DEVELOPING THE LEVEL OF METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS OF STUDENTS WITH LOW ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE - PILOT STUDY CONDUCTED IN THE ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Oct 15, 2026

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The study evaluates the effectiveness of an activities program designed to enhance learning metacognitive awareness in students with low academic performance. Conducted with 28 university students at the Faculty of Social Humanistic Sciences, University of Oradea, it uses experimental and control groups in an online environment. The experimental strategy applies “tools of the mind” to support coursebook content units, delivered outside classes and seminars.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

1. Introduction

Metacognition and educational learning contexts

Metacognitive strategies in learning and research evidence

Study objective and intervention design

DEVELOPING THE LEVEL OF METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS OF STUDENTS WITH LOW ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE.PILOT STUDY CONDUCTED IN THE ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Carmen Alina POPA BERCE, Iulia HECIU, Laura BOCHIȘ Abstract: The aim of the study is to highlight the efficiency of a program of activities implemented to develop the level of learning metacognitive awareness of students with low academic performance. The study was conducted on a total of 28 students from the Faculty of Social Humanistic Sciences, University of Oradea, Romania, equally divided into two groups, experimental and control. The didactic strategy used for the experimental group used tools of the mind in activities having the role of support learning for the coursebook content units of Theory and Methodology of Teacher Training. The entire program of activities took place outside classes and seminars, in online. The research tool was Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, validated on the Romanian population by A. Glava, having a number of 53 items. The research findings partially validate the research hypothesis. The program of activities contributed to the improvement of the level of metacognitive awareness of the students in the experimental group, in the posttest stage as compared with the pretest. In the intergroup comparisons, in the posttest, there were statistically significant results only for the Information Management Strategies subscale, with higher mean values in the experimental group. The research findings emphasize the need for an active involvement of teachers, managers of universities in identifying and using teaching strategies to support students with low academic performance in learning, to reduce their risk of dropping out. Key words: metacognitive awareness, tools of the mind, online learning, university dropout 1. Introduction During the pandemic, a number of studies were conducted to identify teaching strategies that increase the level of student involvement and motivation in the online educational process. Although the educational goals set for the teaching, learning, and assessment activities have remained unchanged from pre-pandemic times, a number of issues have required special attention from teachers and school managers, such as: “How can we help students with poor academic performance and at risk of dropping out?”. This hereby research shows the efficiency of some tools of the mind used in online learning activities with students with poor academic performance in order to improve the metacognitive awareness skills. Metacognition is the articulated and flexible system of knowledge that a person has about the characteristics and functionality of his/her own cognitive system and his/her own ability to use this knowledge for its optimal cognitive functioning (Glava & Glava, 2011) . In educational contexts, metacognition is used to explain the process by which students learn to understand their thinking, with the help ofthe idea that if they can regulate their thinking effectively, this will cause them to be better students (Perfect & Schwartz, 2002 cited in Jiang, Ma & Gao, 2016, p. 403 ) . Field studies underline the role of metacognitive strategies in: developing the skills to understand a text or a learning context (reading comprehension) (Çubukcu, 2008; Channa, et al., 2015; Eilers & Pinkley, 2006; King, 1991; Zhussupova & Kazbekova, 2016), learning their mother tongue or a foreign language (Carrell, Pharis & Liberto, 1989; Rahimi & Katal, 2012), learning mathematics (Du Toit & Kotze, 2009; Goos & Galbraith, 1996) or developing self-directed learning skills (Shannon, 2008) . In addition, researchers believe that metacognitive engagement is the key to developing a deeper conceptual understanding of scientific ideas (e.g., Anderson and Nashon 2007; Wang & Chen, 2014) . Therefore, different methodological context was taken into account in the educational practices field, ones that could lead to student metacognitive development,

FAQs

What is the main aim of the pilot study?

To improve the level of learning metacognitive awareness in students with low academic performance through a structured program of activities.

How was the study organized and where did it take place?

The research involved 28 university students divided into experimental and control groups, and the intervention activities were conducted online outside regular classes and seminars.

Which research tool and outcome patterns were reported?

Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (53 items, validated in Romania) was used; findings partially validated the hypothesis, with significant posttest differences only on the Information Management Strategies subscale for the experimental group.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Aditya