What is New in Metacognition Research? Answers from Current Literature

Abstract

Metacognition has become a key element in learning processes. Its advantages include increasing awareness of one’s cognitive processes and promoting autonomous, critical, reflective, self-regulated, and self-directed learning. Given its increasing relevance in the academic and scientific community in recent years, this article maps the evolution of metacognition using the tree metaphor to establish the main research approaches emerging today. Through a network analysis of publications in WoS and Scopus and using tools such as Bibliometrix, ToS, and Gephi, the main documents, authors, countries, journals, and fundamental lines of work in metacognition research were identified: evaluation of metacognition in children, metacognition in student education, self-regulation skills, and metacognition in mathematical performance. The results suggest that the development of metacognitive skills has migrated to specific fields such as chemistry, mathematics, and arithmetic, with the latter two showing the most progress in implementing these practices to improve learning outcomes. Additionally, the findings highlight that while teachers consider metacognition necessary for their students’ learning, they do not always have the knowledge and skills to teach and apply it effectively.

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“…The ToS algorithm for generating a science tree of a specific academic field has been extensively employed in various studies [24]- [28]. This metaphor facilitates a conceptual understanding of the development of a knowledge domain, starting from its roots, which represent the initial contributions [29]. It then proceeds to the trunk, symbolizing articles that provide the foundational structure or support for the field, and culminates in the branches where the primary sub-domains of knowledge are revealed.…”