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I work as a Deputy Head in a grammar school and one of my roles is to lead training on educational research that can improve teaching and learning, and outcomes for students. The students in my school are generally motivated and able learners, but can come unstuck when they are faced with a challenge, or when personal anxieties or worries crowd out their belief in their academic ability. Metacognition is a real buzzword and something of a trend in teaching at the moment, but it is also an incredibly useful strategy for I and my colleagues to consider when developing strategies to help our students become more resilient and self-regulated learners. My work on metacognition in the classroom has led me to consider and explore how its key principles can be applied to the way in which we self-care and manage our well-being.
So what is metacognition? Put simply, it is ‘thinking about thinking’. In education, it has been identified as a key learning strategy that can have a significant impact on student outcomes. It is one of the three essential components of self-regulation, along with cognition and motivation. Self-regulation is about the extent to which learners are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and about the strategies that they use to learn. It describes how they can motivate themselves and develop strategies that enhance their learning.
The three core elements of self-regulation have a significance that extends well beyond the classroom. Cognition, or our thought-processes, is at the heart of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which in the UK at least is seen as a highly accessible source of psychological support, not least because it is available on the NHS, but also because its focus on strategies to address negative though processes can make it seem less daunting than some other therapeutic approaches. But while cognition is all about how we think, metacognition relates to the set of beliefs we all have about the way that we think. If our beliefs are maladaptive (i.e. if they are unhelpful), this can lead to anxiety or depression. According to metacognitive theory, most psychological disorders are caused by a pattern of extended, negative thinking. This pattern is called the Cognitive Attentional Syndrome (CAS).
There are five key areas you can consider, to establish the extent to which your beliefs about the way you think may be causing you psychological problems. In the field of metacognitive therapy, clients respond to thirty questions which then place them on a scale in relation to each of these five key, metacognitive tendencies. Even without the complete questionnaire, it can be helpful to consider where you would place yourself on a sliding scale in relation to each of them.
Firstly, do you hold positive beliefs about worry? Do you think that worrying will help you avoid problems in the future? Many people tend to spend too long reflecting on issues or problems, as a way of creating an illusory sense of control over them. In fact, this tendency, known as rumination, can amplify difficult emotions associated with those issues and research has shown that over-reflection on past problems makes us more prone to depression.
Secondly, do you hold negative beliefs about worry? While you may simultaneously believe that worry helps you control the unknown, you may also feel that your worries and feelings cannot be controlled. Again, this belief is likely to coincide with emotional difficulties.
The third factor to consider when assessing how well you use metacognition to support your wellbeing is something called cognitive confidence. You may feel that you have little confidence in your memory for words or names. Significantly for your wellbeing, this lack of confidence in your attention and memory can then lead you unduly to focus your attention on yourself. This is called self-focussed attention, and serves to increase the impact of your negative thoughts and emotions.
Evaluating the extent to which you need to control your thoughts is the next step in assessing your use of metacognition. Do you always strive to suppress, inhibit or avert any negative thoughts or emotions as soon as they present themselves? We sometimes do this as we almost feel that our thoughts can have a tangible, negative effect on the external world. If we fail to control our worries about our son driving his new car and he has an accident, it follows that this is directly due to our own metacognitive failures. This tendency makes us hostages to an illogical but very real fear of the potential impact of our negative thinking. Not only that: the thoughts we have inhibited on a temporary basis tend to return at a later stage and more intensely than ever.
The final factor to consider is something called cognitive self-consciousness, which means a belief that you should monitor your own thoughts. Like cognitive confidence, this can increase self-focussed attention, and can also lead to further problems. An individual who is more sensitive to his or her worries can subsequently suffer from anxiety or even panic attacks. If we are able to distance ourselves from the psychological impact of an event or context, perhaps seeing it from someone else’s point of view, or examine the facts that led up to it, this can alleviate the emotional intensity of our response.
