SELF-MONITORING

Generative Learners check themselves constantly by self-monitoring as they learn. They have clear goals and sub-goals for each learning moment. They are able to search for, consume and extract meaning from materials, but also identify their learning gaps and then take actions to fill those gaps. In this way they know when they haven’t learnt something and are able to take remedial action thereby managing their own learning.

While making meaning as you read it is important to monitor your understanding. For example, a generative learner will check they understand the meaning of the text as they read i.e are they familiar with the context, can they relate to the concept and connect it to past experiences in order to visualise it? They will ask what, why and how questions as they go and in this way construct meaning by having a conversation with themselves and the author in the margins. This allows them to apply the concept in their mind’s eye to visualise how it works in practice, it’s functions and uses in context. If they dont understand they take certain strategies such as reading the subsequent sentences to determine the meaning in that way. Or they could re-read the initial context. What is important is that they are able to recognize when they don’t understand something and take an action to remedy it.

Generative learners are also able to stand outside their own thoughts from a third person perspective in order to determine how they are thinking. They are able to zoom out to determine the thinking steps they are following as they seek to solve a problem. Metacognition is thinking about thinking. In this way generative learners are aware of their thinking procedures in the moment and can take actions to improve them. In this way meta learners coach themselves by observing through the window of the mind, noting how they step through their thinking procedure and iterating on their own process.