A Teaching and Learning Charter: A metacognitive approach to learning

Bethan Coles, Teacher Education, University of Bedfordshire, UK Introduction ‘When students are aware of what they know and don’t know, learning is more successful in the classroom and studying is more successful outside of the classroom.’ (Agarwal and Bain, 2019 p. 125) Cognitive scientists call this metacognition. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) define metacognition as an approach to teaching that supports ‘pupils to think about their own learning more explicitly, often by teaching them specific strategies for planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning’ (EEF, 2022a). It increases student independence in learning, something that our students notably struggled with during the first period of remote education. On return to a very different school environment in September 2020, it was clear that a loss of routine, structure and, more importantly, learning had been detrimental to all. Therefore, we needed to review and develop our teaching and learning (T&