Talk as a metacognitive strategy during the information search process of adolescents

This paper reports on a case study that, in the course of exploring the metacognitive thinking and associated emotions of ten adolescents during the information search process, uncovered a social aspect to metacognitive knowledge. The study was framed by Kuhlthau's information search process model (1991, 2004) and the construct of metacognition (Flavell 1979). Using naturalistic methods the study found, first, that talk was used as a metacognitive strategy, as a means to help information seekers understand their thinking about their own thinking, and secondly, the talk strategy was more likely to be implemented face-to-face with trusted family and friends, rather than with the class teacher and school librarian or even through social media. This metacognitive strategy has been labelled Communicating and is one part of a larger taxonomy of adolescent metacognitive knowledge to emerge from the study (Readers wishing to learn more about the other thirteen attributes can refer to Bowler (2010). VOL. 15 NO. 4, DECEMBER, 2010