**2.4. Interview**

The semi-structured interview protocol consisted of 13 core questions and numerous examples of follow-up questions to be asked according to need, for deeper probing into participants' initial responses to the core questions. The core questions addressed the following issues: a general description of the program, the strategies used for wide-scale implementation, main barriers and challenges, professional development, the development of learning materials, assessment, the suitability of the program to diverse learners, and whether the program involved metacognition.

concerning how to teach metacognition. Participant #4 noted that teachers are ill-informed in this area and don't know how to apply metacognition in the classroom *(teachers did not under-*

Challenges in Addressing Metacognition in Professional Development Programs in the Context…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76592

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*This whole idea of metacognition is something you really need to understand. That students actually need to think about what they are doing, before, while and after [engaging in a thinking task]. This whole thing… It is something that [teachers] first need to study, to understand from a theoretical point* 

*Earlier this year I gave a talk in a professional development workshop for "X" teachers ["X" stands for a particular school subject]. I was shocked to discover that although it appears in the textbook [for* 

Participants also addressed the type of knowledge teachers need in order to apply metacognition in class. Although they did not use the concept "pedagogical knowledge in the context of metacognition," they had in effect referred to the meaning of this concept and to its relationship to metacognitive knowledge, expressing the idea that teachers must first gain metacogni-

*I think teachers did not feel confident in this area… They did not… and even those who did try to…/ It was not based on comprehension…/ You cannot engage in metacognitive thinking on a process that you do not really and truly understand… or that you are fully clear about… And that you are deeply involved with and you know what it entails… What it means from an instructional point of view….* (#15). *They don't teach metacognition in the relatively simple way metacognition appears in the teaching* 

Participants therefore see teachers' fragile knowledge of metacognition as an inhibiting factor in their ability to teach metacognition, even when they are using learning materials that were specifically designed to teach metacognition and even when such learning materials are

The present study discusses metacognition in the context of teaching HOT. It is important to note that the data are based on participants' testimonies and statements rather than on direct observations. Under these circumstances, participants explicitly addressed teachers' lack of knowledge concerning MSK of thinking strategies. Participant #1 explained that the matriculation exam in the subject she is responsible for includes HOT items. These items ask students to use thinking strategies (on the cognitive level) and then to reflect on how they have solved the HOT items by noting (1) **which** thinking strategy(ies) they have been using to solve the HOT items and (2) by explaining **why** they chose to use precisely this particular thinking strategy. This reflective part of the item corresponds to MSK. Students receive a list of thinking strategies, so that in order to answer section (1) of the question all they needed to do is to choose the name of the appropriate strategy from the list. Yet, interviewee #1 reported that **teachers** who

In her response to a question about metacognition, participant #14 noted that:

*….The teacher needs to understand the process before she starts teaching it….* (18).

*stand it at all).* He continued by explaining that:

*of view, and then to connect it to whatever they do….*

*students], some teachers don't know anything about it.*

tive knowledge before they can start teaching it:

**3.2. Teachers' fragile metastrategic knowledge**

rather simple.

*unit…. Teachers themselves don't know how to use it….* (#14).

## **2.5. Data collection**

Data collection took place between January and October 2015. The interviews were between 90 and 120 min.
