I agree with you on the importance of meta-skills. We should do further reflection, especially for training, to give depth to the professionalism.

Some meta-skills? being able to reflect and criticize their actions, able to share common goals, and try to be consistent with the principles of the profession, how to develop an ethical reasoning, knowing prendfere right decisions, even against ...

Topics: reflective action, self-awareness

consistency

Dear David, 

As I have been studying motor activity in connection to learning for  at least 20 years in mice, I want to point out that the freezing response as well as genetics affect the performance. Mice selected for aggression also differ in testosterone and anxiety levels and so on. On a phylogenetic low level not many meta skills can be taught but why not test rodents to different kinds of music. 

I know its old and popular writing, but is Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ Mass Market Paperback – 12 Sep 1996 interesting to you in this context? 

This seems hard to pin down when minutiae of some skill sets are mutually informative. Among circus artists, all "object manipulation" skills are mutually informative and demonstrate principles like rotation, translation, isolation, etc. Some of those skills certainly transfer over to principles like gradual change (calculus), tetrahedral geometry and sphere packing (chemistry), and so on... seems like there are a lot of potential confounds.

Yes Richard, exactly! The idea is to combine these confounds and teach them as instances of a meta-skill, e.g. spatial transformation as the meta-skill with subcategories of mathematical geometry, object manipulation, organic chemistry, mechanical physics, origami, yoga/martial arts (or another kind of body geometry), and to keep students focused on the connections between these superficially disjoint domains.

Also, of course, self awareness/metacognition seems to be the ultimate meta-skill, as everything we do connects us to the world in some way, so awareness of our thinking/feeling is half of every interaction. Please keep piling them on!

memories- kinesthetic, auditory, visual and other somatosensory alongwith traditionally tested verbal and non verbal. i

One may consider:

• Self-management (in one's affect, patience, motivation, time-management, stress-management, etc..), and
• Others-management (e.g., communication, relationship and team building, etc.) skills.
• Learning to learn different subject matters.

Awareness of your own emotions, being able to reflect on them and understand where they are coming from.

To  be able to verbally express your reflections on your emotions  and to be able to discuss them with others.

To be able to feel while you talk and communicate these feelings.

To be in tune with others, while being aware of your own emotions.

To  be able to listen without passing judgement.

Salvo melhor informação parece-me que as respostas dos colegas sugeridas até ao presente cabem debaixo do domínio da neuropsicomotricidade humana. As novas constelações de meta-habilidades exigidas para as actuais civilizações modernas e sociedades de consumo deveriam, quanto a mim, serem procuradas nas dinâmicas profundas dos inconscientes individuais, nas forças ativadoras das emoções positivas, nos potenciais das associações livres e nas dinâmicas das criatividades interdisciplinares, tendo como pano-de-fundo imagens da universalidade, aproveitando as rentáveis eficiências das sucessivas produções mentais dos indivíduos.

to be able to have a shared vision

to be able to pass from the particular to the general and back

to be able to cope with uncertainty in a positive way

develop skills to change and innovation

David:

A handful that immediately spring to mind - all of which have helped me inestimably:

Language (grammatical and semantic/ lexical categorization) skills

Logical reasoning and critical thinking skills

Skills based on core executive functions of the brain (cf, for example, Diamond (2013): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4084861/

Skills that apply theoretical understanding of self-regulating systems and of hierarchical control models (upon which self-regulating systems necessarily depend)

Skills emergent  from attentional focus upon low-level, elementary properties of perceptual phenomena, in the context of goal-governed activities.

Chunking skills.

Best regards, Richard.

One concept I was thinking when reading your question was the concept of "Level of Conciousness" 

In Troyer (2011), level of consciousness is how a subject is aware of is learning and the way he learn, do some error. Subject with better level of consciousness (by practice of mindfulness meditation, in exemple) can better correct their error in practice because they see more often when they do it. 

I'm not an expert in this field of psychology but I hope it will help you.

Best regards, Julien.

P.S. : It is the study I talk about

As an acting teacher and director, I have discovered that the easiest way to accomplish Marta Djikoff's list of meta-skills is through physical contact between and among people which includes conflicting desires. Such skills are essential to actors who must at all times maintain a balance between internal and external requirements, while simultaneously focusing on the relationship between him/her and the partner or partners in a scene.

Activities as simple as a rope-pull, or as complicated and free-form as a wrestling match involve the need to win and produce emotion, fast strategizing, and team-work. The rope-pull will not be accomplished without agreement and participation on the part of both teams.The wrestling match, which is far more intimate, creates deep bonds between the participants, and sensory/emotional elements are dramatically heightened.

As these activities are being done, I "drop in" language by saying the lines to each actor without interpretation.  The actors then verbally repeat them using the effort of the activity rather than a preconceived belief in the meaning of the line. This exercise, once mastered, eliminates rote learning, non-sensory understanding of the text, and automatic responses. In its place are subtextual communication, heightened emotion linked to body awarenesses, and a reliance on partner. This process is difficult to explain, but should be rather obvious, at least for actors. Following the exercise, actors reflect on what happened, sometimes walk the "map" of the encounter, and share with others the new ideas tripped off by the immersion in the physicality of the event. 

This exercise allows all of Marta's list to be accomplished. First the physical, then the verbal, then the sharing. 

Awareness of your own emotions, being able to reflect on them and understand where they are coming from.

To  be able to verbally express your reflections on your emotions  and to be able to discuss them with others.

To be able to feel while you talk and communicate these feelings.

To be in tune with others, while being aware of your own emotions.

To  be able to listen without passing judgement.

There are several exercises which precede the actual doing of these "SuperScenes" that are based on acquiring skills in spatial awareness. It has been my very unscientific experience that this form of learning in the body is deeper, richer, and multi-faceted because it is not filtered through the fog of intellect.

Difficult exercise to explain, but simple to see. I have some videotape currently being edited to assist in understanding superscenes.

Thanks John Drake Brody. I work with teachers (and students), a totaaly different groups. would love to see your videos and try them out. 

Thanks John Drake Brody. I work with teachers (and students), a totaaly different groups. would love to see your videos and try them out. 

I have been teaching tai chi to older adults, age ranging from 50-80, for about 14 years. I slowly developed a meta-skill type of teaching method. I would love more information on meta skill learning. Can anyone share some links to studies?

Thanks so much,

Chris