• Explain The Difference Between Critical Thinking And Metacognition

We do not stop to think about how we use our cognitive abilities to help us throughout our childhood, schooling, and adulthood. Two of our cognitive skills are critical thinking and metacognition. Metacognition is thinking about your own thinking processes that include memory skills, memory capabilities, and study skills. Psychologists now realize that metacognitive capability begins way earlier than previously thought (Dimmitt & McCormick, 2011). Critical thinking is examining information and coming up with conclusions and reasonable judgments based on evidence. These two are different, but are related and depend on each other (Dimmitt, 2014). Metacognition develops and improves throughout life, starting at a very young age. Even as a child, we need to understand how to use the skills you obtain and when to use these skills. As we grow older, these skills that we obtain require less conscious thinking, and more unconscious. Metacognition is important for learning and teaching. In education, metacognition plays a

Educational psychologists have been very interested in this topic because we engage in metacognitive activities everyday (Livingston, 1997). Recent research in young children regarding metacognition is the “Theory of Mind,” which is research that refers to the ability to be able to comprehend our own mental states. An example of developing metacognition as children age is when pictures are shown to young children ages four, all those children will believe that they have seen those pictures previously, but as these children age, they begin to realize different things such as recognition and recalling. After complex schooling, these older children will be able to see that those pictures have not all been seen before, and that recognizing them is easier than recalling them (Psychologists now realize that metacognitive capability begins way earlier than previously thought (Dimmitt & McCormick,