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Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains: Metacognitive Strategies, Activities, and Lesson Ideas
If the difference between a student's success and failure were something specific you could teach, wouldn't you?
Metacognition is exactly that—a tool that helps students unlock their brain's amazing power and take control of their learning. Educational researchers and professional developers Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers have been exploring and using the explicit teaching of metacognition for years, and in this book they share a practical way to teach preK-12 students how to drive their brains by promoting the following practices:
* Adopt an optimistic outlook toward learning,
* Set goals,
* Focus their attention,
* Monitor their progress, and
* Engage in practices that enhance cognitive flexibility.
Wilson and Conyers explain metacognition and how it equips students to meet today's rigorous education standards. They present a unique blend of useful metaphors, learning strategies, and instructional tips you can use to teach your students to be the boss of their brains. Sample lessons show these ideas in a variety of classroom settings, and sections on professional practice help you incorporate these tools (and share them with colleagues and parents) so that you are teaching for and with metacognition.
Research suggests that metacognition is key to higher student achievement, but studies of classroom practice indicate that few students are taught to use metacognition and the supporting cognitive strategies that make learning easier. You can teach metacognition to your students, so why wouldn't you? This book shows you how.
Metacognition is exactly that—a tool that helps students unlock their brain's amazing power and take control of their learning. Educational researchers and professional developers Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers have been exploring and using the explicit teaching of metacognition for years, and in this book they share a practical way to teach preK-12 students how to drive their brains by promoting the following practices:
* Adopt an optimistic outlook toward learning,
* Set goals,
* Focus their attention,
* Monitor their progress, and
* Engage in practices that enhance cognitive flexibility.
Wilson and Conyers explain metacognition and how it equips students to meet today's rigorous education standards. They present a unique blend of useful metaphors, learning strategies, and instructional tips you can use to teach your students to be the boss of their brains. Sample lessons show these ideas in a variety of classroom settings, and sections on professional practice help you incorporate these tools (and share them with colleagues and parents) so that you are teaching for and with metacognition.
Research suggests that metacognition is key to higher student achievement, but studies of classroom practice indicate that few students are taught to use metacognition and the supporting cognitive strategies that make learning easier. You can teach metacognition to your students, so why wouldn't you? This book shows you how.
134 pages, Paperback
Published June 28, 2016
37 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Donna Wilson
20 books2 followersFor more than two decades, Dr. Donna Wilson has been a pioneer in bridging brain science and psychology to educational practice. She co-developed the world's first Master of Science and Educational Specialist degrees in Brain-Based Teaching and Instructional Leadership (BrainSMART Programs), as well as the first Doctoral Minor in Brain-Based Leadership in partnership with Nova Southeastern University (NSU). Impact studies suggest that graduates effectively apply what they have learned in these programs in ways that increase student learning. To date graduates from these innovative programs are supporting greater student learning in 47 U.S. states, Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, United Arab Emirates, Bermuda, Malaysia, Vietnam, Guam, France, and Germany.
Dr. Wilson has co-authored 20 books and over 100 articles, book chapters, and blog postings. Recent book titles include Introduction to BrainSMART Teaching (Hawker-Brownlow Education, 2018), Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains (ASCD, 2016), Smarter Teacher Leadership (Teachers College Press, 2016), Positively Smarter (Wiley, 2015), Five Big Ideas for Effective Teaching (Teachers College Press, 2013), and Flourishing in the First Five Years (Rowman and Littlefield, 2013).
In 35 U.S. states and at sites around the world, Dr. Wilson has led professional development for more than 60,000 educators and has presented at conferences with the Singapore Teachers' Union, Jamaica Teachers' Union, The Feuerstein Institute, Jerusalem, Israel, Hawker Brownlow Education (Australia), University of Cambridge (Implementation Science Conference), Leiden University, United Arab Emirates, American Educational Research Association, International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology, American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Federal Education Program Administrators, Title I, Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes, Nova Southeastern University Conference on Global Leadership, Learning, and Research, ASCD, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of Secondary School Principals, Learning Forward and many others.
For the past twenty years Dr. Wilson has served as president and head of academic affairs for BrainSMART Inc. She has held the same positions for the Center for Innovative Education and Prevention (CIEP) a not-for-profit institution for the past 10 years. Dr. Wilson serves as advisor to New York City's Portfolio School and on the foundation of Carl Albert State College in Oklahoma. She also acts as co-chair of the Learning Environments Special Interest Group with the American Educational Research Association and has formerly been an assessor on the national Blue-Ribbon Schools of Excellence team.
