5 Ways to Help Students Reset Their Thinking
When students hit cognitive roadblocks, these strategies will help them pause, rethink their approach, and reengage with their learning process.
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Go to My Saved Content.Students will get stuck. It’s an inevitable and important part of the learning process. But without the ability to work through a cognitive roadblock, students may simply give up and forfeit progress entirely. Metacognition—the higher-order thinking skill that helps us evaluate, analyze, and monitor our own cognitive processes—can help students develop the tools to tackle those obstacles and refresh their approach to problem solving. Fortunately, there are some concrete, teachable strategies students can use when they need to hit the metacognitive reset button and kickstart their thinking.
The vocabulary in the framing of a question or prompt can be a hurdle that trips up learners from the very beginning. One solution is to ask students to rephrase the question in their own words, using language and terminology that they have a strong grasp of.
If they’re still finding themselves at a cognitive dead end, a simple pause may be the best next step. While it may seem counter-productive to a student who feels as though they’re falling behind, an explicit pause can break the cycle of unproductive thinking.
Classmates can also lend a hand. Rather than asking for the right answer, students should use their peers as sounding boards and challenge each other to reflect on where and how they’ve gotten stuck.
Similarly, try to nix the words “I’m done” in the classroom. Encourage a more reflective way to wrap up a task or problem, asking students to circle back on the work they’ve just completed with the prompt, “How can I solve this another way?”
Finally, at the end of a unit or class, ask students to articulate what was most confusing about the material. This will help you locate elements of the concept that are still a little muddy and in need of reinforcement, while encouraging students to pursue deeper comprehension instead of settling for a “good enough” understanding.
Find more evidence-based ideas to help students reset their thinking in Donna Phillips’ article for Edutopia “Giving Students Time and Confidence to Build Their Metacognition Skills” and Paige Tutt’s “9 Ways to Teach Students the Value of Slow, Methodical Thinking”.