Development and Support of Metacognition in Preschool Children

This paper surveys the result of developmental research of metacognition of preschool children, and argues how these knowledge should be efficiently employed in preschool education and childcare. The metacognition of preschool children is the precursor of metacognition, and children acquire gradually metamemory, meta-knowing, theory of mind , self-reguration, cooperativity, etc. They are related mutually, and should be called“ the sprout of learning” connected to learning after entering school. It is important to raise metacognition in early childhood education, and it is necessary to support children to have their own purpose and target, to devise themselves in the process of play, to look back upon play of them and self-evaluate of own play, to do collaborative activity, and to express own thinking by language each other. Future research is due to examine the effect of those supports on the basis of episode from longitudinal observation. Key Words: metacognition, theory of mind, self-regulation, cooperativity, preschool education