Metacognition and Conscious-Competence Continuum

    In 1996, teachers had problems with students passing notes. In 2006, those problems had advanced to texting, and by the time I taught in 2016 there were kids just sitting in class watching Netflix. As dramatically as the students have changed in the past two decades, the current pedagogy on how to best teach is changing as well.

            Instead of having a teacher stand in front of you and just talk at you the whole class, many schools are shifting to a student-centered approach of instruction. Most lessons under this current innovative style involve the teacher acting as a facilitator rather than a source of information. Doing so has allowed for teachers to place additional efforts on well-crafted instructional strategies and therefore metacognition has become increasingly prevalent. Making students think about their thinking leads them to be more aware of where they're stuck, they often exhibit better retention and problem-solving skills. Giving students metacognitive skills leads them to gain an “awareness of his/her learning processes, (and) leads to an increase in integrative abilities and transfer across areas of study” (Cabrera, 176).

            From a systems thinking standpoint, metacognition is the mechanism that moves people from being unconscious and incompetent to conscious and competent. Without the individuals in system moving towards conscious competence it will remain stagnant. This “consciousness and competence continuum” is necessary for systems to be comprised of systems thinkers. For example, looking at the necessary steps for transforming our current food system requires shifting more consumers to the conscious and competent part of the continuum. Hunter Lovins would be a much better person to read about transforming the food system. An unconscious incompetent food consumer might be someone who lives in a food desert without being aware of what that even is or how many nutrients they consume. Making that person think about how they think about food, or be metacognitive towards their food consumption, will bring them towards seeking out more nutrients in their diet and move them towards conscious incompetence.

Exposing people to ideas in a manner that moves them along the continuum will help us transform our systems. Like teaching metacognitive skills in one subject leading towards additional transfer across multiple subjects, teaching metacognitive skills in one system could lead to having skills to move towards more conscious competence in another system.

Question: Although personally I think of myself as reflective, I worry about what I might be unconscious and incompetent at. How do people initially become aware that they’re unconscious and incompetent at something by themselves so they can become conscious incompetent?

Comments

[Gabby Makatura]

Your post and question make me think about a comedian I recently listened to (cannot recall his name) that spoke about the difference between the child and adult version of himself. He said that when he was young he though he was smart because he knew everything. Now, he knows he is smart because he knows what he does not know... it was much funnier the way he described it.

Anyway, I do not think there is one single thing that can bring us into awareness about everything around us, and the false mental models we are making of it. I think including this type of teaching into younger curriculum is beneficial, but ultimately I think we must just be observant and function on a "when you know better, do better" type of system.