In this video, Dr. Michael Serra (Texas Tech University) discusses the importance of metacognition, which refers to assessing one’s own learning or understanding. Research has shown that students often depend on faulty information or misconceptions to assess their learning, and Dr. Serra shares some advice on how to more effectively monitor your learning and make better decisions about studying.

Thinking about Thinking
This video created by Matthias Cheung helps to demystify metacognition, or thinking about thinking. It offers suggestions on how to develop better metacognitive strategies, including the types of questions we should consider before, during, and after we have completed a task.

About the Author

Michael Serra (Ph.D., Kent State University) is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Texas Tech University. His research centers on how students learn and how they study, and can be broken down into two main categories: education-related metacognition (i.e., thinking about and evaluating one’s own cognitive processes) and multimedia learning (i.e., learning from information presented both verbally and visually). Dr. Serra conducts both basic and applied research in these domains.

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In 2015, Cameron Broumand, an entrepreneur and father of three living in Los Angeles, stumbled upon a media article on the science of learning. After reading the piece, he realized that the valuable research findings in cognitive psychology and the learning sciences were almost entirely unknown to the public and, more surprisingly, to teachers. How could this be?! Broumand decided to find out, so he called Dr. Robert Bjork, a distinguished research professor at UCLA and one of the world’s leading experts in human learning and memory. After an insightful conversation with Dr. Bjork about the disconnect between research and practice, Broumand recognized an opportunity to improve our educational system. Shortly thereafter, he—along with Clement Mok, an award-winning designer and digital pioneer—founded the company, Lasting Learning. The goal of the company? To provide information to the public about how the science of learning can help transform and improve the way people teach and learn. Broumand asked learning scientists, Dr. Nick Soderstrom and Saskia Giebl, M.Sc. (both of whom were in Bjork’s lab at the time), to join the team. They happily agreed and, with the help of Carri O’Neill, have been giving talks, workshops, and webinars around the country ever since. The UCLA-Lasting Learning team has had the privilege to talk with thousands of teachers, coaches, parents, students, and athletes about how they can leverage the science of learning to enhance their educational practices. We look forward to talking with many more!