Employ strategies to develop children’s’ metacognition and self-regulation (i.e. the ability to monitor, direct and review their own learning, through explicitly thinking about their own learning, setting goals and evaluating progress) and executive function skills (these are a set of skills and mental processes that develop throughout childhood and adolescence, which support children to self-regulate, initiate, attend to and persevere with activities successfully).
Explicit teaching of metacognitive strategies, following the seven-step model:
- Activating prior knowledge;
- Explicit strategy instruction;
- Modelling of learned strategy;
- Memorisation of strategy;
- Guided practice;
- Independent practice;
- Structured reflection.
Organise and structure classroom talk and dialogue, including ‘Socratic talk’, talk partners and debating.
Teacher modelling of own thinking and understanding at a whole-class level (e.g., modelling self-talk when preparing for a task, making mistakes or monitoring reading comprehension).
Use of structured planning templates (e.g. visual task plans or check lists), teacher modelling, worked examples and breaking down activities into steps.
Clear expectations for tasks and learning behaviours, supported, and cued visually across all lessons.
Access to key information (e.g. visually-subject specific vocabulary, key spellings, number facts etc.).
Use of verbal and visual cues/prompts to direct or redirect attention – access to opportunities for movement breaks and different modalities of teaching and learning.
Teaching and supporting skills for independence (e.g., planning, organising and time management).