'Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning in Visual Arts Education: Supporting Planning, Monitoring and Reflection in Students’ Creative Processes' by Nina Eremić

Introduction

Metacognition and self-regulated learning represent important and indispensable components of contemporary education. While the widespread availability and rapid flow of information in a digitally organized society have many positive effects, they also reveal certain shortcomings and challenges, including a decline in motivation to learn (arising from students’ awareness that information can be accessed at any moment and therefore does not always need to be internalized), difficulties in processing and retaining large amounts of information, and a weakening of individuals’ capacity to independently plan, monitor, and evaluate their own thinking processes. These circumstances call for a shift in the educational paradigm, one that places greater emphasis on developing learners’ awareness of their own functioning in the context of learning, and on adapting teaching strategies in ways that foster active, reflective, and autonomous learners who are capable of adjusting to a dynamic and information-rich environment. In this way, individuals may become better able to learn with understanding, think critically, make decisions, and direct their own development. The cycle of metacognitive processes, including planning, monitoring, evaluation, and regulation, is clearly reflected in creative production, particularly in the context of visual arts education. Namely, every creative process in visual arts entails planning (selecting and organizing appropriate visual elements to communicate the intended message effectively), monitoring (reflecting on the most suitable ways of presenting ideas throughout the process), evaluation (assessing whether the chosen visual solutions successfully convey the intended meaning through personal reflection, as well as through dialogue and feedback from peers), and regulation (making adjustments and revising decisions in response to emerging challenges or new insights during the creative process).

Given the aforementioned parallels between the processes underlying metacognitive thinking and those characteristic of visual art practice, this essay aims to demonstrate how metacognition and self-regulated learning can be fostered in visual arts education through strategies that support students’ planning, monitoring and reflection during creative work.

Conceptual and Theoretical Framework

Metacognition

The term metacognition was coined by James H. Flavell in the 1970s (Flavell, 1979). While it was originally described as “knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena” (p. 906) in Flavell's seminal paper, it is now usually defined more briefly but also more broadly as “thinking about thinking”. Although metacognition has been defined in various ways, the core idea remains the same: it refers to a high-level thinking process involving awareness of one’s own cognition and the regulation of one’s thinking and learning processes (Brown, 1996; Mayer, 2003; Livingston, 1977). Flavell (1979) differs three main components of metacognition: metacognitive awareness (which refers to learner’s ability to monitor and evaluate learning), metacognitive regulation (the learner’s ability to control and regulate thoughts in relation to he learning process) and metacognitive knowledge (the learner’s thoughts and beliefs about themselves, about learning, their strengths and weaknesses as learners and about the learning process itself). Metacognition represents a continuous cycle of planning, monitoring, evaluating and regulating the cognitive aspect of learning process.

The understanding of metacognition may also be enriched through the identification of the types of learners we seek to foster through the development of metacognition. Swartz and Perkins (1989) distinguish four stages in a students development that are increasingly metacognitive: tactic learners, aware learners, strategic learners and reflective learners.

Self-regulated Learning

Self-regulated learning is an umbrella concept that includes metacognition as one of its central components. In addition to metacognition, which represents the cognitive dimension of self-regulated learning, other important dimensions include emotional self-regulation, behavioral self-regulation, and related factors that together shape the broader process of self-regulation.

Although the concept of metacognition is often equated with the concept of self-regulated learning, there are many factors that challenge such an understanding. Namely, the very fact that metacognition is only one of the components of self-regulated learning indicates that even students who are capable of regulating their emotions and behavior do not always possess a well-developed awareness of their own cognitive functioning. This clearly points to a distinction between the concepts of self-regulated learning and metacognition. On the other hand, although they are terminologically and conceptually distinct, there is a clear relationship between metacognition and the other components of self-regulated learning.

Why Visual Arts Education Is a Relevant Context for Metacognition and Self-regulated Learning?

