I deeply apologise, to you and Professor Galbraith both, for not having a reference for this quote.

Meta-knowledge is not innate, it must be taught. Part of meta-knowledge is the knowledge that we should seek and use meta-knowledge. This meta-awareness is apparently not natural. Embarrassingly, it has to be taught. Part of being meta-aware is the awareness of the value of meta-awareness itself and that its techniques should be deliberately recalled and applied.

We seek to produce the student who chooses appropriately among a selection of learning, self-correcting and self-management methods and the student who can take a strategic overview of his performance and attitudes towards his performance. Like the student who came up with the mnemonic ‘FRIday is the END of the week when you can go for a drink with FRIENDs’. Or the student who had a problem writing ‘accommodation’ [at the hotel], began to get depressed and mad, then considered his reaction, smiled to himself and wrote ‘rooms’ instead. Or the other student who deliberately imagines the two ‘m’s in accommodation romping naughtily in the same hotel bed and thereafter has no problem with the word. Or the student who you find has looked up ‘revolution’ and found, to his interest, ‘revolve’ and ‘revolutionary’. Or the student who writes that ‘I’ve found some of the ways we work can help my lad just as well’. Or the student who turns up with three drafts of a piece of writing which get more focused and better written as they go. There are words written several different ways on the drafts, with the wrong spellings scored out. He has also retained the drafts without embarrassment. Or the student who sings out ‘What we really need to think about is what the bloke who wrote this article is up to; where’s he coming from?’ Or the student who says ‘I wrote it this way because ...’ Or the student who, until recently always crouched protectively over his work, now pushes some of his writing over and says ‘Is that how you spell president?’ Or the student who says ‘Whoah! This is too heavy all at once. Give it to me bit by bit!’

These students are engaged in their own literacy, and their own learning. They see it from outside as well as inside. They have the tools for tackling new situations and they have the understanding to look into their toolbox appropriately. They are drivers rather than passengers.