The use of metacognitive interventions to enhance secondary students’ metacognitive capabilities and their achievements in science

This action research study was designed to conduct and evaluate the effectiveness of a repertoire of interventions in three cycles to enhance secondary students’ metacognitive capabilities and achievement in science. Generally, the research findings from quantitative data suggested no significant gains whereas the qualitative data suggested gains in metacognitive strategies only for high and average achieving students. Students’ achievements in science tests were greater for content knowledge than explanations

Using metacognitive strategies in teaching to facilitate understanding of light concepts among year 9 students

Background: Enhancing students’ metacognitive abilities will help to facilitate their understanding of science concepts. Purpose: The study was designed to conduct and evaluate the effectiveness of a repertoire of interventions aimed at enhancing secondary school students’ metacognitive capabilities and their achievements in science. Sample: A class of 35 Year 9 students participated in the study. Design and methods: The study involved a pre-post design, conducted by the first author as part of the regular designated science programme in a class taught by him. In order to enhance the students’ metacognitive capabilities, the first author employed clearly stated focused outcomes, engaging them in collaborative group work, reading scientific texts and using concept mapping techniques during classroom instruction. The data to evaluate the effectiveness of the metacognitive interventions were obtained from pre- and post-test results of two metacognitive questionnaires, the Metacognitive Support Questionnaire (MSpQ) and the Metacognitive Strategies Questionnaire (MStQ), and data from interviews. In addition, pre-test and post-test scores were used from a two-tier multiple-choice test on Light.Results: The results showed gains in the MSpQ but not in the MStQ. However, the qualitative data from interviews suggested high metacognitive capabilities amongst the high- and average-achieving students at the end of the study. Students’ gains were also evident from the test scores in the Light test. Conclusion: Although the quantitative data obtained from the Metacognitive Strategies Questionnaire did not show significant gains in the students’ metacognitive strategies, the qualitative data from interviews suggested positive perceptions of students’ metacognitive strategies amongst the high- and average-achieving students. Data from the Metacognitive Support Questionnaire showed that there were significant gains in the students’ perceptions of their metacognitive support implying that the majority of the students perceived that their learning environment was oriented towards the development of their metacognitive capabilities. The effect of the metacognitive interventions on students’ achievement in the Light test resulted in students displaying the correct declarative knowledge, but quite often they lacked the procedural knowledge by failing to explain their answers correctly

Teaching Science Using Metacognitive Strategies to Improve Achievement

This action research study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a repertoire of interventions aimed at enhancing secondary school students’ metacognitive capabilities in science and the correlation between the students’ metacognitive capabilities and their results in science tests and assignments. The action research, which started in 2009, involved 2 cycles. In the first cycle, 35 students from Year 9 participated in the action research. The interventions included providing students with clearly stated focused outcomes, engaging in collaborative group work and using concept mapping. In the second cycle, a total of 57 students from Years 7, 9 and 11 participated. The same interventions, as in cycle one, were employed in addition to using reflection journals. In the first cycle, the data to evaluate the effectiveness of the metacognitive interventions were obtained from pre- and posttests on metacognitive questionnaires and pre-and posttests scores using two-tier tests in three different science topics. The results of the metacognitive survey showed gains on Metacognitive Support but not for Metacognitive Strategy Use. Student gains were evident from the test scores for Light and Atoms