Assessing Metacognitive Regulation during Problem Solving: A Comparison of Three Measures

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Learning Sciences

Background:

• Metacognition is crucial for problem-solving and self-regulated learning.
• Existing measures of metacognitive regulation include questionnaires, verbal protocols, and metacognitive judgments.
• The relationship between these diverse measures and their connection to learning outcomes remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationships between three distinct measures of metacognitive regulation.
• To examine how these measures relate to each other and to subsequent learning outcomes.
• To understand the convergence and divergence of different metacognitive assessment tools.

Main Methods:

• Collected verbal protocols during a learning activity to assess metacognitive evaluation and monitoring.
• Administered questionnaires after learning tasks to measure metacognitive control and evaluation.
• Obtained judgments of knowing (JOKs) during a subsequent test to gauge metacognitive accuracy.

Main Results:

• Verbal protocol evaluation statements positively correlated with questionnaire components on control/debugging and evaluation.
• Verbal protocol monitoring statements showed a negative association with questionnaire monitoring components and JOKs.
• Each metacognitive measure demonstrated unique relationships with different aspects of learning performance.

Conclusions:

• The findings underscore the heterogeneity of metacognitive regulation measures.
• Different assessment methods capture distinct metacognitive skills and relate to learning outcomes differently.
• Researchers and educators should consider the specific affordances and constraints of each measure in practice.