Which higher-order knowledge can make the difference between how well and…

Concept — Knowledge involved in learning is standardly sorted into an object level and a higher-order level. At the object level sit knowledge that something is the case and knowledge of how to carry out an operation; both are things a learner acquires. Above that level sits metacognition, which Flavell (1979) defined as knowledge of one's own cognitive processes together with the regulation of them — planning an approach, monitoring comprehension while working, and evaluating and adjusting one's own thinking.

Application — The stem asks which higher-order knowledge changes how well and how quickly students learn. Metacognition is the level of the typology that operates on learning itself rather than being an item of what is learned. A learner who can tell what is not yet understood, choose a strategy suited to the task, monitor comprehension while working and switch strategy when one fails converts the same hours of study into more understanding, and reaches it sooner. This is why Bransford, Brown and Cocking’s "How People Learn" (2000) lists a metacognitive approach to instruction among its three key findings about learning, and why self-regulated-learning research links metacognitive skill to both the level and the rate of achievement.

Contrast — The other categories named in the options sit at the object level of cognition or describe a study method:

• Declarative — knowledge that something is the case: facts, concepts and propositions the learner can state. It is content held in long-term memory, at the object level.

• Procedural — knowledge of how to carry out an operation: the ordered steps of a skill, automated through practice. It executes a task; it does not supervise the learner's own learning.

• Rote — a memorisation method in which material is repeated without being linked to existing conceptual structures. Ausubel contrasts it with meaningful learning; it names a mode of learning rather than a level of knowledge.

Result — The higher-order knowledge that makes the difference to how well and how quickly students learn is metacognition.