Challenges in Addressing Metacognition in Professional Development Programs in the Context of Instruction of Higher- Order Thinking

Abstract

This study investigates challenges in addressing metacognition in professional devel- opment (PD) programs addressing instruction of higher-order thinking (HOT). A set of semi-structured interviews was conducted with 18 instructional leaders who had prominent roles in large-scale implementation programs designed to teach HOT. Most participants (n = 15) expressed the opinion that metacognition is valuable in teaching HOT yet, reported that metacognitive teaching is rare in wide-scale efforts to implement HOT. They explained that the major reason for this gap is teachers’ fragile knowledge of metacognition. The analysis shows a deficiency in teachers’ general metacognitive knowledge, deficiency in the more specific metastrategic knowledge (MSK) regarding individual thinking strategies, and deficiencies in relevant pedagogical knowledge. Implications are discussed. noted weaknesses in teachers’ knowledge regarding metacognition, referring to two different elements: knowledge of metacognition and pedagogical knowledge