Learner Engagement - Relative to Metacognition

A Coalescence in e-Learning Ecology and the Ecology of Democracy

As I have done with the previous E-Learning Ecologies assignments and the previous Digital Scholar on-line class I am concentrating on connecting the assignments to my work with deliberative democracy.  Engagement is an integral part of Deliberative Democracy; thus I chose Learner Engagement from the provided topical list for this update.  Engaging is a key to deliberation, both in regards to deliberative dialogue and follow-up community action.  A strong democracy depend on both - citizen deliberation about societies’ wicked problems and citizens working together to resolve such problems.  In reference to metacognition, how can (on-line) learner engagement impact metacognition and how does it relate to the ecology of democracy?

Metacognition is "cognition about cognition", "thinking about thinking", or "knowing about knowing" and higher order thinking skills. It comes from the root word "meta", meaning beyond.  It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving.  There are generally two components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition, (from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognition .)

Some scholars explain learner engagement in metacognition as an individual task, i.e. the student thinks about their own thinking and thus gains more knowledge and comprehension of material they read from assigned text. See in this August 2014 Power Point presentation  http://www.lsus.edu/academics/metacognition-learning-through-engagement.  Yet others have explored the value of peer engagement to enhance metacognition.  The following power point with embedded videos by Nathalie Franco http://www.broward.edu/sacs/qep/SiteAssets/Lists/Teaching%20and%20Learning%20Resources/EditForm/Metacognition_QEP_Workshop.pdf 

has much detail on the value of peer engagement enhancing metacognition.  Thus, the New Learning affordances of peer interaction through on-line engagement and strengthened peer social relationships may not only support learning in an e-Learning Ecology but may also serve to strengthen the Ecology of Democracy through on-line deliberative platforms.

“Powerful learning occurs when it also enlists peers and the broader community in the construction of knowledge” (Kalantzis, M. & Cope, B. 2012, p. 274, New Learning).  In the Forward to a 2012 publication of Kettering Foundation, David Mathews stated, “With the invention of new communications technologies, there will certainly be more ways found to educate.” (Harbor, P. M. 2012, Community Educators A Resource for Educating and Developing Our Youth, Kettering Foundation Press)

In David Mathews book, The Ecology of Democracy (An introduction available at:  https://www.kettering.org/sites/default/files/product-downloads/Ecology-Introduction.pdf.) 

Mathews lists six democratic practices, 1. Naming problems as people in communities do – not only with expert information; 2.  Framing issues that allow for the tensions of both advantages and disadvantages of options for resolving the issue; 3. Making decisions of resolving the issues deliberatively and through shared reflective judgement; 4. Identifying and committing community assets to  help with resolving the issue; 5. Organizing community actions so they complement each other,  whereas the whole of peoples work is more than the sum of the parts; and  6. “Learning as a community all along the way to keep up civic momentum,” (Mathews, D. 2014,  The Ecology of Democracy, p. 119 – 120, Kettering Foundation Press).

Kettering Foundation and a partner organization, the National Issues Forums Institute, already have a strong on-line platform for deliberative dialogue practice, Common Ground for Action, see: https://www.nifi.org/en/common-ground-action Scholar is a platform for on-line New Learning educational practices, see:https://cgscholar.com/community/profiles/barbara-a Seemingly, if funding can be secured, a collaborative effort to strengthen the democratization of both education and technology could be pursued!