Abstract
Poor math and numeracy skills are associated with a range of adverse outcomes, including reduced employability and poorer physical and mental health. Research has increasingly focused on understanding factors associated with the improvement of math skills in school. This systematic literature review and meta-analysis investigated the association between metacognition and math performance in adolescence (11–16-year-olds). A systematic search of electronic databases and grey literature (to 04.01.2020) highlighted 31 studies. The quantitative synthesis of 74 effect sizes from 29 of these studies (30 independent populations) indicated a significantly positive correlation between metacognition and math performance in adolescence (r = .37, 95% CI = [.29, .44], p < .001). There was significant heterogeneity between studies. Consideration of online (versus offline) measures of metacognition and more complex (versus simple) measures of math performance, and their combination, was associated with larger effect sizes; however, heterogeneity remained high for all analyses.
Highlights
The overall association of math with MC was reassessed by (i) refitting the primary model, but assuming different correlations between effect sizes of a same study and category; (ii) refitting the primary model, but without classifying effect sizes according to math performance and MC measure when imputing the covariance matrix, and without including the factor in the random effects; (iii) using a classic robust variance estimation approach to handle the dependence of effect sizes within studies (Tipton 2015); and (iv) using the aggregation approach to handle the dependence of effect sizes within studies
The current paper investigated the association between MC and math performance in adolescents aged 11–16 years via a systematic review and quality assessment of existing research
It included a meta-analysis to investigate the strength of the association between MC and math performance in adolescents across studies
Summary
Based on previous studies and reviews of existing research, there is an emerging consensus that MC plays a small but consistent role in understanding individual differences in achievement across childhood and adolescence. Studies have demonstrated evidence for a specific association between MC and math performance These findings are, more mixed and may reflect differences in the way in which researchers have measured MC and achievement in math. Adolescents are recognised to utilise MC more efficiently (Dermitzaki 2005; Veenman et al 2006), are faced with increasingly more complex mathematical problems to solve (Department for Education, 2014), and are working towards key examinations (Hodgen and Pepper 2010) It represents a stage of education that is critical for identifying factors that education stakeholders and practitioners can utilise to promote optimal achievement in school for the best outcome of pupils. We carried out exploratory analyses to consider the combination of MC measure and math assessment and anticipated that associations would be most evident for studies using online measures and more complex math assessments. We provided a comprehensive quality assessment of existing research and broadened the scope and focus of previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses by placing no limit on literature searches with respect to year or language of publication and via the inclusion of a comprehensive quality assessment of existing research
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