Skill, Thrill, and Will: The Role of Metacognition, Interest, and Self‐Control in Predicting Student Engagement in Mathematics Learning Over Time

Abstract

Maintaining learning engagement throughout adolescence is critical for long‐term academic success. This research sought to understand the role of metacognition and motivation in predicting adolescents' engagement in math learning over time. In two longitudinal studies with 2,325 and 207 adolescents (ages 11–15), metacognitive skills, interest, and self‐control each uniquely predicted math engagement. Additionally, metacognitive skills worked with interest and self‐control interactively to shape engagement. In Study 1, metacognitive skills and interest were found to compensate for one another. This compensatory pattern further interacted with time in Study 2, indicating that the decline in engagement was forestalled among adolescents who had either high metacognitive skills or high interest. Both studies also uncovered an interaction between metacognitive skills and self‐control, though with slightly different interaction patterns.

Applying Control-Value Theory and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology to Explore Pre-service Teachers’ Academic Emotions and Learning Satisfaction

“…Learning engagement emphasizes the importance of behavioral engagement (e.g., taking notes while watching instructional videos or peer discussion) in learning activities. Additionally, it shares positive associations with emotional engagement, such as learning interest or satisfaction ( Fredricks et al, 2004 ; Wang et al, 2021 ). Moreover, pre-service teachers’ engagement within teacher education contexts is not only important for their own learning, but it may also influence their future teaching practice ( Saini and Abraham, 2019 ).…”

How do high-level youth soccer players approach and solve game problems? The role of strategic understanding

“…Evidence of less sophisticated thinking processes is not necessarily a result of the players' age or stage of cognitive development. Children younger than those in our study have evidenced metacognition, albeit outside of a soccer context (Pino-Pasternak and Whitebread, 2010;Ricker and Richert, 2021;Veenman and Spanns, 2005;Wang et al 2021;Weil et al 2013). Instead, players seem merely to be using and demonstrating the soccer knowledge they have been taught by their coaches.…”

“…Seminal work on this topic has referred to metacognition as involving problem solving skills such as predicting, checking, monitoring, testing and controlling deliberate attempts to learn (Brown, 1987). Importantly, empirical evidence indicates that metacognition can be taught in the school classroom, with children as young as eight years old capable of developing (Jacobs and Paris, 1987;Veenman and Spanns, 2005;Wang et al 2021;Weil et al 2013). Indeed, further empirical research suggests children younger than eight years old have the capability to think on a meta-level (Pino-Pasternak and Whitebread, 2010).…”

More Than Growth Mindset: Individual and Interactive Links Among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Adolescents’ Ability Mindsets, Metacognitive Skills, and Math Engagement

“…Both SRL theories and the integrative development‐in‐sociocultural‐context model postulate that metacognition and motivation work together to shape academic engagement and performance (Efklides, 2011; Wang et al., 2019; Zimmerman & Moylan, 2009). Metacognition and motivation share a cyclical relation in which they simultaneously impact learning as it unfolds, which in turn affects subsequent learning experiences (Wang, Binning, Del Toro, Qin, & Zepeda, 2021). For example, Zimmerman and Moylan’s (2009) SRL model posits that three dynamically interrelated phases constitute the learning process: forethought (before learning), performance (during learning), and reflection (after learning).…”

“…However, SRL theories indicate that motivational variables only help students up to a certain point. Beyond that point, students need to employ their metacognitive skills to help them fully engage in math material (Wang et al., 2021). To elaborate, both metacognition and growth mindsets are important for engagement; yet, they may work together such that the use of metacognitive skills navigates students toward learning while a growth mindset shapes the meaning that students ascribe to their progress (or lack thereof).…”