Students who understand how they learn can develop the self-knowledge and cognitive strategies that are vital to becoming life-long learners, excelling in school, and succeeding in careers as adults. They are able to comprehend, control, and manipulate their own cognitive processes. The specialized teachers at Greenwich Education and Prep create and implement differentiated programs to help our students acquire the three critical skill areas of metacognition:

Metamemory – learners’ awareness of and knowledge about their own memory systems and strategies for using memory effectively. This includes (a) awareness of different memory strategies, (b) knowledge of which strategy to use for a particular memory task, and (c) knowledge of how to use a given memory strategy most effectively.

Metacomprehension – learners’ ability to monitor the degree to which they understand information being communicated (oral or written), to recognize failures to comprehend, and to then be able to employ repair strategies when failures are identified. 

Self-Regulation – learners’ ability to make adjustments in their own learning processes in response to their perception of feedback regarding the current status of learning.  This skill overlaps with the preceding two concepts; it requires students to monitor their learning, and to maintain attitudes necessary to invoke and employ the memory and comprehension strategies that have proven to be personally effective.

At Greenwich Education Group, we work with our students in order to ensure that they understand their own unique learning profile. Empowered with a clear understanding of how they learn, students can focus on strengths, navigate around areas of relative cognitive weakness, and advocate for their own needs.