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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 19, Issue 1, Article 4 (Jun., 2018) |
Metacognition is one’s ability to control cognitive processes; it can be seen as a concept that describes ‘cognition about cognition’, ‘thinking about thinking’, or ‘knowing about knowing’. Metacognition describe one’s knowledge of how to perceive, remember, think, and act on what we know, based on what we have known (Metcalfe & Shimamura, 1994). Metacognition also plays an important role in oral communication, oral persuasion, oral comprehension, reading, writing, receiving language, attention, memory, problem solving, social cognition, and various types of self-control (Flavell, 1979). In general, it can be said that the cognitive processes and outputs of an individual or their self-knowledge reveal their metacognition (Cikrikci & Odaci, 2016). The important role of metacognition can be understood from the constructs or components of metacognition itself.
Metacognition consists of two main components, namely knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition (Byun, Lee, & Cerreto, 2013; Dejonckheere, Van de Keere, Tallir, & Vervaet, 2013; Ma & Baranovich, 2015). Knowledge of cognition is the knowledge a person has about when and how to implement a strategy appropriately (Javid, Alavi, & Pour, 2013), and consists of three aspects: declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and conditional knowledge (Schraw, Crippen, & Hartley, 2006; Sperling, Howard, Miller, & Murphy, 2002). Meanwhile, regulation of cognition comprises five skills: planning, information management strategy, comprehension monitoring, debugging strategy, and evaluation (Schraw et al., 2006; Schraw & Dennison, 1994a). The measurement of knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition have been developed into the chief measuring tool of metacognition, known as the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI), developed by Schraw & Dennison, (1994); this tool has been widely used in various parts of the world (Corebima, 2009; Jacobse & Harskamp, 2012). The reliability of this instrument has also been extensively tested, such as in the study conducted by Sperling et al. (2002).
Knowledge of cognition, often referred to as the knowledge of metacognition (Krathwohl, 2002), is one of the components that plays an important role in monitoring the productivity of metacognition. The monitoring of cognition productivity, supported by knowledge of metacognition, is also influenced by the actions and reactions of the phenomena of the metacognitive experience, purpose, or task to be achieved, and the strategies adopted to face and solve problems (Flavell, 1979). Knowledge of cognition is what someone knows about their cognition in general (Schraw, 1998) and the possibility of implementing strategies (Garrison, 2003). Knowledge of cognition also determines the ability to become an independent learner (Duffy, Miller, Parsons, & Meloth, 2009). Knowledge of cognition includes knowledge used in approaching the questions ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘when’, and ‘why’ (Ma & Baranovich, 2015). Knowledge of cognition contains at least three aspects of cognitive awareness: declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and conditional knowledge (Schraw, 1998).
Declarative knowledge is knowledge ‘about’ something (Azevedo & Aleven, 2013), that is, the knowledge of what one knows, and the knowledge of how to learn and what factors influence the learning process (Young & Fry, 2012). Declarative knowledge is concerned with the insights of a person about their processing ability and the factors that affect their performance (Backer, Keer, & Valcke, 2011). This knowledge is immediately detected, for example, when a person is aware when reading of the gap between their understanding and the demands of the text (Dabarera, Renandya, & Zhang, 2014).
Procedural knowledge is the knowledge about successful methods used to achieve specific learning goals and an awareness of how specific cognitive skills are applied in learning (Backer et al., 2011). Knowledge about methods that can be used to achieve success will provide security for a person in facing various problems. The confidence to resolve the problems related to learning activities grows with the ability to apply cognitive skills. Procedural knowledge is the knowledge about the strategies which can be used to improve performance (Yore & Treagust, 2006). Procedural knowledge can be considered as an admission mechanism for abstract concepts. The direct teaching of procedural knowledge helps individuals to approach new scientific knowledge (Zoupidis, Pnevmatikos, Spyrtou, & Kariotoglou, 2016).
Conditional knowledge is related to knowledge of external conditions, so that the use and effectiveness of certain strategies can be appropriate to those conditions (Backer et al., 2011). Conditional knowledge is an understanding of when and how to use something we already know, for example, using different strategies in different situations (Larkin, 2009). Yore and Treagust (2006) state that conditional knowledge is the awareness of how, when, and where to use certain strategies. Conditional knowledge emphasizes knowledge which connects facts, so that it is a form of inductive reasoning, that is, making a decision based on facts collected together (Kiesewetter et al., 2016).
According to Schraw & Dennison (1994b), the three types of knowledge of cognition are related to each other and are able to predict each other. Hence, these three types of knowledge of cognition can provide insights into each other. If one type of knowledge of cognition is at a high level, the others are also, and vice versa, and so declarative knowledge, for example, can help to develop strong procedural knowledge (Azevedo & Aleven, 2013). The use and selection of appropriate strategies reflect conditional knowledge, which is the culmination of cognition.
The measurement and pre-assessment of metacognitive aspects are important because such information can help students by being used to provide the opportunity to improve their metacognition (Tanner, 2012). Metacognitive knowledge is significantly correlated with cognitive retention, and Palennari (2016) states that this has a greater contribution to learning outcomes than learning motivation (Bahri & Corebima, 2015). Educators who understand students’ metacognitive knowledge levels are expected to be better in optimizing the learning process that will be implemented in order to achieve predetermined objectives.
Based on the elaboration above, it can be seen that these three types of knowledge of cognition are interrelated, so that a hypothesis can be proposed that there is no difference in the levels of the various aspects of knowledge of cognition within an individual. Therefore, this research aims to illustrate that there is no difference in the three types of knowledge of cognition in pre-service biology teachers.
