Higher-order Thinking and Metacognition in the First-year Core-education Classroom: A case study in the use of color-coded drafts

Abstract This article seeks to provide some modest insights into the pedagogy of higher-order thinking and metacognition and to share the use of color-coded drafts as a best practice in service of both higher-order thinking and metacognition. This article will begin with a brief theoretical exploration of thinking and of thinking about thinking—the latter both in the sense of thinking more deeply about what one is learning/has been thinking about in the course (i.e. higher-order thinking) and in the sense of thinking about one's thinking process (i.e. metacognition). Using concepts borrowed from philosopher Immanuel Kant and literary theorist Kenneth Burke, I wish to suggest that any sort of thinking about thinking, whether it be higher-order thinking about course material or metacognition about one's learning, requires that one framework of thought be brought to bear upon the first framework of thought. This perspective will in turn illuminate how the use of color-coded drafts (in the first-year core-education classroom, at least) provides an opportunity for both higher-order thinking and metacognition. The overall conclusion is that, in the case of color-coded drafts, the act of superimposition, rather than the use of color per se, triggers higher-order thinking and metacognition.