Confrontación del mito y logos en la actualidad

This study investigated the impact of the MSF as an explicit metacognitive instructional method on the metacognitive skills awareness of students during problem-solving in stoichiometry. Results of the analyses indicate that the mean score of MCAI for the experimental group declined slightly from pre-test to post-test unlike that of the control group. This is consistent with findings from previous studies where students reporting higher metacognitive awareness at pre-test had lower post-test MCAI scores (Sandi-Urena et al., 2011).

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The study also was designed to investigate whether there was an effect of the intervention on the students’ chemistry achievement scores (PSTs). The analyses indicated that there was a significant improvement in the achievement scores of the experimental group, Group A, and no significant change in the scores of the control group. This is also consistent with previous findings from similar studies where students in the experimental group reported a significant improvement in their chemistry scores compared to the control group (Zepeda et al., 2015; Cook et al., 2013; Sandi-Urena et al, 2011; Delvecchio, 2011; Pennequin et al., 2010). These findings support the interpretation about the MCAI scores that the decline in MCAI scores from pre-test to post-test may have been a result of improved metacognitive awareness.

Together, these findings suggest that the slight decline in MCAI scores in Group A, may have been caused by a greater awareness of metacognitive processes at post-test as a result of MSF training. As a result, these students were more realistic in their rating of their metacognition in the post-test and were better able to solve chemistry stoichiometry problems (Sandi-Urena and Cooper, 2011). It therefore appears that the results reported here suggest the existence of a positive relation between metacognitive skills awareness and achievement scores.

4.4.1 The way the MSF could have increased students’ achievement in stoichiometry This section discusses how MSF as an explicit instructional method could have helped students improve on their metacognitive skills awareness and use. This is followed by a discussion of the link or relation between students’ achievement scores and their metacognitive skills awareness.

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The MSF as an instructional tool was targeted to develop the students’ use of metacognitive skills during problem-solving in stoichiometry. The problem-solving efforts of group A students were focussed by following the different strategies set for each metacognitive skills component and this (in common with the results in the study by Sandi-Urena et al., 2011) appears to have led to the enhancement of the students’ metacognitive skills awareness and use during problem-solving tasks.

The MSF template (Appendix 1) was not designed as an instruction tool (Whitebread et al., 2009). It is possible that the use of this template, in the current study allowed students to identify strategies linked to each metacognitive skills component as they progressed through their problem-solving tasks and this may have helped them to improve their metacognitive skills awareness and use. For example, strategies for the planning component suggested that the students should read the whole question, determine the goal, sort the information into relevant and irrelevant, break down the problem into small chunks, establish the relationship among any given data and decide on a strategy or method to find a solution. This deliberate and explicit guidance (Delvecchio, 2011) may have provided students with a clear focus during problem- solving tasks which appears to improve their metacognitive awareness and use.

The existence of a positive relation between gains in metacognitive skills and achievement scores in the problem-solving tasks is consistent with previous research (e.g. Cook et al., 2013; Sandi-Urena eta al., 2011; Pennequin et al., 2010; Swanson, 1990). However, there was only a weak correlation between MCAI scores and PSTs achievement scores, this may be because what was important to increase PST scores was that there was some increase in metacognitive skills, but the extent of their use was less critical. As a result, MSF could have supported increases in metacognition that resulted in increased PST scores, but the extent of the increase in metacognitive

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skills use did not relate to the PST gains made by the students. Previous researchers did not compute correlations between gains in achievement and MCAI scores; therefore, it is difficult to compare the present findings with findings from previous research in this regard.

4.5 Summary

In this study the effectiveness of an explicit instructional intervention method in changing students’ metacognitive awareness and stoichiometry abilities was investigated. Results showed that for the experimental group there was no statistically significant difference between the students’ pre-test and post-test mean MCAI scores suggesting that the students’ metacognitive awareness might not have significantly changed over the time of the intervention. However, there was a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test problem-solving tasks mean scores for the intervention group. This study, in common with similar previous studies, has supported the idea that metacognition can be taught and that there is a general link (though in the present study not statistically significant) between levels of metacognitive awareness and learning achievement.

Going forward, there is need to compare the MSF instructional intervention to other metacognitive instructional approaches and investigate the relative contribution of each component of the metacognitive skills to the students’ overall metacognitive awareness and use. This will help teachers of stoichiometry to make informed choices when deciding on effective instructional interventions. The next study compares the effectiveness MSF and another explicit metacognitive instructional method in developing students’ metacognitive skills awareness and use and considers the role of different components of metacognitive skills in the overall improvement of metacognitive skills awareness.

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Chapter 5: Study 2: Comparing instructional effectiveness of