A student finishes an assessment and tells the teacher, “I thought I knew this.” The teacher asks what happened. The student explains how they studied the material several times, felt confident, and assumed they were ready. Yet the assessment suggests otherwise. The student did the reading, underlined the key points, made sticky notes, and even reviewed the notes before the test. The problem is that the student didn't recognize the difference between being familiar with the material and understanding it well enough to demonstrate proficiency.

Most teachers have experienced a version of this conversation. We want students to take ownership of their learning, but ownership requires more than setting goals and choosing activities. Learners need to understand their thinking well enough to make decisions that improve their learning. Cognitive science calls this metacognition, and it is one of the most important components of the Marzano Academies model.

Design Area X focuses on metacognitive and life skills. We have grouped two elements, Element Xa, Reflecting on Learning, and Element Xc, Focusing on Specific Metacognitive and Life Skills, because they address two closely related responsibilities. Students need to become aware of their thinking, and they need to develop the skills necessary to manage that thinking.

In the book by Bill Zima, Mindsets and Skill Sets for Learning, he describes agency as the perceived ability of an individual, based upon their capacity, to shape their life (Zima, 2021). That capacity includes recognizing what is happening during learning and deciding what to do about it. Metacognition helps learners move from having learning experiences to understanding how their actions influence those experiences.

Why: Metacognition Makes Self-Regulation Possible

The Marzano Academies model intentionally places Design Area X within the domain of self-regulation. Design Area VIII addresses belonging and esteem. Design Area IX develops the beliefs and actions associated with efficacy and agency. Design Area X focuses on the skills students need to regulate themselves. A learner may feel valued and believe success is possible, but still lack the skills necessary to recognize when a strategy is failing or determine an appropriate next step (Marzano & Abbott, 2022).

Metacognition is often thought of as awareness of one's own thinking or thinking about your thinking. Self-regulation is then using that awareness to manage learning and behavior.

For example, learners often reread their notes or underline a textbook and feel they know the material. This feeling comes from familiarity, not understanding. But the student continues and then feels confused on the assessment when they can't answer. Another student, having been explicitly taught the metacognitive skill of seeking accuracy, begins to recognize that rereading a chapter doesn't improve their understanding of the concept. That recognition is metacognitive. So they decide to use practice questions, seek feedback, or try another strategy. This shift to a better strategy is an act of self-regulation.

Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) examined ten common learning techniques and found that some widely used approaches, including rereading and highlighting, were generally less effective than practice testing and distributing practice over time. Students need to understand which strategies support learning and when to use them.

The Education Endowment Foundation's (2025) updated guidance reinforces the importance of explicitly teaching students to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning. Its evidence review identifies metacognition and self-regulation as high-impact approaches, particularly when strategies are taught through regular curriculum content rather than as disconnected activities.

For a competency-based classroom, the implication is significant. Students are expected to progress based on demonstrated learning. If they cannot recognize their current status or determine what might improve it, they remain dependent on the teacher to direct every decision. Agency cannot fully develop under those conditions.

How: Reflection Must Lead to Better Decisions

Element Xa focuses on helping students reflect on their learning. The folio identifies reflection journals, think logs, exit slips, knowledge comparison activities, and open reflection notes as strategies teachers can use (Marzano, 2021a). These tools provide opportunities for students to examine their learning. However, completing a reflection activity does not guarantee that meaningful reflection occurred. We have all seen students complete the sheets with vague statements like, “I learned a lot today,” or “I need to try harder next time.” Those statements tell the learner and the teacher very little about what can be done to improve learning.

Students need to examine the relationship between their actions and the evidence of learning. What did they understand? Where did their thinking break down? Which strategy helped? What should they do differently? In Mindsets and Skill Sets for Learning, Zima organizes reflection across three stages of learning: before, during, and after (Zima, 2021). Before learning, students consider their current knowledge and what they need to do to reach the intended goal. During learning, they monitor their progress and determine whether the chosen strategy is working. Afterward, they evaluate the outcome and consider what they would do in a similar situation.

Three questions that can guide this process are:

• What needs to be accomplished?
• What is working/not working?
• What is next?

The last question is especially important. Reflection that does not inform future action can become little more than an exercise in describing what happened. The purpose of reflection is to help learners improve what happens next throughout the process, from the initial planning phase to identifying the next cycle.

