Metacognitive Components of Student’s Difficulties in the First Year of University

Abstract

Metacognition is a good predictor of University student's achievement and should be more systematically considered since it might also help reduce student drop outs. In particular drop out is a dramatic problem for Italian Universities since it may concern more than 40% of students. The identification of factors that lead to academic failure and of remedial programs seems, therefore, necessary. The present paper examines the role of metacognitive aspects in more than 1,000 freshmen who participated in a project at the University of Calabria, in the South of Italy. Students at the beginning of the academic year completed two Questionnaires, concerning their study skills and other personal characteristics, and then followed a 10-hour metacognitive training course on the study and personal skills necessary for succeeding at university. A few months later, students again completed the Study Skills Questionnaire and, at the end of the year, information was collected on their achievements. Results showed that significant predictors of the students' achievement were perceived self-efficacy, and other self-regulatory and motivational constructs. Furthermore, the training was able to change the students' perceived ability to use study strategies and to process study material in a more in-dept manner.

Bem-estar e adaptabilidade de carreira na adaptação ao ensino superior

“…A transição para o ensino superior é, para muitos estudantes, a realização de um sonho, mas pode conter obstáculos que comprometem o bem-estar e sucesso (Almeida et al, 2016;Chickering & Schlossberg, 1995;Costabile, Cornoldi, De Beni, Manfredi, & Figliuzzi, 2013;Ferreira & Fernandes, 2015;Soares, et al, 2015). As transições são próprias do desenvolvimento ao longo da vida, com fases e tarefas específicas, com características transformadoras e criadoras (Chickering & Schlossberg, 1995;Savickas, 2013).…”

“…Nas variáveis do domínio académico, é ainda preditor de Bem-estar a competência de Gestão do Tempo, sendo preditor negativo a Ansiedade à Avaliação, confirmando parcialmente H4. A relação entre Gestão de Tempo e Bem-estar pode também encontrar confirmação nos modelos de impacto, que propõem a relação entre envolvimento, competências académicas e adaptação, sendo assim importante o treino de metacognição e autorregulação (e.g., Costabile et al, 2013;Zimmerman, 2002). Estes dados sugerem o papel chave da gestão pessoal na regulação do comportamento, bem como no desenvolvimento e bem-estar.…”

Mindfulness and Coaching to Improve Learning Abilities in University Students: A Pilot Study

“…To measure variables that describe the effectiveness of the intervention, some parts of the AMOS (Abilities and Motivation to Study) questionnaire [72] were chosen for a total of 13 variables: self-regulation in the study (five subscales), anxiety for emotion regulation, motivation (six subscales) and resilience as a transversal ability. The AMOS questionnaire was chosen because it is the only one validated in the Italian university context that investigates the effectiveness of the academic study (Parts of the AMOS questionnaire have been used in the study done by Mega et al [10] on effective learning and in the study done by Costabile, Cornoldi, De Beni, Manfredi, and Figliuzzi [73] on metacognition. )…”

Interactions between metacognition in university students and demographic and education variables

“…Metacognitive processes have been shown to affect academic performance (Bakracevic Vukman & Licardo, 2009;Kistner et al, 2010), particularly at university (Casillas et al 2012;Costabile, Cornoldi, De Beni, Manfredi, & Figliuzzi, 2013;Ibabe & Jauregizar, 2010). However, few studies have explored the factors that contribute to the development of metacognition in higher education (HE) (Hsu & Hsieh, 2014;Magno 2009).…”