Research School Network: Closing the Gap Through Metacognitive Teaching: A Conversation with Anoara Mughal Closing the Gap Through Metacognitive Teaching
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Closing the Gap Through Metacognitive Teaching: A Conversation with Anoara Mughal
Closing the Gap Through Metacognitive Teaching
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by East London Research School
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Anoara Mughal
Anoara is an experienced primary teacher, leader and author of Think! Metacognition-powered Primary Teaching and the recently released Metacognitive Teaching: How to narrow the attainment gap and promote equity in the classroom.
Alongside delivering training in schools and at conferences, she currently works in alternative provision in East London, tutoring Key Stage 3 and 4 pupils in English, maths and science.
Helen is an Assistant Director at the East London Research School with extensive secondary and all-through leadership experience. A former English teacher and Headteacher in both specialist and mainstream settings. She now works as a trust leader for teaching and learning in Surrey.
Our Assistant Director Helen met with Anoara to discuss metacognitive teaching, read the conversation below.
How did metacognition become such a passion?
Around 2012, I moved from Year 1 to Year 6 and had a particularly challenging cohort. I kept asking myself: How am I going to get my pupils where they need to be by the end of the year?
That led me back to ideas I’d encountered during my degree and PGCE: growth mindset, neuroplasticity and metacognition. I revisited the work of Flavell and started researching more deeply. I joined social media, connected with educators and began exploring how metacognition could improve teaching and learning.
It became clear to me that metacognition is such a crucial strategy to narrow attainment gaps because it is teaching all pupils about thinking processes. The strategies that sit behind successful learning suddenly become explicit and stated.
Can you share an example of metacognition accelerating learning?
I was teaching a Year 5 class studying Beowulf. Before a writing lesson, I noticed pupils’ handwriting needed improvement, so I planned a handwriting session linked to the vocabulary we would later use in writing.
As I modelled handwriting on the board, I verbalised my thinking aloud:
Where am I starting the letter?
Am I joining correctly?
Have I placed the letter properly?
Does this look right?
I also displayed those self-questioning prompts for pupils to refer to independently.
One pupil’s handwriting improved dramatically within that lesson. He told me: “Miss, I’ve always wanted to improve my handwriting, but I never knew how.”
What struck me was that the explicit modelling of thinking gave him a process for improvement. He suddenly knew how to improve.
In the EEF updated guidance, in paragraph 1 it describes: “it describes metacognition and self-regulation as a high impact, low cost approach to improving the attainment, particularly of disadvantaged learners”. Why do you think that metacognition is particularly valuable for disadvantaged learners?
Metacognition externalises the learning process. It teaches pupils how to learn, not just what to learn.
When strategies such as planning, monitoring and evaluating are taught explicitly, pupils gain structures that can compensate for potential gaps in prior knowledge.
It also develops emotional resilience and psychological safety. Pupils become more willing to take the risks which are needed to deepen learning further.
Finally, metacognition promotes independence. Teachers cannot always support every pupil immediately, so pupils benefit enormously from learning habits such as checking their understanding, reviewing mistakes, they are more able to learn by themselves.
What challenges have you faced when working with teachers on metacognition?
Many teachers feel intimidated by metacognition because it can seem abstract or intangible. The shift in the updated EEF guidance from describing the metacognitive qualities of some children to the concrete things teachers can do will help with this.
One mistake I made early on was trying to implement the entire planning, monitoring and evaluation cycle at once. That quickly became overwhelming.
What works better is starting small:
focus on one subject,
one lesson phase,
or one strategy.
For example, focus only on modelling during teacher input, or only during self-assessment. One subject, one topicm one phase and build up as you go, not the impossible task of overhauling an entire teaching approach overnight.
Are there any EEF resources you particularly recommend?
It explores scaffolding in detail – including teacher modelling, guided practice, paired work and gradually removing scaffolds to build independence. It gives really practical examples of how pupils can move towards independent learning.
How has your thinking about metacognition evolved over time?
So, I have a chapter in my new book called ‘Metacognition and Wellbeing’.
Wellbeing is closely linked to academic success and crucially how learners, especially those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds may be feeling within themselves.
When we teach metacognition skills explicitly, learners are better able to pause, assess and adjust their strategies so that they are better equipped to manage their stress, instead of spiralling into thoughts like “I can’t do this.”
For example, a pupil may feel anxious during a timed exam when they realise they’re stuck on one of the first questions. When they have learnt to recognise that this anxiety is affecting their concentration they can instead deliberately pause, slow down and remind themselves: “I do not need to answer the questions in order, I can skip this one.” After monitoring their feelings, they choose to return to the original question when feeling calmer and more confident.
Metacognitive Teaching: How to Narrow the Attainment Gap and Equity in the Classroom by Anoara Mughal is out now.
