Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors

1. Nature of the learning process

The learning of complex subject matter is most effective when it is an
intentional process of constructing meaning from information and experience.

 There are different types of learning processes, for example, habit

formation in motor learning, and learning that involves the generation of
knowledge, or cognitive skills and learning strategies.
 Learning in schools emphasizes the use of intentional processes that
students can use to construct meaning from information, experiences, and
their own thoughts and beliefs.
 Successful leamers are active, goal-directed, self-regulating, and assume
personal responsibility for contributing to their own learning.

2. Goals of the learning process

The successful learner, over time and with support and instructional guidance,
can create meaningful, coherent representations of knowledge.

 The strategic nature of learning requires students to be goal- directed.

 To construct useful representations of knowledge and to acquire the
thinking and learning strategies necessary for continued learning success
across the life span, students must generate and pursue personally
relevant goals. Initially, students' short-term goals and learning may be
sketchy in an area, but over time their understanding can be refined by
filling gaps, resolving inconsistencies, and deepening their understanding
of the subject matter so that they can reach longer-term goals.
 Educators can assist learners in creating meaningful learning goals that
are consistent with both personal and educational aspirations and
interests.

3. Construction of knowledge
*The successful learner can link new information with existing knowledge in
meaningful ways.

 Knowledge widens and deepens as students continue to build links

between new information and experiences and their existing knowledge
base. The nature of these links can take a variety of forms, such as
adding to, modifying, or reorganizing existing knowledge or skills. How
these links are made or develop may vary in different subject areas, and
among students with varying talents, interests, and abilities. However,
unless new knowledge becomes integrated with the learner's prior
knowledge and understanding, this new knowledge remains isolated,
cannot be used most effectively in new tasks, and does not transfer
readily to new situations.
 Educators can assist knowledge by a number of strategies that have
been shown to be effective with learners of varying abilities, such as
concept mapping and thematic organization or categorizing.
4. Strategic thinking
The successful learner can create and use a repertoire of thinking and
reasoning strategies to achieve complex learning goals.

 Successful learners use strategic thinking in their approach to learning,

reasoning, problem solving, and concept learning.
 They understand and can use a variety of strategies to help them reach
learning and performance goals, and to apply their knowledge in novel
situations.
 They also continue to expand their repertoire of strategies by reflecting on
the methods they use to see which work well for them, by receiving
guided instruction and feedback, and by observing or interacting with
appropriate models.
 Learning outcomes can be enhanced if educators assist learners in
developing, applying, and assessing their strategic learning skills.

5. Thinking about thinking

Higher order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations
facilitate creative and critical thinking.

 Successful learners can reflect on how they think and learn, set
reasonable learning or performance goals, select potentially appropriate
learning strategies or methods, and monitor their progress toward these
goals.
 In addition, successful learners know what to do if a problem occurs or if
they are not making sufficient or timely progress toward a goal. They can
generate alternative methods to reach their goal (or reassess the
appropriateness and utility of the goal).
 Instructional methods that focus on helping learners develop these higher
order (metacognitive) strategies can enhance student learning and
personal responsibility for learning.

6. Context of learning Learning

Is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology, and
instructional practices.
 Learning does not occur in a vacuum. Teachers play a major interactive
role with both the learner and the learning environment.
 Cultural or group influences on students can impact many educationally
relevant variables, such as motivation, orientation toward learning, and
ways of thinking.
 Technologies and instructional practices must be appropriate for learners'
level of prior knowledge, cognitive abilities, and their learning and thinking
strategies,
 The classroom environment, particularly the degree to which it is nurturing
or not, can also have significant impacts on student learning.
Motivational and Affective Factors.

7. Motivational and emotional influences on learning

What and how much is learned is influenced by the learner's motivation.
Motivation to learn, in turn, is influenced by the individual's emotional states,
beliefs, interests and goals, and habits of thinking.

 The rich internal world of thoughts, beliefs, goals, and expectations for
success or failure can enhance or interfere with the learner's quality of
thinking and information processing.
 Students' beliefs about themselves as learners and the nature of learning
have a marked influence on motivation. Motivational and emotional factors
also influence both the quality of thinking and information processing as
well as an individual's motivation to learn.
 Positive emotions, such as curiosity, generally enhance motivation and
facilitate learning and performance. Mild anxiety can also enhance
learning and performance by focusing the learner's attention on a
particular task. However, intense negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, panic,
rage, insecurity) and related thoughts (e.g... worrying about competence,
ruminating about failure, fearing punishment, ridicule, or stigmatizing
labels) generally detract.

8. Intrinsic motivation to learn

The learner's creativity, higher order thinking, and natural curiosity all
contribute to motivation to learn. Intrinsic motivation is stimulated by tasks of
optimal novelty and difficulty, relevant to personal interests, and providing for
personal choice and control.

