International and national measures point to the poor mathematics achievement of South African learners. The enhancement of the quality of mathematics education is a key priority of the Department of Basic Education in South Africa.
Several studies have found a correlation between learner metacognition and mathematics achievement. Metacognition entails knowledge and regulation of oneâs cognitive processes. Previous studies point to the positive effect of metacognitive interventions on learner metacognition and mathematics achievement.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a metacognitive intervention (MI) on learner metacognition and the mathematics achievement of Grade 11 learners in the Free State from a predominantly pragmatic perspective. The MI was developed by combining aspects of a mathematical perspective on De Corteâs (1996) educational learning theory with aspects of previous metacognitive intervention studies in mathematics.
A mixed methods research design was employed where qualitative data were embedded within a quasi-experiment. Data were collected from an experimental group (N=25) and a control group (N=24). Quantitative data on learner metacognition were obtained from the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI), while quantitative data on mathematics achievement were obtained from the learnersâ Terms 1 and 4 report marks. Qualitative data were acquired by means of teacher interviews, problem-solving sessions, and learner and teacher perspectives on the MI process. The mixed methods research question investigated the extent to which the findings from the qualitative phase of the study support the findings from the quantitative phase regarding the effect of MI on learner metacognition and mathematics achievement.
The quantitative findings indicated that MI had a statistically significant impact on learner metacognition in respect of the MAI total score, the Knowledge of cognition (KC) factor, the Regulation of cognition (RC) factor, and the subscales Declarative knowledge, Planning, and Monitoring.
The impact of MI on mathematics achievement was less pronounced, as inferences had to be drawn from the correlation between learner metacognition and mathematics achievement. The quantitative findings showed a statistically significant correlation between KC and mathematics achievement, as well as between Declarative knowledge and mathematics achievement. Since MI had a statistically significant impact on KC and Declarative knowledge, it is concluded that MI also had a positive impact on mathematics achievement.
The qualitative findings strongly support the quantitative findings regarding the positive impact of MI on learner metacognition. The quantitative findings in respect of the correlation between learner metacognition and mathematics achievement were only partially supported by the qualitative data.
Main recommendations emerging from this study relate to the improvement of learnersâ mathematics achievement by enhancing their Declarative knowledge, the enhancement of learnersâ problem-solving skills, and the need to implement metacognitive interventions in mathematics particularly in schools where the teachers are inexperienced or underqualified.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-10102013-115431 |
| Date | 10 October 2013 |
| Creators | du Toit, Daniël Stephanus |
| Contributors | Prof AC Wilkinson, Prof GF du Toit |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-10102013-115431/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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