B OPTIMAL BLOG

Insights

Woman looks at her reflection as the reflected figure pulls back a curtain, revealing experiences, assumptions, perspectives, influences, context, and unseen patterns that can shape metacognitive activity.

Me Examining Me: Getting Underneath Metacognition

What shapes the quality of metacognitive activity when the person examining cognition brings their own standpoint, assumptions, interpretations, and ways of knowing to the examination? Me Examining Me looks underneath metacognition—and behind the curtain—to explore what becomes visible.

Tim Bower

Sep 49 min read

A college-aged learner stands before a wall of photographs and notes from academic, work, leadership, and community experiences. Glowing lines connect selected images, showing how reflection helps the learner recognize patterns and turn experience into evidence of capability.

Tell Me About a Time When...

Employers ask candidates to “tell me about a time when…” because stories reveal how people think, act, adapt, and learn. This article explores how colleges can help learners reflect on their experiences, recognize what those experiences demonstrate, and build credible evidence of capability before they need it.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN PRACTICE

Tim Bower

Aug 66 min read

Before We Design for Metacognition, We Need to Define What We Are Developing

Strong instructional design can support metacognition, but reflection, feedback, scaffolding, and authentic work do not by themselves define what is developing in the learner. This article argues that metacognitive design should begin by identifying the specific capability to be strengthened, then building the learning experience around that developmental target.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN PRACTICE

Tim Bower

Jul 2812 min read

Make Metacognitive Moves™

Practitioner's Tool:
The Metacognitive Wheel™

Help the learner describe what is happening in their learning process, then move toward one practical adjustment they can try, check, revisit, or carry forward.

Explore the Wheel ↗

Make Skills Visible Through Shared Language

Explore Skills in Action™, a shared language framework that helps learners and educators recognize, name, and communicate transferable skills across learning experiences.

Open Skills in Action ↗

In Practice: Coaching for Student Success

A learning practice coach's own STARR+ story, built around a session with a graduating student who could describe how his courses felt, but not what he had learned.

Read the Case ↗

B OPTIMAL BLOG

Insights

Me Examining Me: Getting Underneath Metacognition

Tell Me About a Time When...

Before We Design for Metacognition, We Need to Define What We Are Developing

Make Metacognitive Moves™

Practitioner's Tool: The Metacognitive Wheel™

Make Skills Visible Through Shared Language

In Practice: Coaching for Student Success

Practitioner's Tool:
The Metacognitive Wheel™