General Knowledge of the Learning Process in Practice: What Does It Encompass?

Abstract

So far, scientific views and insights were presented regarding metacognitive knowledge that can give an overall description of general knowledge of the learning process. Furthermore, it was argued that students can develop general knowledge of the learning process and that this knowledge can be used to think through in advance learning tasks in terms of deciding on a learning plan to learn effectively. However, what does this mean in practice? That is, do people actually have general knowledge of their learning process and are they insiders to their own general knowledge of the learning process? To plunge into the matter directly, research studies showed that students do have general knowledge of the learning process and can give descriptions about it (e.g., Hurme & Järvelä, 2005; Kipnis & Hofstein, 2008), although it is rather difficult to grasp what it encompasses precisely because it is difficult to observe it in school-learning situations.