Effect of metacognitive strategy based mathematics instruction on students' self-regulation and mathematics achievement

Abstract

As student-centered learning have gained importance in education, many studies focused on students' thinking process and showed importance of students' ability to regulate their learning according to their own needs. Therefore, self-regulation and metacognition were needed to be studied to help students learn to develop their own strategies. This study focuses on developing students' questioning skills for their strategy construction via IMPROVE instruction method which has similar processes with self-regulated learning and problem-solving in mathematics lessons. Therefore, it is aimed to investigate whether there is a significant effect of metacognitive strategy based mathematics instruction on students' self-regulation and mathematics achievement, and how the IMPROVE instruction affects students' questioning skills. Mathematics instruction was on the unit of functions and lasted about two months. The study was designed using embedded mixed method strategy. While experimental research processes were conducted with 36 I Oth grade students in total, qualitative data was also collected from seven voluntary students to better see the improvements of students on questioning. Think aloud sessions on function problems and reactions to the instruction were used as qualitative data and, an achievement test on functions and Metacognitive Strategy and Learning (MSLQ) questionnaire were used to collect quantitative data. The quantitative results showed that there was not a statistically significant difference between control and experimental group for both mathematics achievement and self-regulation although experimental group increased their mean on achievement and strategy use more than control group. Further, qualitative results showed all students use comprehension and strategy questions at some level; however, they were in difficulty to use connection and reflection questions. Additionally, students in the experimental group could develop their strategy using especially in terms of connection and reflection questions. Moreover, all of them stated that they could query more than before. On the other hand, it was observed that metacognitive skills of students from control group were more stable. Results of the study and implications on teaching are discussed, suggestions for further studies are given.