Recommendation 2 from the EEF’s Self Regulation guidance report Metacognition and Self Regulation guidance report suggests that explicitly teaching pupils to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning can increase pupil independence in the classroom.

Simply put, it encourages pupils to use what they know and apply it to their learning, monitoring their progress and adapting their approach accordingly as they go.

It’s vital that we acknowledge that this doesn’t always happen automatically – we must make deliberate tweaks to our teacher habits, proactively prompting our pupils to think metacognitively. Getting into the habit of planning questions that encourage learners to follow this process in their learning can be a good starting point.

This new EEF tool suggests questions that could be used across subjects and school phases. These might be asked directly or modelled by the teacher during explicit teaching as a ​‘think aloud’. They could provide useful prompts for teaching assistants when supporting pupils. They could form part of professional development in school, supporting teachers to rehearse and practice techniques.

Prompting this metacognitive cycle of planning, monitoring and evaluating learning can have a transformational impact on learning, leaving pupils’ with that all important understanding of what they can do better next time.

Download the tool below.