In-service mathematics teachers’ conception and perceptions of metacognition in their teaching experience

Abstract

The present study investigated the in-service mathematics teachers’ conception and perceptions of metacognitive awareness in their teaching experience. The study sample consisted of 213 Kenyan secondary school teachers. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey design that utilized both questionnaires and personal interviews. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the interview data, whereas both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for the questionnaire data. Results from descriptive statistics showed that teachers had high perceptions of their levels of metacognitive awareness although the mean for metacognitive knowledge was higher than the mean for metacognitive skills. The results of the T test and ANOVA analysis revealed a non-significant effect of the teachers’ perceptions on gender, academic qualification, and years of teaching experience. This study revealed the need for teachers to understand the role of metacognition in learning and how they can model metacognitive strategies to the learners. There is a need for the curriculum developers to in-cooperate the concept of metacognition in the in-service and pre-service teacher training programs to enhance students’ performance.