A Compendium of
Learning and Teaching Strategies for College
Student Pathway
Overview: The Metacognitive Strategies
The Metacognitive strategies (sometimes called Executive strategies) were first identfied by John Flavell (1976). Flavell's definition of metacognitive strategies included the ability to:
*think about one's own thinking.
*be consciously aware of oneself as a problem solver.
*monitor, plan and control one's mental processing.
*accurately judge one's level of learning.
(McGuire, 2015, p. 17)
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For most of the specific learning strategies that are identified on this website, metacognitive strategies are embedded within them, but it is important to understand them apart from any specific learning task.
The metacognitive strategies can be categorized in various ways. On this website, four main types of metacognitive strategies are identified:
Identifying One's Own Approach to Learning
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