Research School Network: Metacognition in Maths: From Research to Classroom Practice by Dr Niki Kaiser, Director of Norfolk Research School

One of the most influential ideas in ​“evidence-based teaching” in recent years is metacognition, but it can feel intangible. Understanding that it is useful isn’t enough – you have to know how to apply it, too.

This blog explores what metacognition is, why it matters in mathematics, and how it can be implemented effectively. It also outlines a range of practical strategies and resources that can support teachers in helping pupils to develop their metacognitive approaches, enabling them to become more independent and reflective learners.

What is metacognition?

Metacognition refers to pupils’ ability to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning. In maths, this might involve children:

• Choosing an appropriate strategy to solve a problem
• Checking whether their approach is working
• Reflecting on how they could improve.

Over time, this helps pupils become more independent and strategic learners, rather than relying on help from the teacher.

This tool from the EEF summarises a range of strategies you can use to support pupils in developing metacognitive approaches.

Why metacognition matters in maths

The EEF’s guidance report tells us that metacognitive approaches can have a high impact on pupil progress, but we know they are most likely to lead to positive changes if they are taught explicitly and in a subject-specific context.

The EEF guidance on improving maths, meanwhile, highlights that developing metacognition is central to building independence and motivation.

Pupils need to:

• Take an active role in their learning
• Understand how to approach problems
• Regulate their thinking when they get stuck.

This is particularly important in mathematics, where success depends not just on knowing procedures, but on selecting and adapting strategies.

This resource can help to scaffold metacognitive talk between pupils to plan, monitor and evaluate their work.

To embed this into lessons, try to build on what is already there. Notice where talk already happens in lessons, and introduce this kind of talk then. It works most effectively if you choose a single focus for that moment, rather than asking pupils to complete a full cycle of planning, monitoring and evaluating!

Metacognition as part of effective maths teaching

Metacognition should not be seen as a standalone activity. Instead, it is most effective when integrated with other key elements of high-quality maths teaching, such as:

• Building on pupils’ prior knowledge through assessment
• Using representations and structures to support understanding
• Teaching problem-solving strategies explicitly.

Within this wider framework, metacognition helps pupils connect these elements by thinking more deeply about:

• What they know
• How they are using it
• What to do next.

This is the key to ​“thinking mathematically”, rather than simply following an algorithm or formula without thought as to why you’re doing it. While this might feel effective in the short-term, and comforting to pupils, it limits their ability to apply the maths concepts they’ve learned to new, unfamiliar situations.

What does this look like in the classroom?

Modelling thinking explicitly

• “Thinking aloud” as you make decisions to solve a problem
• Explaining why you choose a particular strategy
• Showing how to check and adapt an approach.

Do allow children to see you changing your mind about the most appropriate approach to take, or discovering you have made a mistake, and working out where this happened and how to solve it. Children will get things wrong as they develop their maths skills, and will thrive in a culture where they are allowed to ​“fail”. You will probably have to to model metacognitive thinking repeatedly before pupils can do this independently.

Structured reflection and discussion

Ask pupils to reflect on what they’ve just done. For example:

• What was their first step?
• What helped them solve this?
• What would they do differently next time?

Encouraging pupils to explain their thinking to themselves and others strengthens both reasoning and metacognition.

Supporting problem solving

This is where you can really help children to think about what they’re doing, link it to what they already know and decide when and where to use the same approach in the future. Do this by: 

• Breaking problems into manageable steps
• Encouraging them to draw on prior knowledge
• Evaluate whether their solution makes sense.

Children won’t automatically develop these strategies; they must be taught and practised explicitly.

Building independence over time

The best teachers support children to work effectively without needing to ask them for help, but this won’t happen organically. Suggested ways of helping students to develop independence:

• Providing scaffolds (e.g. prompts, sentence stems)
• Reducing support as pupils gain confidence (this won’t look the same for each individual)
• Avoiding expecting independence too quickly (the key is to keep scaffolding in place until it’s no longer needed).

The goal is for pupils to take increasing responsibility for their learning, becoming more resilient when faced with challenge. The EEF have produced a useful summary of scaffolding approaches.

Key message: integration, not addition

Metacognition is most effective when it is embedded within everyday teaching, not treated as an extra activity. Metacognitive approaches need to be:

• Explicitly taught and modelled
• Linked to mathematical content and problem solving
• Revisited regularly until it becomes habitual.

Rachael Wilson shared some ideas for what this might look like in an earlier blog.

Ultimately, developing metacognition helps pupils become more confident, independent mathematicians, who are able not just to complete tasks, but also to understand and improve how they learn.

In short

Metacognition in maths is about helping pupils take control of their thinking, so they can approach problems with greater confidence, flexibility, and independence.