As noted earlier, the creative process in visual arts education is grounded in processes that closely parallel those involved in metacognitive thinking. In this regard, various authors in the field of art education theory (Efland, 2002; Eisner, 2002; Arnheim, 1997) argue that creative processes should be understood as  distinct cognitive activities, thereby challenging traditional views that reduce art education either to the acquisition of technical skills or to a domain situated exclusively within the affective sphere. According to these theoretical perspectives, we are about to explain how artistic and metacognitive processes correlate through the prism of the metacognitive cycle:

1.     Creative process demands planning and making decisions:

-       selecting and organizing appropriate visual elements to communicate the intended message effectively;

-       choosing adequate materials and media according to the selected visual elements;

-       selecting appropriate visual signs and symbols to effectively convey the intended meaning or message;

2.     Monitoring and reflecting during the creative process:

-       reconsidering and adjusting the composition, arrangement and relationships between visual elements during the process;

-       experimenting with different visual solutions, materials and techniques;

-       comparing alternative ways of representing the same concept with various visual elements, symbols and media;

3.     Evaluation and reflection on the finished artwork:

-       assessing whether the final visual product effectively communicates the intended message or idea;

-       identifying strengths and possible areas for improvement in the final artwork;

-       engaging in discussion and receiving feedback from peers and the teacher in order to gain different perspectives on the artwork;

4.     Regulation and modification of decisions during and after the creative process:

-       revising initial ideas when they do not effectively support the intended message;

-       adapting the original plan in accordance with difficulties, new possibilities, or unexpected outcomes that arise during the creative process;

-       making deliberate changes on the basis of self-reflection, peer discussion, and teacher feedback;

In the context of self-regulated learning, visual arts education can also play a significant role, particularly in relation to emotional self-regulation. Visual arts education has often been viewed primarily as an affective domain, implying that its main purpose lies in emotional expression and release through creative activity. However, beyond this affective dimension, the creative process in visual arts can also support the development of emotional awareness and regulation, as students learn to recognize, express, and manage their emotions through artistic practice.

Instructional Strategies That Support Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning in Visual Arts Education

1.     Teacher Questioning and Metacognitive Prompts

-        What is your idea?

-        Why did you choose these colors/shapes/materials?

-        What are you trying to communicate?

-        Is your current solution helping you achieve your goal?

-        What might you change?

2.     Sketching, Drafting and Planning Sheets

-        sketches as a tool for planning

-        a visual work plan

-        a brief written or verbal plan prior to implementation

4. Think-Aloud and Verbalization of Artistic Decisions

-       the teacher models thinking aloud

-        students explain their decisions during the joint oral analysis of artworks

-        verbalization helps make the creative process more explicit and conscious

5.     Reflective Journals, Portfolios and Self-Assessment Prompts

-       reflective journals

-       an artistic portfolio

-       connecting the process, decisions, and outcomes through short self-reflection questionnaires after the completion of the creative process

6.      Peer Dialogue and Guided Critique

-       peer discussion;

-       structured analysis of artworks;

-       justifying visual decisions;

7.     Discussion and Debates Through the Analysis of Artworks:

-        analysing the artistic strategies and techniques used by artists in order to communicate their ideas;

-        connecting the message and meaning of the artwork with its historical, cultural, and interdisciplinary context;

-        stimulating students’ motivation and curiosity through engaging insights about artists, their works, and the circumstances in which they were created.

An Example of Developing Metacognition through Visual Art Education – Digital Visual Storytelling

Within the subject of visual arts education, numerous strategies can be applied that may contribute to the development of metacognition and self-regulated learning. In accordance with the digital environment and the predominantly visually organized content that people are surrounded by today, one particular strategy can be seen as having considerable potential in the context of developing metacognition. This potential arises from its characteristics, which respond both to the demands of fostering metacognitive thinking and to the requirements of contemporary educational practice that seeks to adapt to digital environments in line with technological advancement. The strategy of digital visual storytelling represents a form of narrative expressed through visual language and supported by the use of digital tools, through which a particular message is communicated and meaning is constructed.

The relevance of this approach is also supported by Bruner’s theory, which considers narrative to be one of the fundamental and primary modes of thinking and meaning construction. Bruner (1991) views narrative as a form of symbolic organization of experience through which individuals structure events and meanings. Such an understanding of symbolic representation is particularly significant in the field of art, where visual symbolic systems enable the construction and interpretation of meaning through images and visual relationships, as emphasized by Efland (2002). Accordingly, Bruner states that “we organize our experience and our memory of human happenings mainly in the form of narratives – stories, justifications, myths, reasons for doing or not doing something, and so on” (Bruner, 1991, p. 5). In this sense, the narrative approach can be regarded as “the first interpretative and cognitive tool that people use in their life experience” (Bruner, 1992, as cited in Frolli et al., 2023, p. 2). By organizing visual elements into narrative structures, students develop the ability to perceive relationships between signs and meanings, as well as the capacity to integrate different experiences into coherent symbolic wholes. For this reason, visual narrative represents an important pedagogical potential for the development of cognitive flexibility and multiple perspectives in the learning process, which aligns with Efland’s view of art as a domain that fosters the ability to interpret complex and contextually conditioned meanings (Efland, 2002, p. 104).

