Brainhub guide
Teach them how to learn: three questions for after homework
Children who plan, check and review their own work learn more. You can build the habit at home with three simple questions.
Key takeaways
- Metacognition means thinking about your own learning: planning a task, checking it is working, and reviewing how it went.
- The Education Endowment Foundation rates teaching these skills as high impact for very low cost: about eight months’ extra progress on average over a school year.
- You don’t need to know the subject. Your questions do the work.
- Try one question a day for a week, then let your child start asking them without you.
1. Why this matters now
By December, many children have had a term of new topics, and older pupils are in or near their mocks. It is a good moment to look not just at what they are learning, but at how they go about it.
2. What metacognition means
Metacognition is a long word for a simple idea: thinking about your own thinking. The psychologist John Flavell described it in the 1970s as knowing about your own thinking and keeping track of it as you go.[3]
The Education Endowment Foundation, which reviews research on what helps pupils in England, rates teaching metacognition and self-regulation as high impact for very low cost, based on extensive evidence: about eight months’ extra progress on average over a year. Its guidance for schools describes three steps: plan, monitor and evaluate.[1]
3. Three questions to ask after homework
Most of us ask “Have you done your homework?” A yes or no tells you very little. These three questions ask your child to look back at how they learned, which is the evaluate step.[2]
What was the hardest bit?
And how did you get through it? This shows them they have strategies, even when it felt tricky.
How do you know it’s right?
Did they check an answer, use the mark scheme, or try it without notes? Feeling sure and being right are not the same thing.
What would you do differently?
Next time, would they start sooner, ask for help earlier, or test themselves first?
You don’t need the answers: You are not checking the homework. You are helping your child notice how they work. Ask, wait and listen.
4. A one-week try-it plan
Keep it light. One question a day, a minute or two, at a time that suits you: in the car, at dinner or before bed.
5. Make it theirs
The goal is for your child to ask these questions without you. After a week or two, swap roles: ask them which question they want to use, or let them quiz you on how you plan a task at work.
Older students can read our lesson Plan, monitor, review: thinking about your thinking, which explains the same cycle for revision.
Good learners ask themselves questions. For now, you ask them. Soon they won’t need you to.
Want help building study habits?: Our teachers can show your child how to plan, check and review their work in a free call.
Try it now
Test yourself on this page
Answer in your head first, then check.
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1. What are the three steps of metacognition?
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2. Do you need to know the subject to help?
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3. Which question checks the evaluate step?
Your next steps
- Ask one of the three questions after homework tonight.
- Pin the one-week plan on the fridge.
- At the weekend, ask which question helped most.
Sources
- Education Endowment Foundation. Teaching and Learning Toolkit: Metacognition and self-regulation. educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/metacognition-and-self-regulation
- Education Endowment Foundation (2025). Metacognition and self-regulated learning: guidance report (second edition). educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/metacognition
- Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: a new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34(10), 906–911. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.34.10.906
This guide is general study advice. Every student is different. A teacher can help you work out what fits.