Donna Wilson's Pioneering Leadership: Early Career
Dr. Wilson began her career as a classroom teacher in Oklahoma and realized many of her students were not benefiting from standard teaching practice. Looking for solutions, she became a school psychologist with an interest in school neuropsychology and emerging understandings in the learning sciences.
Dr. Wilson conducted hundreds of diagnostic assessments and discovered that the vast majority of students had the potential to be achieving more academically, but had not been taught the dispositions and skills they needed to do so. She then returned to the classroom to conduct action research and teach, with a focus on taking current research from psychology and brain science to classroom practice. This pioneering work, prior to the RTI movement when school psychologists became more involved with intervention planning, represented a dramatic departure from the typical focus of school psychology on assessment. Positive response to her work on classroom interventions prompted Dr. Wilson to seek out opportunities to share with other teachers the implications of research in brain science and psychol
Dr. Wilson has co-authored 20 books and over 100 articles, book chapters, and blog postings. Recent book titles include Introduction to BrainSMART Teaching (Hawker-Brownlow Education, 2018), Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains (ASCD, 2016), Smarter Teacher Leadership (Teachers College Press, 2016), Positively Smarter (Wiley, 2015), Five Big Ideas for Effective Teaching (Teachers College Press, 2013), and Flourishing in the First Five Years (Rowman and Littlefield, 2013).
In 35 U.S. states and at sites around the world, Dr. Wilson has led professional development for more than 60,000 educators and has presented at conferences with the Singapore Teachers' Union, Jamaica Teachers' Union, The Feuerstein Institute, Jerusalem, Israel, Hawker Brownlow Education (Australia), University of Cambridge (Implementation Science Conference), Leiden University, United Arab Emirates, American Educational Research Association, International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology, American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Federal Education Program Administrators, Title I, Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes, Nova Southeastern University Conference on Global Leadership, Learning, and Research, ASCD, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of Secondary School Principals, Learning Forward and many others.
For the past twenty years Dr. Wilson has served as president and head of academic affairs for BrainSMART Inc. She has held the same positions for the Center for Innovative Education and Prevention (CIEP) a not-for-profit institution for the past 10 years. Dr. Wilson serves as advisor to New York City's Portfolio School and on the foundation of Carl Albert State College in Oklahoma. She also acts as co-chair of the Learning Environments Special Interest Group with the American Educational Research Association and has formerly been an assessor on the national Blue-Ribbon Schools of Excellence team.
Donna Wilson's Pioneering Leadership: Early Career
Dr. Wilson began her career as a classroom teacher in Oklahoma and realized many of her students were not benefiting from standard teaching practice. Looking for solutions, she became a school psychologist with an interest in school neuropsychology and emerging understandings in the learning sciences.
Dr. Wilson conducted hundreds of diagnostic assessments and discovered that the vast majority of students had the potential to be achieving more academically, but had not been taught the dispositions and skills they needed to do so. She then returned to the classroom to conduct action research and teach, with a focus on taking current research from psychology and brain science to classroom practice. This pioneering work, prior to the RTI movement when school psychologists became more involved with intervention planning, represented a dramatic departure from the typical focus of school psychology on assessment. Positive response to her work on classroom interventions prompted Dr. Wilson to seek out opportunities to share with other teachers the implications of research in brain science and psychol
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 19, 2018
This book is written for teachers and provides many examples for teachers to us in their classrooms. This made it difficult for me, a non-teacher, to read this book. But the discussion of teaching metacognitive behaviors at a young age is important and should be happening in every classroom! I'm just now learning metacognitive strategies, which have improved my life lots!
March 20, 2020
This book was valuable to me because it got me thinking about metacognitive skills and their use in coaching and teaching. Beyond that, I didn't get much out of it in terms of deeper knowledge/understanding. I will likely look at this book in the future to remind me of major aspects of metacognition but I doubt that I will rely on its tips and ideas.
November 23, 2019
Need curriculum based examples to continually implement these ideas. Good ideas just hard to include without them built into demanding curriculums.
February 20, 2023
Pienso que todos los profesores deberían leer este libro para animarse a tener actividades que estimulen a los estudiantes a llegar a niveles metacognitivos.
February 22, 2023
Just ok. Provided student lessons based on the chapter information left me wanting.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews