In the 1970s, psychologist John Flavell pioneered the concept of metacognition – the belief, which research has held to be true, was that as students develop greater awareness of their own thinking processes, they advance as independent learners.
For this reason, metacognition is considered an important educational step in increasing not only a student’s self-awareness and self-knowledge, but also their resilience and ability to function and think independently.
NSW Department of Education suggests metacognition is “a key to unlocking learning.” In a whitepaper prepared for teachers and school leaders, the Department underscored that metacognitive ability was closely linked to motivation, social, and behavioural factors.
“Generally speaking,” said the Department, “there is evidence that the highest performing students in a class are also the most adept metacognisers.”
Award-winning educational company Writer’s Toolbox has baked metacognition into the tools it offers teachers to lift students’ literacy outcomes.
In 2024, camera teams from Writer’s Toolbox visited classrooms in Brisbane Catholic Education, where staff ran a Toolbox pilot programme with eight schools. On camera, dozens of students—of all ages—commented not only on their improved grades, but how happy they now were about writing.
St Mary’s Catholic College saw the BCE pilot program as an opportunity to upskill its teachers whilst improving students writing outcomes in all subjects.
“The teaching shortage is a problem in Queensland, but it’s exacerbated for rural schools,” Principal Carmel O’Brien told The Educator. “For Saint Mary’s Catholic College, this means that it’s hard to recruit teachers and many are teaching outside of their usual teaching areas.”
O’Brien noted that the College also has a high percentage of Early Career Teachers, who have only just graduated, and Permission-To-Teach Teachers, who are only part way through their teaching degrees.
“We rolled-out the professional development gradually. Initially, we identified a small group of teachers who would benefit from the training, and they became our change champions,” she said.
“A Writer’s Toolbox Writing Coach then came to our college each term to upskill more teachers, provided co-teaching opportunities and model for staff.”
The College also has a staff member onsite who O’Brien dubbed “the go-to person” for Writer’s Toolbox who runs additional professional development sessions and provides one-on-one support to teachers as needed.
“This onsite support means teachers engage in the platform when they are planning and creating assessment, making their training process more relevant and timely.”
When asked how staff at the College have leveraged Writer’s Toolbox AI to support students with learning difficulties, EAL/D backgrounds, or low literacy levels in building metacognitive capacity, O’Brien said a two-pronged approach was used.
“Firstly, using the planning tools have supported students by allowing them to better plan their ideas and thereby improve cohesion in their writing. Secondly, being able to set writing levels for each student has been critical in differentiating for the student to either develop their literacy skills,” she explained.
“Students access the AI feedback tool to identify incomplete sentences and to visually see how many types of sentences they have used. This leads to students trying to problem-solve, encourages them to want to improve their writing, and builds their confidence.”
O’Brien said Writer’s Toolbox is “a worthy investment” for school leaders looking to lift their students’ literacy outcomes.
“The student licences mean students can use the platform across a variety of subjects and it creates consistent language that supports students.”