James Rhem, Executive Editor, The National Teaching & Learning FORUM

“When I began The National Teaching & Learning FORUM” over twenty years ago, almost everyone in faculty development had heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy. I hadn’t since I was new to this beat; so I went to the University of Wisconsin’s Memorial Library and looked for it. There on the shelf was what they were talking about, the taxonomy of cognition, but right beside it was something that interested me as much if not more, the taxonomy of affect. No one (or at least no one I knew) had heard of this taxonomy or the one on the psychomotor domain that followed the one on affect. I began quietly beating the drum for an awareness of affect back in 1995 (according to a search of my old email). That was the same year Daniel Goleman’s “Emotional Intelligence” came out; so I suspected I’d stumbled onto what would become a cresting wave. That wave has grown, but it’s still heading toward a crest.

I go into all this because I think I can already see the waves of insight and meaningful rethinking of teaching and learning that will follow. Metacognition as a concept has been around for a long time, but coming to understand it and its place in learning (and thus is effective teaching) is a new thing. It’s something I’ve been increasingly covering in the FORUM and something I plan on continuing to cover. Indeed, NTLF created a series of small books with Stylus a few years back and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of the titles in that series is about metacognition (Using Reflection and Metacognition to Improve Student Learning: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy Edited by Matthew Kaplan ,  Naomi Silver ,  Danielle LaVaque-Manty ,  Deborah Meizlish Foreword by James Rhem   https://sty.presswarehouse.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=298776 ) 

I’ve linked two recent articles from the FORUM on metacognition. And I invite readers of this list who may have written (or plan to write) articles on metacognition and teaching and learning to submit material to me for wider distribution.  

1. Metacognitive Skills – why bother (and how)? by Carol Hostetter and Leah Savion at Indiana University

2. Metacognition and Disciplinary Thinking by Matt Fisher at Saint Vincent College

So what’s the next wave after metacognition?  The psychomotor domain. Count on it. 

James Rhem, Executive Editor, The National Teaching & Learning FORUM