Metacognition and the classroom

In his Chronicle of Higher Education column today, James Lang writes about Stephen Chew's application of metacognition concepts to the process of learning. Metacognition could be called the "American Idol theory" or (more locally) the "Superstar K theory", in which some truly lousy singers sincerely enter the competition in the belief that they are truly great. Basically, the idea is that incompetent people's very incompetence often blinds them to that incompetence. In the educational setting, weak students often believe they have mastered a subject even if their understanding is fragmented and superficial. Dr. Chew has a series of videos for students and teachers explaining the concept and identifying strategies for tackling the problem.