If we have maladaptive beliefs about thinking in any of these areas, they are likely to lead to increased anxiety and also to a sense of being stuck. When we believe that worrying keeps us safe, or that worry has a direct impact on how our lives unfold, we are less likely to believe that we can change the way we think and therefore are less likely to make a positive change. Metacognitive Therapy or MCT, developed by Professor Adrian Wells at the University of Manchester, aims to challenge these beliefs, which in turn will make us more motivated and more able to tackle the worries themselves. Whereas CBT targets unhelpful beliefs such as ‘the world is a dangerous place’, MCT helps patients to recognise and challenge metacognitive thoughts that reinforce unhelpful coping mechanisms, such as ‘my worrying is beyond my control.’ In CBT, I might ask myself how likely it is that the situation I fear will actually come to pass, in an effort to manage my worry. In MCT, I would remind myself that worrying about an event does not make it any more or less likely to happen, and that therefore there is no point wasting time on these worries. The process of refusing to engage with anxious thoughts exemplified by this last example is called detached mindfulness, and is one of the key elements of MCT. Even without access to Metacognitive Therapy, we can learn to employ some of the techniques of detached mindfulness to challenge our invalid beliefs.
Detached mindfulness aims to enable you to create a distance from unnecessary mental processing and complex thinking that limit you and create anxiety. If you are able to detach yourself from these unhelpful thoughts, you create space for possibility and for more positive thoughts. Within MCT, there are exercises designed specifically to address particular beliefs. One example is an exercise intended to train your ability to control your attention and thus to challenge the maladaptive belief ‘I have no control over my thoughts.’ The client is asked to focus his or her attention on a series of sounds, and is instructed to switch attention between them. This exercise reinforces the idea that you can control your attention and can therefore exert greater control over your thoughts. As with other mindfulness-based practice, the exercises do not aim to suppress anxious or negative thoughts, but rather to build our capacity to refuse to engage with them.
There are some simple ways in which we can engage with the key aspects of detached mindfulness in our everyday lives. In a stressful situation, try to avoid adding meaning to it, or spending time anticipating its outcome. As far as possible, try to observe the situation mindfully. If you are able to consider it a separate object that is not personally connected to you, the situation will begin to lose its emotional power. Of course, as with all mindfulness techniques, this is not easy and takes practice, but over time you will notice an increased ability to maintain a steadier frame of mind even in more difficult situations.
A second technique within detached mindfulness that it can be helpful to develop in our everyday lives is the ability to engage with uncertainty. Difficult situations can often throw us off balance and into a state of not-knowing that unsettles and even frightens us. If we are more willing to take risks and to face the adversity with which challenging situations and experiences may present us, we build our mind’s adaptability and its capacity to detach from the inevitable chaos that life periodically throws at us.
Another skill that it is helpful to develop is the ability to focus on individual, small tasks. If we are able to practise detached mindfulness, we develop the ability to focus on the immediate task at hand, rather than the many other thoughts that may be fighting for our attention. This in turn means greater productivity and less wasted emotional energy. As with the other techniques, this approach can be deployed at any time during our day to day life. Rather than limiting our mindfulness to specific moments of meditation, detached mindfulness encourages an ongoing awareness of everything that is present from moment to moment, in an approach called ‘open monitoring meditation.’ The key is to focus on the reality of your current situation, thus avoiding speculation and worry, and to never to let your mind wander too far away from the moment. Alongside this sense of focus, you should aim to maintain a position of detachment from any difficult emotions. If you can observe them from a distance it becomes easier to experience them as transitory, and to recognise that you are not your emotion. Of course, all of this takes practice and a relentless focus. However, this more mindful approach can bring significant benefits. These include a greater sense of control over your approach to life and where you are expending your emotional energy, increased mental clarity, and greater self-awareness. As you practise detached mindfulness, you will develop a greater understanding of how you feel within difficult situations, which in turn will make it easier to engage with challenges and obstacles as you work towards your goals. If you are able to separate your mind from unnecessary thoughts, you will create more space to engage with your vitality, the quality of your relationships and your potential.
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