Children’s Use of Metacognition in Solving Everyday Problems: An Initial Study from an Asian Context

Abstract

The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between metacognition and students’ everyday problem solving. Specifically, we were interested to find out whether regulation of cognition and knowledge of cognition are related to everyday problem solving and whether students who perform better in the decision-making problem will better differentiate the various components of metacognition. Two hundred and fifty-four fifth grade students completed a survey. We found evidence to suggest the existence of two major components of metacognition. Our results also suggest that at a higher level of decision-making, knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition were differentiated in their use by participants.