Metacognition is an interesting topic in learning, however it is complicated for understanding when students are in their early ages.

Therefore, I ususally utilize the gaming concept to teach studentss, which catched the most of their attentions. FPS, first person shooter game, players engage with the environment like their own - first person, I describe this type as 'cognition' - recieve, interpret, understand the outside stimuli. And I created a scenario that if your avatar were stuck on some scenes of special environment (between walls, valleys and etc.), Then, you could shift the view angle to TPS, third person shooter, to see what exactly the obtacles were, and then you could guide the avatar by moving legs, hands, or weapons to avoid those barriers - CONGRAZ, by shifting from FPS to TPS, you have successfully gained the knowledge of cognition (FPS) you thinking process, and metacognition (TPS) think about you thinking process.

Once the introduction of FPS and TPS concept are well accepted by students, we chould utilize following metacognition tips for learning.

SOAR, which stands for strategic observation and reflection, which is the lens teachers look through as they plan, teach, reflect upon, and elevate their teaching practice by engaging in cycles of strategic observation and reflection. SOAR has emerged from more than a decade of systematic research and development designed to identify the essential practices that teachers can use to drive learning across disciplines. More specifically, it identified research-based essential practices for disciplinary discussions through analyses of data from panel studies of expert consensus on disciplinary literacy instruction across content areas , video observations of classroom instruction , existing instructional practice protocols with established reliability and predictive validity, and an extensive review of the research literature on effective language and literacy instruction.

A frame of teaching SOAR and metacognition shows below:

Metacognition require dedicated training for mastering it, especially, its meaning and 'howto' for early age students.

Know thyself - The famous Greek motto for knowing your unknown, which is the fundematal of metacognition concept.

Reference:

Hacker, Douglas J., John Dunlosky and Arthur C. Graesser (Eds.). Handbook of Metacognition in Education, 2009.

White, Barbara and John Frederiksen. A Theoretical Framework and Approach for Fostering Metacognitive Development. Educational Psychologist, 40(4), 211–223, 2005.