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By Isaac Ato MENSAH
Accra – 8 May, 2019
Exam week is here. In reality, it goes beyond one week.
A discussion on metacognition will prove that worries about exam week are inconsequential.
At the tertiary level where the exam questions are set and marked internally, during the last two lectures before revision week, many lecturers usually give broad hints as to the topic areas on which the questions were set.
So even though we are in exam mode, let us place less emphasis on the exam and think about thinking, learn about learning, and become aware about awareness.
Such a contemplation, called metacognition, meaning beyond thinking, will help us understand anything that is said, read, heard or seen, be it from teachers, lecturers, journalists, preachers, politicians, parents or children.
Metacognition also helps us appreciate and develop a critical assessment of text, and even works of art and musical composition which have layers of meaning.
“Your writing is too high for us; come down to our level,” many Ghanaian university students and graduate workers have complained.
Others have often admitted, “I started reading but I didn’t understand it so I put it away”.
What is my mentor’s response to such concerns? “This is standard eighth grade grammar….. We should elevate our standards rather than ask that the writing should be reduced to our level.”
We make no apologies about aiming to write at “The standard of The New Yorker, The Economist, The New York Times or theconversation.com”.
We sincerely believe that it is the required reading and comprehension level needed to function in modern society; to understand issues in science, the environment, public policy, and commerce that affect our lives daily.
It is heartbreaking that Ghanaian uni grads will respond that they read our articles but did not understand it. If they attempt to explain how they understood it, you will be scandalized at the waste of tax payers’ and parents’ monies.
Cognition and metacognition are therefore required to understand our articles and any such teaching material as we prepare to write our various exams.
Metacognition is a teachable skill that is central to other skills sets such as problem solving, decisionmaking, and critical thinking.
So my mentor is right when he states emphatically that “Most students need to be taught how to think”.
And let us be clear here; we are not talking about the cynical and obtuse thinking that is endemic in underdeveloped and under performing societies such as ours.
There are scholarly research results (Mason, Boldrin & Ariasi, 2010; Dignath & Buettner, 2008) which show that students who apply “metacognitive strategies to learning tasks outperform those who do not”.
Let us apply these lessons to two practical matters.
First, we subject our draft articles to an international peer review process. This therefore means we see a lot of tracked changes/red font in our returned work for correction. The returned email, delivered within 12 hours, with red fonts is actually a cause for celebration. It gives clear guidelines on how to improve the work to meet that international standard while still maintaining our voice.
In my experience, the humility to accept guidance is the biggest factor in mentoring writers. If you cannot accept the verdict of those who can direct your thinking aright, then your corrected work that has been returned for improvement will remain with you forever. What we need in ghana is more high quality guidance, not less.
Second, the current noise about the malaria vaccine. Which study provides data about a 40% reduction in mortality as is being touted by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) Head of Malaria Research?
What the data shows is a 40% reduction in malaria infections. To conflate infections with mortality is banku thinking or if you like misleading.
What is not being addressed is a 50% increase in mortality as shown by the study data for those who received the vaccine.
At this point, a long story about Antivaxers causing problems in the US and how vaccines have helped eradicate childhood diseases such as measles, polio, diarrhea, etc, is grossly unhelpful.
These are all viral and bacterial diseases; malaria is not. Malaria is caused by a parasite with a complex life cycle. Therefore malaria immunity differs in important ways from that for bacteria and viruses.
Those who ask questions about the malaria vaccine are not necessarily extremists or Antivaxers; they include people who recognize the importance of vaccines and the value of rigorous science.
Now, any high ranking public official or academic who does not understand this and does not provide answers compatible with the available data is inept.
Indeed, metacognition should make us all understand that the vaccine might well be part of the solution to our malaria problem including of course SANITATION, SANITATION, SANITATION which was how malaria (aka bad air) was banished from Europe.
All the best for your exams.
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