Meta-cognition and Design and Technology Education

Abstract

Using a case study approach, this paper explores meta-cognition in a design and technology setting. It reviews briefly the nature and role of meta-cognition in design and technology education and then describes a 'schema' that was conceived originally to analyse, but became a means to promote, meta-cognition in the respondents of a study. The main body of the paper identifies and discusses meta-cognition 'in action' of one respondent from that study. Overall, this paper aspires to explore two questions: how confident are we in identifying meta-cognition in practice (what does meta-cognition look like, sound like, in a design and technology milieu?); how can we develop and promote it further in learners?