- Metacognition, or reflecting on yourself is a diagnostic skill that helps you evaluate yourself and determine your learning needs, both in light of your own performance and in comparison with recognised experts.
- Reflection that promotes learning happens in three primary moments:
- Before a task
- Here, we are usually thinking before a task, forecasting, so to speak.
- This is a reflection on what’s coming and this planning/forecasting primes us to learn from the upcoming task
- During a task
- This is when we reflect whilst being “in the arena”.
- We can correct our course and make adjustments during this phase
- After a task
- Aka retrospective reflection - this helps us look at a past situation, consider how we reacted in that particular situation and then project forward to how we would approach a similar event in the future.
- Two benefits of reflections stand out:
- Correlation between reflection and self-efficacy
- Self-efficacy: an individuals belief in his/her ability to execute behaviours necessary to produce specific performance attainments
- At the core of learning is the belief that you can learn, improve and that you can take the next step to achieve the desired levels of performance.
- This builds confidence in you which in turn builds resolve that you can take on bigger challenges which in turn, upon reflection, gives you more confidence to take on even bigger challenges and on and on and on.
- Reflection lowers a person’s barrier to change:
- The best problem solvers try new strategies when old ones are no longer working.
- In a fast paced world, unfamiliarity - especially during time pressures - can be a major obstacle to improve.
- Constant reflection breeds cognitive familiarity with new processes.
- Our ability to reflect is threatened on many fronts - overscheduled, overworked and overloaded. So its of greater importance now that we have a dedicated reflection time.
- Intentional learners not only have a dedicated reflection time, they ritualise it. They set up predictable and consistent patterns to decide the when, where and what to reflect about. By relying on a ritual, learners reduce the number of decisions associated with reflection.