Research School Network: Metacognitive Scaffolding – Getting Unstuck in Remote Learning Mark Miller, Head of Bradford Research School, explores one simple way to support remote learning

“I’m stuck.”

A familiar refrain in many classrooms across the country. And just as common as the outburst is the skilful teacher who effortlessly directs the pupil to where they might find the answer, or prompts them to think of a strategy that could help them come up with a great opening sentence, or nods to the key words on the wall.

Now picture the same pupil, only this time they are at home watching a filmed lesson or working their way through a booklet. Without the help of the teacher, how can they move on past the problem?

Metacognitive scaffolding could help.

In the EEF’s rapid evidence review on remote learning, the usefulness of metacognitive scaffolding is highlighted:

We should see metacognitive scaffolding as performing a similar function to the teacher in the example above. The teacher doesn’t give the answer, but prompts the pupil to identify the right strategies to improve. According to the Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning guidance Report, metacognition ‘…is about planning how to undertake a task, working on it while monitoring the strategy to check progress, then evaluating the overall success.’ If the teacher is not present to help prompt thinking along these lines, then they are less likely to occur.

Questions

One way to think of the scaffolding would be as a series of prompt questions. Mevarech and Fridkin (2006) used four types of question in their study on mathematical reasoning:

Comprehension questions orient students to articulate the main ideas in the problem (e.g., What is the problem all about?). Connection questions lead students to construct bridges between the given problem and problems solved in the past (e.g., What are the similarities and differences between the given problem and problems you have solved in the past, and why?). Strategic questions refer to strategies appropriate for solving the problem (e.g., What strategies are appropriate for solving the problem, and why?). Finally, reflection questions guide students to look backward either during the solution process (e.g., Why am I stuck? What am I doing here?), or at the end (e.g., Does the solution make sense? Can I solve it differently?).

Teachers could provide generic questions that could be used in a range of contexts for pupils to refer to. Generic questions can be useful in trying to see transferable approaches across subjects – we can ask ​‘where have I seen this type of question before?’ in many different contexts – but generic questions do have their limitations, because metacognition is context-specific, according to Muijs and Bokhove (2020):

Let’s imagine that a task is set to practise analysing an unseen poem for GCSE English Literature. Scaffolding that makes the task accessible could be specific help about that poem. But metacognitive scaffolding would prompt the pupil to reflect on the typical strategies to become unstuck on a task like this. It helps the pupil to move forward and should – we hope – help them the next time they approach a similar task. Again, this is what the expert teacher does routinely – it’s just they’re not around to do it!

Comprehension questions: What are the main ideas in this poem? Are there any words that stand out as being important? Where in the poem do you think the main message is conveyed?

Connection questions: How is this poem like others you have studied? How is it different? What strategies helped you understand that poem?

Strategic questions: Where is the volta? How does the title help us understand the meaning of the poem? Any lines that stand out for emphasis?

Reflection questions: Which parts of the poem did you struggle with? What might you do differently? How successful were your strategies in unpicking it? Which study resources were helpful? What else do you need to study to understand this topic/​poem/​theme/​context further?

Making the most of technology

The image below illustrates how Microsoft Forms has the capability to offer prompts when certain answers have been chosen. Rather than simply generic questions which ask pupil to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning, it can be tailored to the specific topic.

There are a range of platforms that can do this, and forms can be integrated with videos.

One of the hardest facts about this, is that these strategies are more likely to be successful if the teacher models them. But this can be done if pupils are in school for even sporadic periods of time, or made explicit in live or recorded remote lessons.

Parents

While we must make no assumptions about parents’ availability to support pupils in their remote learning, we can at least provide whatever we can to help them to support their children. In the EEF’s Working with Parents to Support Children’s Home Learning guidance report, they write:

If we are trying to find a way of replicating the teacher who gives the metacognitive prompt, perhaps parents can do this. Again, these would have to be more generic rather than content specific, and would need to be communicated widely and clearly. There are some resources on the EEF’s website which support this.

When we can’t be the sage on the stage, or even the guide on the side, metacognitive scaffolding can keep pupils afloat when remote.

Mevarech, Z.R., & Fridkin, S. (2006). The effects of IMPROVE on mathematical knowledge, mathematical reasoning and meta-cognition. Metacognition and Learning, 1, 85 – 97.

Muijs, D. and Bokhove, C. (2020). Metacognition and SelfRegulation: Evidence Review. London: Education Endowment Foundation