Examining theories of particular relevance to primary school age children the author combines her empirical work over the last 8 years with the work of other researchers to show that children of all ages display metacognitive processing, given the right kind of environment. This book addresses how metacognition might be fostered in young children. The ability to reflect upon how we are thinking can help us to make wiser decisions in all aspects of our life. Metacognition is known to be an important factor in academic achievement however it is also important in a wider life context. This approach is particularly effective for lower achieving students. We present evidence that students’ learning of scientific inquiry can be enhanced by providing them with explicit models of inquiry goals and strategies, while also teaching them self-regulatory processes. In this chapter we outline the metacognitive expertise that is needed to understand and regulate inquiry processes as students undertake research projects, and we elaborate why developing this type of expertise is important. To achieve this goal, and enable students to learn about the nature and practices of scientific inquiry, the development of metacognitive knowledge and capabilities is crucial.
Creating scientific communities in classrooms, by engaging young learners in theory-based empirical research, is a highly challenging yet important educational goal (Anderson, 2002 Blumenfeld, Soloway, Marx, Krajcik, Guzdial, & Palincsar, 1991 National Research Council, 1996, 2007 Schraw, Crippen, & Hartley, 2006). The scientific enterprise is a form of collaborative learning that enables society to develop knowledge about the world – knowledge that is useful for predicting, controlling, and explaining what happens as events occur. We also discuss its application to French Learning in a junior high school, describing what kind of technological tools were used and highlighting what type of learning behaviours are put into play by its application. In this paper we analyse the nature of the considered issue and describe our methodological approach to the use of audio technology to improve L2 pronunciation. Conceived in the context of task-based language teaching and learning, our proposal consists of a number of short tasks of increasing complexity to be carried out, individually or in collaboration with peers, over a few months, in parallel to regular classes, so as to complement the usual curricular activities on grammar, lexicon and civilization, yet running independently of them. In order to meet this learning need, we have designed a methodological approach to the use of audio technology, based on collaborative, metacognitive reflection, aiming to guide language learners to observe their own oral productions so as to notice pronunciation errors. As with any other technology exploited in education, however, we can not expect the tool to do the job if not paired with a suitable methodology of use. A support to help learners become aware of sound nuances and of their own utterances, as well as to improve them, can be provided by the use of audio files. This aspect, however is often neglected in school due to lack of time and task complexity. Acquiring a correct pronunciation and applying it in language production, on the other hand, is crucial for effective language use. Its difficulty is witnessed by both experience and the literature, which highlight that learners are often unable to identify their own errors, unless they are specifically trained in this respect.
Identifying pronunciation errors is a complex task for the learners of a second language (L2), which requires good self-observation, reflection and evaluation skills.
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