SELF-MONITORING AND METACOGNITION
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.
This is done by seeing learning as occurring on two levels. Level one is where the learning is manually done by the learner through reading, making meaning, observing, listening, asking questions etc. Level two is a higher management level of one’s own learning. At this level the Inner Learning Manager monitors one’s learning from a management level to see if outputs are being achieved. If not then the learner adapts by choosing alternative strategies that are tested to see if they address the gaps and add learning value. To do this the learner needs a toolbox of learning strategies that can be selected to solve the learning problem.
An example of self-monitoring could be when you make meaning while you read. When you do this you simultaneously monitor your understanding. A generative learner will check that 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 develop their own what, why and how questions relevant to their topic of study as they go and in this way construct meaning by having a conversation with themselves and the author in the margins. Developing one’s own questions helps learners elaborate on the topic and engage with the key concepts more deeply by explaining it in their own words. Answering these questions generated by themselves 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 the Inner Learning Manager notices that they dont understand, then the learner takes 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.
Proteans 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. 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.
They then go a step further by interviewing master practitioners to collapse their learning time and learn the most important components of a skill or process. In this way they break apart skills into different sub-components to understand and master each one seperately before integrating them. Once identified, they practice or drill the skill that they need improvement in. They learn independently with their inner learning guide checking to see if learning value is being created. They experiment and learn by doing and most importantly they learn from failure by reflecting on why they failed and making adjustments and observing the effects. They learn from trial and error and look for their weak areas to attack. They are not afraid of failure but even encourage it.
Listen to Chapter 6 of the audiobook and see how Somerai breaks apart the skill of djembe drumming into different sub-components to perfect each part of the rhythm seperately before putting it back together as a whole. Notice how she self-monitors as she plays the rhythm and adjusts her learning strategy to get it right.