2.1.1

Planning & Learning Strategies

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Planning and Strategy

Paying attention to or thinking about learning or problem solving involves metacognition. Planning one’s learning, therefore, depends on metacognition, too.

The ‘planning fallacy’

The ‘planning fallacy’

  • Unfortunately, most learners are not good at planning at all. The ‘planning fallacy’ is the tendency to underestimate how long it takes to do a task.
  • The planning fallacy occurs even if someone has done a similar task before. You may have noticed this with your own preparation and marking!
Research evidence

Research evidence

  • A research study by Canadian psychologist Roger Buehler et al. (1994) asked 37 university students to make two predictions of when they would complete an academic project:
    • One if things went well, and the other if things went as badly as possible.
  • The actual time taken showed that fewer than half had completed even by their more pessimistic estimate.
What can teachers do?

What can teachers do?

  • As well as encouraging learners to allow considerably more time than they would normally expect, it may help to get a neutral person such as a classmate to make planning time estimates, informed by past evidence.
  • It’s also helpful to break tasks down and to ask students to make very specific plans.
    • So rather than ‘revise topic A’, a student might plan to ‘create 20 flashcards on topic A’.
Jump to other topics
1

Basic Concepts About Metacognition

1.1

Thinking About Thinking

1.1.1Metacognition & Metamemory
2

Practical Implications for Learners

2.1

Practical Implications for Learners

2.1.1Planning & Learning Strategies2.1.2Beliefs & Self-estimates
3

Areas of Metacognition

3.1

Areas of Metacognition

3.1.1Metacognitive Knowledge3.1.2Metacognitive Monitoring3.1.3Metacognitive Control
4

Teacher Metacognition

4.1

Teacher Metacognition

4.1.1Teacher Metacognition

Practice questions on Planning & Learning Strategies

Can you answer these? Complete these activities in the Seneca app to progress towards your certificate.

  1. 1
    What can teachers do to help learners overcome the planning fallacy?Fill in the list
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Metacognition & Metamemory

Beliefs & Self-estimates