• Question: Are there any edtech tools (online and physical) you could recommend for the classroom which promote growth mindset and/or metacognition?

    Asked by _melski to Yvonne, Yana, Sveta, Pete, Mike, Linda, David, Anna, Alex on 3 May 2018.
    • Photo: Linda Baker

      Linda Baker answered on 3 May 2018:

      I’m not aware of any edtech tools that are designed for promoting metacognition, but there are some online resources for teachers for growth mindset. Carol Dweck and Lisa Blackwell founded Mindset Works that has an interactive program called Brainology that may or may not be helpful. I just took a look at some of their free resources, the Growth Mindset Framing Tool and the Growth Mindset Feedback Tool: https://www.mindsetworks.com/free-resources/default.These provide statements that teachers can use with their students that are designed to motivate them.I think these tools would be valuable for teachers because they illustrate the kind of language and feedback teachers can use to promote self-regulated learning, including metacognition.

    • Photo: Yvonne Skipper

      Yvonne Skipper answered on 3 May 2018:

      Hi
      Myself and my PhD student Nick Garnett, along with Janet Cooper and other members of Stoke Council and teachers across the city have co-created a toolkit for teachers of Year 1 children to help promote growth mindsets. Some of the activities and ideas would work across primary school.
      You can find it here:
      https://www.keele.ac.uk/media/keeleuniversity/facnatsci/schpsych/cyptemp/Stoke%20Reads%20Mindset%20Kit%20-%20Web%20Version.pdf
      There are also some nice videos about Mojo the alien which can promote growth mindsets here:

      Finally, some teachers like to use token reward systems such as classdojo, these can be found here:
      https://www.classdojo.com/
      Hope this helps!
      Yvonne

    • Photo: Sveta Mayer

      Sveta Mayer answered on 20 May 2018:

      If we consider metacognition is a process of reflection whereby the learner becomes aware they are learning then reflective strategies encouraging what they are learning, how they are learning and whether they are learning are helpful. Such reflective strategies may be administered online through technology enhanced learning, for instance through artificial intelligent agents which are programmed tutoring systems that respond to learners as they learn and prompt reflection and/or provide feedback to help the student progress. Much of this work is research based so it isn’t clear how this will transfer to the classroom context. There is however, some evidence-based work on using technology to engage learners within classrooms in reflection – e.g. the EEF ‘ReflectED Metacognition project: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/reflected-meta-cognition/.

      If you want to delve deeper then see a review article in Frontiers in Psychology by Morris et al., (2012) might be a good place to start, accessed via: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00607/full. The review focuses on learning science and includes engaging learners in metacognition using video games.

      Reflective strategies may also be used to accompany technology-based learning that focuses on curriculum subject learning, for example the strategy of self-reporting to reflect upon their learning as they experience this either verbally or through writing is also a possibility. This would also encourage self-regulated learning as well as social learning if learners are encouraged to reflect and share their learning experiences. This approach is also cost effective within the classroom as teacher you’d need to prepare reflective prompts or questions to help students articulate their thinking. You might also find it helpful to take a look at the EEF guidance on metacognition and self-regulated learning:
      https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/metacognition-and-self-regulated-learning.

Comments