Concerns about the quality and quantity of students' knowledge about learning

In any instance of learning, a student uses both knowledge related to the topic being studied and knowledge about learning. Our observations of students' knowledge about learning show that it is often quite limited and poorly developed. Many students struggle to develop a detailed description of what happens when they learn. It is disconcerting that students are in this state when there is now available a body of detailed research-based knowledge about learning that has been shown to benefit student achievement. We consider the possibility that this situation is associated with an inappropriate reliance on the belief that appropriate knowledge about learning will be generated through experience. This view underestimates the complexity of the domain of knowledge about learning, complexity that necessitates sustained teaching, and practice that parallels that provided for other knowledge domains.