Investigating the Metacognition Calibrations and Mathematical Metacognition Awareness of 8th Grade Students; Skill-Based Mathematics Questions

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the metacognitive awareness of eighth-grade students in mathematics and their metacognitive calibrations in skill-based mathematics questions from various variables, and to determine the relationship between these factors. A relational survey design is used in the study. The sample of the research consists of 303 female students, 217 male students, totaling 520 students who are in the eighth grade. Data were collected using the "Mathematical Metacognition Awareness Scale (MMAS)," the "Skill-Based Mathematics Questions Test (SMQT)," and the "Self-Evaluation Scale (SES)." In the research, the Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of MMAS is found to be .881. The discriminability indices of SMQT are above .34, and the item difficulty indices range from .28 to .88. Descriptive statistics, independent groups t-test, related and unrelated groups ANOVA, and multiple correlation techniques were used in the analysis of the data. In the results of the research, it was observed that students' genders significantly differentiated their mathematical metacognition awareness and biases, but did not differentiate their accuracy significantly. The socio-economic levels (SEL) of students were found to significantly affect their mathematical metacognition awareness but did not differentiate their metacognitive calibrations. The students' mathematics grades were found to significantly differentiate their mathematical metacognition awareness and metacognitive calibrations. There was no significant relationship between students' mathematical metacognition awareness and metacognitive calibrations. Another finding obtained from the study is that students tend to be better calibrated in medium and difficult mathematics questions compared to easy questions, and in difficult and easy questions, they tend to be excessively confident compared to medium difficulty questions.