What’s all the fuss about metacognition?

Schoenfeld, A. (1987). What’s all the fuss about metacognition? In A. Schoenfeld (Ed.), Cognitive Science and Mathematics Education, pages 189-215. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

It's about how teaching metacognitive skills can increase students'
understanding and help them become better problem solvers. I liked that this
article discusses strategies and examples of how to teach metacognitive skills.

What is it?
1. How accurate are you at describing your own thinking?
2. Control or self-regulation
3. Beliefs and intuitions

Why is it important?
1. Students need good study skills, using what you know efficiently, managing time
2. Students with metacognitive skills will learn more, have greater & deeper conceptual understanding, are generally better problem solvers, and will likely enjoy learning more.

What to do about? How do you teach metacognitive skills?
1. Use video tapes
2. Teacher as role model for metacognitive behavior
3. Whole class discussions of problems with teacher serving as "control"
4. Problem solving in small groups

Questions that he used to prompt student thinking and metacognition:
What exactly are you doing?
Why are you doing it?
How does it help you?
Is this likely to be productive?