Very young children’s reflections as indicators of metacognition.

Abstract

This study explored the relationship between young children’s reflections and their metacognitive knowledge (MCK). Whist there is reluctance to accept that metacognition and reflection are skills possessed by young children, the Early Years (which is the context of this research) is considered to be crucial in determining a range of outcomes for children and the foci for many early intervention practices. The objective of this mixed methods research was to examine young children’s reflections qualitatively and using quantitative data to explore whether any relationships exist between their reflections and their metacognitive knowledge. Initial findings from the analysis show that these children reflected on a range of different topics, in different dimensions of time and possibly used different styles of reflection. Their reflections contained categories of metacognitive knowledge behaviour, especially metacognitive knowledge of self. Findings also appear to suggest that differences between children’s reflections on objects and their metacognitive knowledge behaviour may not be explained by chance.