About this Research Topic
Metacognitive skills—thinking about thinking—are a form of abstract thought that signify a major advance in cognition in both phylogeny and ontogeny. Metacognition is associated with a host of positive outcomes, including academic achievement and mental health. Although decades of research have led to discoveries about the nature and development of metacognition in school-age children, newer approaches suggest there are precursor skills in infancy and early childhood. Investigators also are turning toward experimental and field-based intervention studies to help foster metacognition in the service of learning and to reduce socioeconomic achievement gaps.
Both theoretically and practically, metacognition rests on reflection—a capacity for interrupting a stream of thought or behavior and recursively holding it up for examination and comparison with one’s goals. Although reflection often is invoked as a mechanism or implied in this domain of research, very little is known about how children acquire reflection, or if it can be disentangled and measured apart from the phenomena it is believed to explain. Given these advances and gaps, the field is ripe for an up-to-date collection of research efforts on metacognition and reflection.
For this Research Topic, we welcome contributions on themes such as:
Thinking about thinking (memory, knowledge, learning)
Thinking about behavior (progress and error monitoring, persistence, failure, impulsive
tendencies)
Thinking about emotions (awareness of positive, negative feelings)
Thinking about imagination (events, people, or beings who are not physically present)
Contemplative thought and behavior (mindfulness)
Defining and measuring reflection
Neural correlates of metacognition and reflection
Developmental delays or impairment in metacognition with a typically developing comparison group
Educational contexts with an emphasis on developmental mechanisms
Methods may include:
Behavioral (correlational and experimental)
Questionnaire (caregiver report)
Computational
Focus may include:
Development (Infancy through Adolescence)
Measurement
Correlates
Interventions
Manuscripts may be empirical or theoretical (if an empirical pathway is described).
Both theoretically and practically, metacognition rests on reflection—a capacity for interrupting a stream of thought or behavior and recursively holding it up for examination and comparison with one’s goals. Although reflection often is invoked as a mechanism or implied in this domain of research, very little is known about how children acquire reflection, or if it can be disentangled and measured apart from the phenomena it is believed to explain. Given these advances and gaps, the field is ripe for an up-to-date collection of research efforts on metacognition and reflection.
For this Research Topic, we welcome contributions on themes such as:
Thinking about thinking (memory, knowledge, learning)
Thinking about behavior (progress and error monitoring, persistence, failure, impulsive
tendencies)
Thinking about emotions (awareness of positive, negative feelings)
Thinking about imagination (events, people, or beings who are not physically present)
Contemplative thought and behavior (mindfulness)
Defining and measuring reflection
Neural correlates of metacognition and reflection
Developmental delays or impairment in metacognition with a typically developing comparison group
Educational contexts with an emphasis on developmental mechanisms
Methods may include:
Behavioral (correlational and experimental)
Questionnaire (caregiver report)
Computational
Focus may include:
Development (Infancy through Adolescence)
Measurement
Correlates
Interventions
Manuscripts may be empirical or theoretical (if an empirical pathway is described).
Keywords: metacognition, development, reflection
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
