Metacognition Strategy for the Development of Basic Thinking Competency in Preliminary School Textbooks

Abstract

For humans, thinking and producing language are two inseparable activities. They often take place together, such as in language production or in speaking. Furthermore, thinking has different levels, from basic level thinking (literal) to higher-order thinking (critical-creative). A basic level of thinking competencies can be improved to higher order thinking competencies. Besides, metacognition is essential as it becomes the controller to improve the achievement of basic level competencies. Nevertheless, the metacognition element of literal competence has not yet been known until today, especially in elementary school (sd) thematic textbooks. Therefore, this study aims to describe the metacognition strategies of developing literal thinking competencies in elementary school textbooks at the beginning level (grades 1 and 2). This qualitative study employs the content analysis method. The research data is in the form of a discourse that represents a strategy for developing literal thinking competencies in an elementary thematic textbook based on the 2013 curriculum published by the ministry of education and culture, the 2017 revision. The data were collected using a documentation technique with a key instrument designed by the researcher complemented with other instruments: the blueprints of research implementation, data collection guidelines, and data analysis guidelines. The data were analyzed in the following sequence: presenting raw data, data reduction, data analysis, concluding the results, interpreting the results, and presenting the results. The validity of the data and the results of the study were checked through triangulation and re-analysis. The results revealed that literal competencies of observing, identifying, remembering, imitating, and composing were developed through metacognition strategies in the form of (1) invitations, (2) invitations followed by orders, and (3) invitations followed by orders—questions/questions—orders.
 Keywords: Metacognition strategy, literal thinking competence, textbooks, elementary school