The processes involved in digital visual storytelling closely reflect the phases of the metacognitive cycle, making this strategy particularly suitable for the development of metacognition in visual arts education. More specifically, digital visual storytelling requires students to engage in planning, monitoring, evaluation, and regulation throughout the entire creative process. At the planning stage, students must define the message or idea they wish to communicate, consider their audience, select visual elements, symbols, and media, and organize these components into a meaningful narrative structure. In doing so, they activate awareness of their own intentions, prior knowledge, and possible strategies for representing meaning. During the process of production, students continuously monitor their work by reflecting on whether the selected images, symbols, composition, sequence, and digital tools effectively support the intended narrative. They compare different possibilities, reconsider their choices, and assess whether the visual message remains clear and coherent. This phase is particularly important because it reveals that creative work is not a spontaneous or purely intuitive act, but a process of constant reflection and decision-making. Evaluation is present both during and after the completion of the digital visual narrative. Students assess the extent to which the final product communicates the intended meaning, whether the narrative structure is understandable, and whether the relationships between visual signs and symbols successfully support the message. Such evaluation may occur through personal reflection, teacher guidance, and peer discussion, which further contributes to students’ awareness of their own thinking and creative strategies. Finally, regulation is reflected in students’ ability to modify and refine their work in response to reflection and feedback. This may include changing the sequence of scenes, replacing visual elements, revising symbols, adjusting compositional relationships, or selecting more appropriate digital tools in order to improve clarity and effectiveness. In this sense, digital visual storytelling does not merely illustrate the phases of the metacognitive cycle; rather, it provides a concrete pedagogical context in which these processes become visible, active, and functional within students’ creative practice.

Challenges and Considerations

An important first step in implementing strategies aimed at developing metacognition in visual arts education is an understanding of students’ developmental and individual characteristics. Accordingly, teachers need to select strategies that are appropriate for a particular age group or adapt existing strategies if they were not originally designed for that level. When planning and implementing such strategies, several potential challenges should also be taken into account.

Teachers may encounter difficulties such as:

-       students’ ability to verbalize visual solutions and explain the reasoning behind their artistic decisions;

-       balancing guided reflection with the freedom of expression that is characteristic of artistic education;

-       students’ varying levels of motivation and engagement in reflective activities during the creative process;

-       the challenge of assessing metacognitive processes and creative decisions, rather than focusing solely on the final artistic product;

-       the need for teachers to develop appropriate questioning strategies and reflective prompts that effectively support students’ metacognitive thinking.

Implications for Teaching Practice

The considerations discussed above point to several important implications for teaching practice in visual arts education:

-       visual arts classrooms should include more explicit metacognitive prompts;

-       teachers should evaluate the creative process, not only the final artwork;

-       students should be taught how to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own creative work;

-       reflective questions and structured discussions can enhance the quality of learning in art;

-       a metacognitive approach contributes to students’ autonomy and a deeper understanding of the artistic process.

Conclusion

One important point to emphasize is that metacognition and self-regulated learning are not limited to “traditional academic” subjects that educational systems typically categorize as cognitive. Contrary to the common assumption that subjects such as visual arts belong exclusively to the affective domain and are therefore unrelated to cognitive development, the processes involved in artistic creation closely resemble metacognitive processes in their structure. In fact, the creative process provides a particularly suitable and rich environment for the development of metacognition and self-regulated learning.

Artistic creation can support students’ self-regulation of learning in several ways. Through creative activity, students are able to express emotions nonverbally, regulate their behavior, and enhance their motivation for learning through the autonomous construction of meaning. In this sense, visual arts education provides a strong foundation for the development of metacognitive abilities and the cultivation of self-awareness in learners.

For these processes to be effective, teachers need to be familiar with strategies for developing metacognition and be able to adapt or modify them according to the needs of the classroom. At the same time, this process contributes to the development of teachers’ own metacognitive awareness and professional reflection.

References 

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Frolli, A., Cerciello, F., Ciotola, S., Ricci, M.C., Esposito, C., Sica, L.S. (2023). Narrative Approach and Mentalization. Behav. Sci. 2023, 13, 994. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13120994

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