International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 185
Teaching Critical Thinking and Metaliteracy Through OER
knowledge creation and sharing, and
empowerment of learners” (Cronin &
McLaren, 2018, slide 6).
However, there can be a continuum
model of practices (Stagg, 2014) or
degrees of OEP (Ehlers, 2011, as cited
in Cronin & McLaren, 2018a, p. 130).
In courses that employ OEP, students
generally work with OER and may be
active creators of knowledge that will
be shared beyond their instructor and
potentially beyond their current classmates.
In such courses, students move
beyond what is seen as the traditional
role of “student” to roles that are active,
collaborative, and often contribute to
the learning of others. Instructors employing
OEP, whether partially or fully
engaged with the full range of potential
practices, need to prepare students for
these roles, just as they need to prepare
them for the topic of the course. In order
for students to succeed, learning must
center not only on disciplinary content,
but also on a host of competencies that
span the behavioral, cognitive, metacognitive,
and affective. The metaliteracy
conceptualization described below
provides a framework for students to
better meet unfamiliar learning situations
encountered through OER use
and for instructors to explore pedagogical
practices that allow for opening education.
Metaliteracy
In an age and information environment
where knowledge practices
and skills evoking critical thinking
are at a premium, the concept of metaliteracy
provides a framework and a
broad set of OER-based tools with the
potential to expand students’ and others’
learning abilities. The framework
is aptly named. One of the meanings
of meta in Greek is “beyond,” so in the
modern day, metaliteracy is what is
needed beyond the basic literacies of
reading and writing. It “... suggests a
way of thinking about one’s own literacy.
To be metaliterate requires individuals
to understand their existing literacy
strengths and areas for improvement
and make decisions about their learning”
(Mackey & Jacobson, 2014, p. 2).
Metaliteracy, therefore, is a pedagogical
model that emphasizes an individual’s
method of learning and participating
in today’s complex information environment
(Mackey & Jacobson, 2019, p.
xvii). Metaliteracy argues against passive
learning, challenging students to
reflect on and take ownership of a host
of learner roles while acknowledging
the need for incorporating four distinct
learning domains.
More specifically, the metaliteracy
framework has at its core four
goals, each of which has a number of
learning objectives (Jacobson, Mackey,
O’Keeffe, Forte, & O’Keeffe, 2018).
These learning objectives are underpinned
by learning domains designed
to emphasize the depth of the learning
process: affective, changes in learners’
emotions or attitudes through engagement
with learning activities; behavioral,
what competencies students have
upon successful completion of learning
activities; cognitive, what students
should know upon successful completion
of learning activities; and metacognitive,
how students reflect on their
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