In the pace of a busy school day, thinking time often gets squeezed out. But if we want students to become reflective, independent learners, we need to intentionally create space for them to develop strong metacognitive habits.
Metacognition isn’t just a buzzword – it’s about helping students understand how they learn, not just what they learn (you can read more about the benefits on the Education Endowment Foundation website). And the good news? Building metacognitive habits doesn’t require a whole new scheme of work. It starts with a few simple shifts in how we frame classroom time – and echoes many of the same reflective strategies used in coaching conversations.
1. Add Pause Points
The easiest way to strengthen metacognitive habits is to add deliberate pauses during lessons. That might mean stopping halfway through a task to ask, “What strategy are you using—and is it working?” or ending with, “What would you do differently next time?”
These reflective moments mirror the kinds of pause-and-rethink moments used in coaching. They encourage students to take ownership of their learning and begin to self-correct—not because we told them to, but because they’re learning how to guide themselves.
2. Use Routine Questions
When reflection becomes routine, it becomes habit. Try embedding a handful of go-to questions into your teaching, like:
These kinds of questions echo those used in coaching models like GROW, prompting learners to reflect on goals, obstacles, and next steps. When repeated consistently, they help students build lasting metacognitive habits.
3. Model Your Thinking Out Loud
If we want students to talk about their learning process, we need to show them how. Narrate your decisions aloud as you tackle a problem: “I’m going to underline the keywords here because that helps me focus,” or “I’m rereading the question to check I understood it.”
These small glimpses into how you think normalise metacognition and give students a model to copy. Over time, they’ll start mirroring that inner dialogue—just as coaching encourages adults to reflect aloud and shift perspective.
Making time for thinking doesn’t slow down learning—it deepens it. When we prioritise metacognitive habits, we’re not just teaching content. We’re teaching students to become lifelong learners—with a toolkit of reflective, coaching-informed strategies to draw on.
