Introduction: Metacognitive Learning: Focusing on General Knowledge of the Learning Process

In today’s schools, helping students to construct essential cognitive knowledge is still the main goal of education. However, solely having students understand and memorize essential cognitive knowledge appears to be insufficient these days because students must also become able to deal with a fast growing amount of information. It is this fast growing amount of information that requires that students become able to construct cognitive knowledge, in terms of coming to understand and remember basic concepts, principles, and applications, of their own accord. Moreover, in our society, where information can be found easily, it is expected that one understands which information is essential, that the required information is found effortlessly, and that new information can be integrated into one’s existing knowledge in such a way that it can be applied, adapted to new circumstances, used for thinking, and used for creating new meanings. Obviously, being able to handle information in such a way is truly demanding. Therefore, to prepare today’s students for their future life, they need to become independent learners who can furtheradvance their own learning.