Bloom, Katy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4907-425X (2026) Effective development of pre-service teachers' metacognitive competencies. In: BERA TEAN Conference 2026, 20th-21st May 2026, Sheffield Hallam University. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This study reports on a semi-longitudinal study investigating the development of metacognitive awareness and competencies in undergraduate student teachers [pre-service teachers] in a university setting through explicit instruction and guided practice in a designed sequence of professional and academic workshops. Building upon a successful pilot intervention conducted within science modules, this expanded research examines how two successive Year 1 cohorts of student teachers developed metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation skills over the academic year. Analysis and evaluation of the first cohort's data and findings enabled a refining of the subsequent year's training materials and teaching approach. This comprised a blended implicit and explicit pedagogical approach, aligned with the Education Endowment Foundation's updated guidance on metacognition and self-regulated learning (EEF, 2025). The research addresses a critical gap in Initial Teacher Education: despite robust evidence that metacognitive strategies can provide substantial learning gains - with particular benefits for disadvantaged pupils - many students may enter ITE programmes without explicit knowledge of these essential skills, leading them ill-prepared to model and teach metacognition as required by Standard 4.5 of the English Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework. Findings from mixed-methods data collection, including pre- and post-intervention surveys, interviews, and reflective activities suggest that utilising both direct (explicit) modelling approaches, as well as indirect (implicit) approaches meaningfully enhances student teachers' awareness of their own learning process and professional identity formation. Participants demonstrated growth in metacognitive knowledge, practical self-regulation strategies, and forward-looking orientation toward their teaching practice, preparing them to model these strategies in their future teaching practice. The study challenges assumptions that metacognitive skills develop naturally through osmosis in teacher education, advocating instead for intentional, systematic instruction structurally embedded across professional development modules and later broadened to general inclusion across the programme, rather than subject-specific contexts alone. The intentional practicum enables transferable understanding and application across all aspects of teaching practice, preparing student teachers to nurture metacognitive learning as a fundamental pedagogical competence.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Lecture)
Status:	Unpublished
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1025-1050.75 Teaching (Principles and practice) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1705-2286 Education and training of teachers L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/14872

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