Metacognitive Skills Must Be Explicitly Taught

Element Xc moves beyond general reflection to the direct instruction of specific metacognitive and life skills. The folio identifies ten metacognitive skills, including seeking clarity, resisting impulsivity, seeking accuracy, taking incremental steps, and setting goals and making plans. It also addresses four life skills: participation, work completion, appropriate behavior, and working in groups (Marzano, 2021b).

Teachers often expect students to use these skills without ever teaching them how. We tell students to focus, check their work, think before acting, or develop a plan. But what does seeking accuracy actually require? What does a student do when the first strategy fails? How does a learner recognize that an explanation is unclear?

These are procedural knowledge skills. Teachers should teach them in the same way they teach any procedures. Students need an explanation of the skill, modeling from a more knowledgeable other, time and situations to practice the skill, and feedback to reinforce how they can improve their use of the skill in different conditions. The Marzano Academies model makes this possible by identifying specific metacognitive skills as curriculum, with accompanying proficiency scales. Students can understand what the skill involves and receive feedback about their development.

For example, during a mathematics lesson, a teacher might explicitly model seeking accuracy by checking a solution using a different method. During writing, a student might practice seeking clarity by identifying a section that does not communicate the intended meaning. The teacher is still teaching mathematics or writing. The difference is that students are also learning how to manage their thinking while engaged in that content. The EEF (2025) emphasizes this connection between explicit instruction, modeling, scaffolded practice, and increasing learner independence. It is not one more thing. It is part of the same thing teachers are prepared to do – model their behaviors so learners become more effective and efficient at thinking.

What: A Classroom Where Learners Understand Their Thinking

When Elements Xa and Xc are working, students begin to describe their learning differently. Instead of saying, “I don't get it,” one of the most dreaded phrases for a teacher to hear, a student can explain which part of the process is confusing. Rather than simply declaring an assessment score disappointing, the learner examines the evidence and identifies what needs additional practice. The goal is for students to recognize when a strategy is not working and consider another approach.

Folio Xa helps teachers consider how to develop students' ability to identify and describe what they understand, recognize confusion, and explain what they might do to improve learning as important evidence. Element Xc extends this expectation. Students should be able to identify the specific metacognitive skills they are developing and describe their current status relative to those skills (Marzano, 2021a, 2021b). This is the same desired outcome for any content being taught in a CBE classroom.

At the school level, metacognition should not depend on individual teachers occasionally asking students to reflect. It needs to become an intentional part of the learning system. Schools should have a shared understanding of the metacognitive skills they expect students to develop. Then schools need to develop how they will explicitly teach those skills, practice them through academic learning, and support them with common language. A school committed to student agency cannot simply tell learners to take ownership. It must teach them what it means to “own it.”  This includes recognizing when learning is occurring, when it is not, and what they can do, through their efforts, to influence the outcome. When students understand their own thinking, they become better prepared to direct their learning. They are developing the mindsets and skill sets of agency.

That is why we consider metacognition so important within the Marzano Academies model.

To continue building your understanding of effective, evidence-based, competency-based instructional practices and the full Marzano Academies instructional model, become a member of the Learning Lab. For only $10 per month, Members can access Dr. Marzano’s research Folios, professional learning resources, and practical tools designed to help teachers make competency-based practices work in real classrooms. The Learning Hub also includes Badging Experiences that allow teachers to identify a meaningful professional growth goal, strengthen their classroom routines, and document their growing expertise. Teachers should own their professional learning, and the Learning Hub is built to support that work. You can also sign up for Virtual Office Hours or engage in a CBE Coaching Series with Marzano Academies Faculty to deepen your team’s approach to a personalized, competency-based classroom. Please reach out with any questions.

References

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266 

Education Endowment Foundation. (2025). Metacognition and self-regulated learning (2nd ed.). https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/metacognition 

Marzano, R. J. (2021a). Element Xa: Reflecting on learning in a competency-based classroom. Marzano Academies.

Marzano, R. J. (2021b). Element Xc: Focusing on specific metacognitive and life skills in a competency-based classroom. Marzano Academies.

Marzano, R. J., & Abbott, S. D. (2022). Teaching in a competency-based elementary school: The Marzano Academies model. Marzano Resources.

Zima, B. (2021). Mindsets and skill sets for learning: A framework for building student agency. Marzano Resources.