Comparing Metacognitive Frameworks in Singapore, South Korea and England

One of the most exciting effects of the rapid advances we are seeing in digital tools is the spotlight that is being shone upon the importance of teaching thinking skills.

Modern technology gives access to vast amounts of information. Educators face the challenge of teaching children to filter through increasing amounts of information, and helping them to understand the value of thinking for themselves when answers can seem readily available. Alongside this lies the need to teach other aspects of development, including knowledge, attitude and skills.

The philosopher, Confucius said,

"Learning without thought is labor lost. Thought without learning is perilous."

As Confucius described, gathering facts without reflecting on them is a waste of effort, but trying to reason without actual knowledge is risky and leads to poor decisions.

Philosophers such as Confucius have long described the value of both knowledge and thinking skills.

Our goal as educators must therefore be to help children acquire sufficient skills and knowledge, but also to help them to reflect on the processes that make effective learners and to critically evaluate knowledge as they encounter it.

In this post, we will look at the approaches taken by three countries: Singapore, South Korea and England on developing children's metacognitive skills.

• Singapore teaches children a 'toolkit' of metacognitive strategies to use. Children are taught not only the strategies themselves, but also how to select the appropriate strategy for the task. This highly structured, Socratic approach ensures that reflection is deeply embedded into everyday problem solving, particularly in STEM subjects.

• South Korea's 2022 Revised Curriculum redefines metacognition around learner agency, expanding reflection beyond individual tasks and encouraging students to take charge of their own learning goals, subject choices and overall growth. In doing this, Korean children move beyond the question, "How do I solve this problem?" to "How do I manage my own learning journey?" Korean students are taught to manage their own learning habits and design their own study pathways.

• England's National curriculum embeds metacognition across subjects, including through teaching mathematical reasoning in maths, resilience in physical education, scientific enquiry in science and computational thinking in computing. The Educational Endowment Foundation has also led development in this field, through the Self-regulated learning (SRL) process, which teaches the core components of planning, monitoring and evaluating.

Singapore's structured , strategic approach to metacognition

Since 1990, the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) has based maths teaching on five interdependent elements. The Singapore Ministry of Education 2021 Maths syllabus (link) recognises the role that children's awareness of thinking skills (metacognition), plays in successful problem solving in Maths. This is a necessary component for success, alongside positive attitude, development of skills, understanding of mathematical concepts and proficiency in following processes.

The Singapore 2021 Maths Syllabus identifies metacognition as one of five pillars of success in Maths.

The Singapore Mathematics Syllabus describes metacognition (link, page 14),

"Metacognition, or 'thinking about thinking', refers to the awareness of, and ability to control one's thinking processes, in particular the selection and use of problem solving strategies. It includes monitoring and regulation of one's own thinking and learning. It also includes the awareness of one's affective responses towards a problem. When one is engaged in solving a non-routine or open-ended problem, metacognition is required."

Key terms in this description include:

• "Awareness of" and "control". This is a two-step metacognitive process that children are taught, giving them ownership and responsibility for their thinking. By breaking the metacognitive process down into monitoring (awareness) and then regulation (control), children learn the vital process of actively guiding their problem solving process and critically evaluating their approach.

• "Selection" and "use". These terms describe the structured, strategic approach that students in Singapore are taught. Students are taught to select from familiar strategies, including the famous 'bar method' and 'working backwards', rather than relying on guesswork.

• "Problem solving strategies". Students in Singapore analyse problems, select and apply methods to solve real problems in subjects across the curriculum. Part of the measure of students' success is the efficiency of the strategy selected and the reduction of errors.

While Singapore's approach excels at giving children strategies to solve problems, the Korean approach takes a broader view. As well as solving specific problems, Korean students are also encourages to think about their educational journey as a whole.

South Korea - teaching creativity, agency and thinking skills across subjects

In 2022, South Korea's Ministry of Education introduced the 2022 Revised National Curriculum (2022 개정 초중등학교 교육과정). This marked a major shift away from traditional, rote learning, towards creating adaptable, self-directed learners who understand the learning process and its place in a rapidly modernising world.

