Study on the correlation between metacognitive skills and concept gaining of biology at several learning models

The results of the data analysis showed that almost all of the learning models showed a significant positive correlation between students’ metacognitive skills and their concept gaining. This is in line with the previous researches conducted by Zen (2010), Basith (2011), Arifin (2013), Fauziyah (2013), Ardila (2013), Siswati (2014), and Siswati & Corebima (2016). Some previous researches also have revealed that metacognitive skills have a significant effect on students’ achievement (Zulkiply et al., 2008). Metacognitive skills can help a person to transfer what he has learned in a new context and even in new assignments. Some researchers believe that someone metacognition is associated with intelligence (Kayashima, Inaba & Mizoguchi, 2004). Magno (2010) described the correlation between metacognitive skills and critical thinking skills. Similarly, Ku and Ho (2010) also investigated the correlation between metacognitive skills and thinking skills. In addition to train a person's thinking ability, metacognitive skill is also proven to be able to train problem-solving skill (Hacker & Dunlosky, 2003).

In the previous studies, it was explained also that metacognitive skill involved planning, evaluating and monitoring someone’s learning (Vrieling, Bastiaens, & Stijnen, 2012). Thus, someone whose metacognitive skill has been well trained will learn more easily, because he knows how to learn and to evaluate his own learning. Senemoglu (2012) stated that those who had high metacognitive skills would be able to enhance his confidence to succeed in something, even he would be aware if he made a mistake.

Eggen and Kauchak (1996) also explained that metacognitive skills could help students to regulate their learning process by themselves and became independent learners in order to improve their learning results significantly. Metacognitive skills also play a role in many types of cognitive activities including comprehension, communication, attention, memory, and problem solving (Howard, 2004). Therefore, it is believed that continuous empowerment of metacognitive skills will be able to improve a person's learning results.

Not only associated with thinking ability, metacognitive skill is also associated with the retention of a person. Muhiddin (2012) investigating the correlation between metacognition and retention showed that they had a significant correlation. Moreover, Curwen et al. (2010) also revealed that the students’ ability to think by using their metacognition would be able to distinguish between high achieving students and low achieving students. Louca (2008) explained that metacognition was not just about thinking how to think but it also included how people acquired knowledge and process information. It is implied that metacognitive skills will have an effect on a person's cognition, and particularly how they process the information obtained.

The results of the research show that from all the 26 learnings analyzed related to the correlation between metacognitive skills and concept gaining, 5 learnings were proven to have no correlation. This might be because there were some internal or external factors that caused the results different from the others. Those factors occurred during the learning process, so that it affected the results of the research. Basically, based on this research it is believed that the correlation between metacognitive skills and concept gaining will always be the same in one learning model or several learning models.

The results that have been revealed in this research imply that the future researches investigating the correlation between metacognitive skills and concept gaining should not aim for determining whether or not there is a correlation between the two varibles. The correlation between metacognitive skills and concept gaining will always be the same, both in one learning model or several learning models. Therefore, future researches should aim to reveal the contribution amount of metacognitive skills toward concept gaining.

Based on the results of this study, the largest contribution of metacognitive skills on concept gaining of the students is found at Cooperative Script learning model implemented at the low academic ability student class; the highest contribution is as much as 87.9%. On the other hand the contribution found at CS learning model implemented at high academic ability student class, is much lower than that of implemented at the low academic ability student class; the much lower contribution is only as much as 36.1%. The same phenomenon is also found in relation with the Jigsaw and TPS learning models. The contribution found at Jigsaw learning model implemented at low academic ability student class is as much as 75.4%. It is higher than the contribution found at Jigsaw learning model implemented at high academic ability student class, which is as much as 70.6%. Similarly, the contribution found at TPS learning model implemented at the low academic ability student class is 75.7%. It is also higher than the contribution found at TPS learning model implemented at the high academic ability student class, which is only as much as 57.6%.

Based on the analysis result, metacognitive skill is proven to have higher contribution in low academic ability students than that in high academic ability students. This fact may be related to the students’ characteristics, both the high-academic ability students and the low-academic ability students. The characteristics are for example, the high academic ability students tend to have high capability in grasping the learning material, so that the instructional model used by the teacher does not have a significant effect on the improvement of the students' metacognitive skills. On the other hand, the low academic ability students, who basically have low academic ability, are very helpful with the learning model used by the teachers. This condition has an effect on the improvement of students' metacognitive skills. Other findings that can be revealed in this research are that the learning models used in this research have been proven to help the low academic ability students. In addition, if in a particular school or in a particular class there are many low academic-ability students, these learning models are very necessery to be implemented, as they have been proven to have big potential in empowering the metacognitive skills of low-academic ability students.

The importance of revealing such factors is related to the teachers’ success in empowering students’ metacognitive skills as well as students’ concept gaining simultaneously. The teachers who wish to optimally empower students’ metacognitive skills and concept gaining should implement particular learning models that have been previously reported to be able to empower students’ various skills, as well as pay attention to the factors mentioned so that it can obtain maximal results related to the two targets. When teachers teach using specific learning model and pay attention to these factors, it can be ensured that, when a simple linear regression test was performed, the contribution of metacognitive skill to concept gaining will be consistently high. It is believed that the higher the students’ metacognitive skill is, the higher the students’ concept gaining is, and vice versa. If the concept gaining is measured, and if it is proven that the students’ concept gaining is high, it means that the students’ metacognitive skill is also high, because metacognitive skill has a positive correlation with concept gaining.