Employ strategies to develop young people’s metacognition and self-regulation (i.e. the ability to monitor, direct and review their own learning, through explicitly thinking about their own learning, setting goals and evaluating progress) and executive function skills (these are a set of skills and mental processes that develop throughout childhood and adolescence, which support young people to self-regulate, initiate, attend to and persevere with activities successfully).

Explicit teaching and reference of metacognitive strategies following the seven-step model:

1. Activating prior knowledge.

2. Explicit strategy instruction.

3. Modelling of learned strategy.

4. Memorisation of strategy.

5. Guided practice.

6. Independent practice.

7. Structured reflection.

Organise and structure group talk and dialogue, including ‘Socratic talk’, talk partners and debating.

Teacher/lecturer/tutor scaffolding and modelling of own thinking at a whole-group level (e.g. modelling self-talk when preparing for a task, making mistakes or monitoring comprehension).

Use of structured planning templates (task plans, checklists and writing frames), worked examples, and breaking down activities into steps.

Use of prompt sheets, questions to answer, key words to build sections or paragraphs around.

Explicit teaching of independent study and working skills.

Use of journals/notebooks for young people to sequence their thoughts, log ideas or questions during lessons.

Use of multiple examples of new concepts, taking examples from real life experiences.

Access to key information (e.g. subject specific vocabulary, key spellings, number facts etc.) visually to promote independence and reduce working memory loads.

Use of verbal and visual cues/prompts to direct or redirect attention – access to opportunities for movement breaks and different modalities of teaching and learning.

Teaching and support for independence skills, for example: planning, organising and time management.