Meta-Learning: A Nine-Layer Model Based on Metacognition and Smart Technologies

Abstract

The international organizations of education have already pointed out that the way students learn, what they learn, and the skills needed, will be radically transformed in the coming years. Smart technologies are ready to come into play, changing the conditions of learning, providing opportunities for transformative learning experiences, and promising more conscious, self-directed and self-motivated learning. Meta-learning refers to a set of mental meta-processes by which learners consciously create and manage personal models of learning. Meta-learning entails a cluster of meta-skills that are progressively and hierarchically transformed, ensuring the transition to the highest levels of understanding termed meta-comprehension. The current article aims to investigate the concept of meta-learning and describe the meta-levels of learning through the lens of metacognition. In addition, the potential of smart technologies to provide fertile ground for the implementation of meta-learning training strategies is examined. The results of this article provide a new meta-learning theoretical framework supported by smart devices capable of supporting future meta-learners or, more accurately, meta-thinkers, to transcend the usual states of knowing and move to the next meta-levels of human intelligence.