The Help/Hinder Tension Between AI + Metacognition
September 25, 2026
In higher education, we spend a lot of time thinking about what students are learning, the concepts they understand, the skills they develop, and the knowledge they can demonstrate. But another aspect of teaching that matters just as much is helping students understand how they learn and how to monitor their own progress and adapt, if needed.
As part of the Critical Teaching Behaviors (CTB) Framework, developed by Lauren Barbeau and Claudia Cornejo Happel, the Engage principle focuses on fostering self-regulated learning. Metacognition is an important part of that process.
What is metacognition?
Metacognition essentially means thinking about thinking. In an educational context, it's thinking about learning. We ask students to reflect on how they learn, recognize what’s working and what isn’t, and develop strategies to improve and manage their own learning.
For example, consider a student preparing for an exam. They may spend hours rereading their notes and then close the book and feel like they've studied enough. But when they sit down for the exam, they wish they could refer to their notes again to remember the concepts.
We’ve probably all seen some version of this moment where the problem isn’t a lack of effort. The student may simply not yet know how to recognize what works best for their own learning. What worked in high school may not meet the increased demands of college, and students may interpret that experience as “I’m not good at this” rather than “I need a different approach.”
And now, we have GenAI.
Can GenAI help?
On the surface, it seems like a natural partner for metacognition. Used intentionally, GenAI can support students as they examine their own challenges and successes by prompting reflection, asking questions, or planning study strategies that work for them. It can even help students monitor their learning.
However, here's the tension: metacognitive reflection requires a productive pause – a stop to think. But this self-reflective pause may be skipped if a student relies on GenAI to do the thinking for them. This is called "cognitive offloading."
Finding ways to harness GenAI
You could ask Copilot, for example, to make suggestions for introducing a metacognitive activity to your assignment:
Paste in your assignment instructions and then add the prompt “How could I add a short metacognitive component to this assignment without substantially increasing the workload for students?”
The suggestions will vary depending on your discipline and the assignment, but below is a simple example of the GenAI output. (The questions could be answered on paper in a 5-minute writing exercise in class.)
Ask students to respond to the following questions:
- What part of this assignment was most challenging for you?
- What did you do when you got stuck? Did that help improve your understanding?
- What would you do differently if you completed it again?
Other ways that students can use GenAI to help manage their learning:
Some suggestions you can offer to students are:
For planning how to study: Ask Copilot, “Here are the topics on my exam and here’s my current assessment of how well I know each one. Ask me questions that will help me decide how to prioritize my study time. Don't prioritize them for me.”
For monitoring: Ask Copilot, “Ask me questions that will help me work through a problem and find gaps in my understanding.”
For reflection: Ask students to answer this question first on their own and then ask Copilot “Here’s what I tried, here’s what worked, and here’s where I struggled. What other strategies might I consider next time?”
Dig Deeper
Cognitive Offloading: Using AI Reduces New Skill Formation, Psychology Today
Teaching students GenAI strategies to enhance metacognitive processing, The Scholarly Teacher: Todd Zakrajsek, UNC-Chapel Hill
Teaching Resources: Metacognition, MIT Teaching & Learning Lab
Resources from the UVM Center for Teaching & Learning
Exam Wrappers
Supporting Students' Metacognition
2026 - Teaching Minute about one faculty's approach with group projects
2024 - Teaching Minute: Metacognition
We'd love to hear your thoughts about this. (ctl@uvm.edu)
Happy teaching!
References
- Barbeau, L., & Cornejo Happel, C. (2023). Critical Teaching Behaviors : Defining, Documenting, and Discussing Good Teaching. Routledge.
- CAST (2024). CAST Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 3.0. Retrieved from https://udlguidelines.cast.org
- Ludwig, L. D., & Zakrajsek, T. D. (2026). The Science of Learning Meets AI: A Practical Faculty Guide to Purposeful Integration, Student Engagement, and Ethical Practice. Taylor & Francis.