 Curiosity, flexible and insightful thinking, and creativity are major

indicators of the learners' intrinsic motivation to learn, which is in large
part a function of meeting basic needs to be competent and to exercise
personal control.
 Intrinsic motivation is facilitated on tasks that learners perceive as
interesting and personally relevant and meaningful, appropriate in
complexity and difficulty to the learners' abilities, and on which they
believe they can succeed. Intrinsic motivation is also facilitated on tasks
that are comparable to real-world situations and meet needs for choice
and control.
 Educators can encourage and support learners' natural curiosity and
motivation to learn by attending to individual differences in learners'
perceptions of optimal novelty and difficulty, relevance, and personal
choice and control.
9. Effects of motivation on effort
Acquisition of complex knowledge and skills requires extended learner effort
and guided practice. Without learners' motivation to learn, the willingness to
exert this effort is unlikely without coercion.

 Effort is another major indicator of motivation to learn. The acquisition of

complex knowledge and skills demands the investment of considerable
learner energy and strategic effort, along with persistence over time.
 Educators need to be concerned with facilitating motivation by strategies
that enhance learner effort and commitment to learning and to achieving
high standards of comprehension and understanding.

10. Developmental influences on learning

As individuals develop, there are different opportunities and constraints for
learning.

 Learning is most effective when differential development within and

across physical, intellectual, emotional, and social domains is taken into
account. Individuals learn best when material is appropriate to their
developmental level and is presented in an enjoyable and interesting way.
 Because individual development varies across intellectual, social,
emotional, and physical domains, achievement in different instructional
domains may also vary.
 Overemphasis on one type of developmental readiness such as reading
readiness, for example may preclude learners from demonstrating that
they are more capable in other areas of performance.
 The cognitive, emotional, and social development of individual learners
and how they interpret life experiences are affected by prior schooling,
home, culture, and community factors.
 Early and continuing parental involvement in schooling, and the quality of
language interactions and two-way communications between adults and
children can influence these developmental areas.
 Awareness and understanding of developmental differences among
children with and without emotional, physical, or intellectual disabilities,
can facilitate the creation of optimal learning contexts.

11. Social influences on learning

Learning is influenced by social interactions, interpersonal relations, and
communication with others.

 Learning can be enhanced when the learner has an opportunity . to

interact and to collaborate with others on instructional tasks.
 Learning settings that allow for social interactions, and that respect
diversity, encourage flexible thinking and social competence.
 In interactive and collaborative instructional contexts, individuals have an
opportunity for perspective taking and reflective thinking that may lead to
higher levels of cognitive, social, and moral.
Individual Differences Factors

12. Individual differences in learning

Learners have different strategies, approaches, and capabilities for learning
that are a function of prior experience and heredity.

 Individuals are born with and develop their own capabilities and talents.
In addition, through learning and social acculturation, they have acquired
their own preferences for how they like to learn and the pace at which
they learn. However, these preferences are not always useful in helping
learners reach their learning goals.
 Educators need to help students examine their learning preferences and
expand or modify them, if necessary.
 The interaction between learner differences and curricular and
environmental. conditions is another key factor affecting learning
outcomes.
 Educators need to be sensitive to individual differences, in general. They
also need to attend to learner perceptions of the degree to which these
differences are accepted and adapted to by varying instructional methods
and materials.

13. Learning and diversity

Learning is most effective when differences in learners' linguistic, cultural, and
social backgrounds are taken into account.

 The same basic principles of learning, motivation, and effective instruction

apply to all learners. However, language, ethnicity.
 When learners perceive that their individual differences In abilities,
background, cultures, and experiences are valued, respected, and
accommodated, in learning task and contexts.

14. Standards and assessment

Setting appropriately high and challenging standards and assessing the
learner as well as learning progress including diagnostic, process, and
outcome assessment are integral parts of the learning process.

 Assessment provides important information to both the learner and

teacher at all stages of the learning process.
 Effective learning takes place when learners feel challenged to work
towards appropriately high goals; therefore, appraisal of the learner's
cognitive strengths and weaknesses, as well as current knowledge and
skills, is important for the selection of instructional materials of an optimal
degree of difficulty.
 Ongoing assessment of the learner's understanding of the curricular
material can provide valuable feedback to both learners and teachers
about progress toward the learning goals.
 Standardized assessment of learner progress and outcomes assessment
provides one type of information about achievement levels both within and
across individuals that can inform various types of programmatic
decisions.
 Performance assessments can provide other sources of information about
the attainment of learning outcomes.
 Self-assessments of learning progress can also improve students self
appraisal skills and enhance motivation and self-directed learning.