Constructing and standardizing the cognitive and metacognitive skills test of students and relating these skills to academic achievement motivation

Dissertation for obtaining a doctorate degree (Ph.D)

Treatment: General Psychology

Dissertation abstract (including summary, objectives, implementation methods and obtained results):

In this research, in order to examine the relationship between cognitive and metacognitive skills with motivation for academic achievement and to determine the technical characteristics of Hermans questionnaire of cognitive and metacognitive skills and motivation for progress (Hermans, 1970, revised by Homan and Asgari, 1379) 1000 students (78.4% female and 21.6% male) were selected by stratified sampling method proportional to the volume. Through Cronbach's alpha method, the reliability coefficient of cognitive and metacognitive skills questionnaires and academic achievement motivation were obtained, respectively, 0.89 and 0.788. The validity of the questionnaires was estimated through exploratory factor analysis. From the cognitive and metacognitive skills questionnaire, 6 factors were extracted, which explained 39.2% of the total variance. 5 factors were extracted from the Hermenis progress motivation questionnaire, which explained 34.6% of the total variance. Using Pearson's correlation coefficients, the relationship between students' cognitive and metacognitive skills and their progress motivation was investigated; The components of cognitive and metacognitive skills had a significant correlation with motivation to progress at a level of less than 0.01. Multivariate analysis of variance and t-test to compare the cognitive and metacognitive skills of men and women show that the cognitive and metacognitive variables of mental review and control and supervision were lower in boys than in girls and awareness in boys was higher than in girls. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed that different age groups had significant differences in the cognitive and metacognitive variables of planning, mental review, control and monitoring, and evaluation, but there was no significant difference between the rest of the cognitive and metacognitive variables at different ages.

Introduction

In recent years, psychology has considered effective ways of learning and studying. With the progress of modern science and technology in today's era, schools and universities should be a place to use new strategies in educational fields and deal with the issue of education and learning in a more specialized way, and more correctly, the process of transferring knowledge to people. It is obvious that the people who enter these places as students are the human forces and capital of this country, which should be done as correctly and scientifically as possible to transfer the necessary knowledge and awareness and turn them into experts and trainees. Today, with the progress made in the psychology of learning and news [1], scientific ways to maximize the learning of the students while studying have been discovered, which should be noticed by the parents of education. and education should be placed so that by accurately identifying the problems of learners and teaching the correct methods of studying and learning and teaching cognitive and metacognitive methods, the process of entering scientific information into the minds of learners will be a regular construction. Another point is that in order to identify the level of skill of students (and learners in general) of tools and specialized tools, it is necessary that this research was formed with the aim of building such a tool. is found, it is encrypted and stored in the memory to be retrieved in the next use. Metacognition is related to a person's awareness of his own thinking and the self-regulating behaviors that accompany this awareness (Driscoll [3], 2005). Knowledge of knowledge or learning [4] about learning or any knowledge or cognitive activity whose subject is the regulation of knowledge is also called metacognition [5] (Seif, 2007). In fact, metacognition is a person's awareness and control over cognitive processes, and it is a useful process that increases learning. Therefore, it seems necessary to pay attention to metacognition in learning (Pellegrino[6], 2008).

Trying to understand human cognitive processes as well as finding methods to strengthen and improve these abilities has always been the focus of educational philosophers, education specialists and psychologists. Psychologists try to investigate the mechanisms and processes involved in cognition and, based on the findings, propose methods and strategies to cultivate the desired mental and cognitive abilities. The importance and influence of cognitive and metacognitive skills..

The importance and impact of cognitive and metacognitive skills on learning have been confirmed in many studies (DuBois, Howard and Sperling[7], 2004; Kimes[8], 2004; Kramarski[9], 2001, 2002 and 2004; Weinman[10], 2004, 2006 Panora, 2007; Retrad, 2007; Schonfeld, 2004; 7], 1991; Armbruster and Bran, 1987; Karimi and Farzad, 1996; 1377; Afroz and Kamkari, 1375; and Avansian, 1377). Therefore, measuring people's cognitive and metacognitive skills is very important in terms of their impact on learning.

Cognitive and metacognitive skills place learners among strategic learners[21]. It means that people who have these skills have a different educational status from others. Strategic learners use cognitive and metacognitive skills in the learning process and usually have high academic progress [22]. Although cognitive and metacognitive skills evolve during human development, they can be taught, and people who lack these skills can be exposed to these trainings. There have been various researches about the effectiveness of these trainings and the confirmation of this. Moyahan [23] (1973 cited in Burke [24], 1994) has shown that children know less about the factors affecting knowledge than adults. Kratzer, Leonard and Flavel (1975) have shown that children's metamemory skills increase in parallel with their growth. Spear [25] and Flavel (1979) proposed that elementary school children have a better understanding of cognitive task variables compared to kindergarten children. Swansen [26] (1993) examined the effect of metacognitive knowledge on problem solving and found a significant relationship between high levels of metacognitive knowledge and problem solving, meaning that respondents with high metacognitive knowledge performed better in problem solving than people with low metacognitive knowledge. He showed that the students who scored high in the metacognition questionnaire had a stronger performance in problem solving tasks than those who scored low. Of course, some researches have also indicated the lack of effect of metacognition training programs in solving the problem (McCormid [27], 1993).

Motivation for progress is considered one of the most important motivations or acquisition needs, which was first introduced by Murray [28]. Motivation has been defined as a simple expression of the direction and intensity of a person's effort. The meaning of effort is the method in which a person intends to achieve certain situations, and the meaning of effort intensity is the amount of effort that a person exerts (Weinberg and Goald [29], 1995, quoted by Pervin [30], 2005). Theorists believe that those who are at a high level of this motivation are people with traits such as conscientiousness, self-esteem, individual responsibility, who are always diligent and diligent in academic activities or in general education (McClelland [31], 1987). In fact, interest in learning is the product of a set of factors that are related to the learner's personality [32] and abilities, task characteristics, incentives, and other external factors (Weiner [33], 1972). There are many variables that affect the motivation of students, and one of the most effective factors is the motivation to progress, which according to people like Slavin [34] (1983), educational psychologists are the most faced with it, because many researches have been conducted in this regard, which shows that people differ in terms of this motivation. Some are highly motivated and hardworking to achieve success in competition with others and in their work. Some also do not have much motivation for academic progress and are not ready to take risks to achieve success due to the fear of failure (Seif, 2019). Students who have a strong motivation for progress are looking for success in their daily activities that will enable them to fulfill their motivation for progress. They consider specific progress criteria for themselves and then work hard to achieve those criteria (Zimmerman and Schunk [35], 1989).