The 2022 Revised Curriculum General Principles Commentary (초⋅중등학교 교육과정 총론), available through the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education website (link) includes the definition of the self-management competency on page 6. This states,

"자아정체성과 자신감을 가지고 자신의 삶과 진로를 스스로 설계하고 가꾸어 나갈 수 있는 자기관리 역량"

This can be translated into English as,

"Self-management competency, which enables individuals to self-design and cultivate their own career paths with a sense of self-identify and confidence"

The key terms in the 2022 Curriculum General Principles Commentary are:

• 자아정체성과 자신감 (self identify and confidence). Metacognition in Korean school begins with internal self-awareness. Before students can manage their learning, they develop a sense of who they are, how they learn best and the self confidence to take ownership of their education.

• 자신의 삶과 진로 (One's own life and career path). This section highlights the scope of South Korea's metacognitive approach. Metacognition is not limited to problem solving. It is linked to long-term life planning, personal growth and career decisions.

• 스스로 설계하고 가꾸어 나갈 (Designing and cultivating independently). This reflects the active, reflective nature of metacognition. Designing implies strategic planning and cultivating implies continuous reflection monitoring and adjustment of the learning process.

• 자기관리 역량 (Self management competency). This describes metacognition as a life skill, expanding its scope beyond school use to regulation of life and learning.

Through initiatives like the high school credit system and Free Semester System (자유학기제), Korean students are taught to consider their whole learning process. This takes place alongside the thinking, creativity and the value of the learning process that the 2022 Revised curriculum provides for.

While South Korea considers longer term student autonomy in its metacognitive approach, England's approach focuses on scaffolded processes embedded into subjects across the curriculum. Led by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), alongside subject-specific approaches, students learn to use a simple and repeatable framework: Plan, Monitor, Evaluate.

England - Explicit Scaffolding and Self-Regulated Learning

Guided by research from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), metacognition in England is taught through the cycle of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), following the steps: Plan, Monitor, Evaluate (link). This strategy compliments subject-specific approaches such as scientific enquiry in science, mathematical reasoning in maths and computational thinking in computing.

To make the cognitive process clear to students, teachers use structured modelling ("Think Alouds") and targeted metacognitive prompts across different subjects.

For example:

Primary Maths (key stage 2 - year 5)

Focus: Multi-step word problems, involving fractions

Metacognitive scaffolding: Before calculating, pupils work through a self-questioning prompt card:

• Plan: "Have I solved a problem like this before? What key information do I need to extract?"

  
  

• Monitor: "Is my calculation getting me closer to the answer, or should I try drawing a bar model?"

  
  

• Evaluate "Is my answer reasonable? What error-checking strategy should I use?"

  
  

Primary Computing (key stage 2 - year 4)

Focus: Programming a robot to navigate a maze

Metacognitive scaffolding: Pupils take time away from the screen to analyse the problem, the materials available, any constraints and the individual parts of the problem. They talk about patterns and parts that they do not need to consider (abstraction), either discussing or recording these elements.

• Plan: "Have I solved a problem like this before? What programming instructions or coding structures were useful?"

  
  

• Monitor: "Am I solving the decomposed part of the problem that I was aiming to? What parts of my program work and what parts do not?"

  
  

• Evaluate "What aspects of the problem did I succeed in solving? What would I change?"

As we can see from these two examples, subject-specific approaches such as mathematical reasoning and computational thinking are supported by the scaffolded and teacher-modelled approach. As well as being a versatile and structured approach, an additional benefit of this approach is that it emphasises oracy and communication as the teacher models verbalising the stages that are worked through.

Conclusion - Different approaches addressing a common need

Singapore, South Korea and England approach teaching metacognition from different perspectives, but all are preparing children for an era where thinking skills alongside rich knowledge acquisition will be vital. By teaching metacognitive strategies, these countries give students greater agency over their learning, enabling them to become more confident, reflective and independent learners.

Returning to Confucius' insight,

"Learning without thought is labor lost. Thought without learning is perilous."

As automated tools and vast amounts of information become more available, the risk of "thoughtless learning" becomes a challenge that educators need to face. Children's education needs to involve them critiquing the information they are exposed to and reflecting on the processes they are engaged in.

The approach taken by these three countries shows that in preparing children for a technology-driven future, a clear and actionable thought process needs to be developed alongside the rich knowledge foundation that children will use to express their ideas and make sense of the world.