "keep in the back of your mind" what will be expected of you later in the chapter. Material that seems to be relevant to goals later in the chapter can be selected for intense study and material that is seemingly irrelevant can be ignored. (This, of course, gets you into trouble sometimes.)

Section Length
Reading and reviewing short sections to make sure you understand the content before moving on is an effective cognitive strategy. Knowing you need to do this is a metacognitive strategy. This type of metacognitive strategy is particularly useful when you are learning from text that involves chunking a great amount of related information to learn procedural types of knowledge. Learning about the natural sciences and medicine involve great numbers of sequential steps. Accurately learning each step is important for an overall understanding of the process being discussed. Stopping after short sections to review your knowledge helps ensure that your knowledge of the overall process is accurate.