Metacognition: Examining the Components of a Fuzzy Concept

Abstract

Metacognition loosely refers to one’s “thinking about thinking” and is often defined by its accompanying skills (such as monitoring and evaluating). Despite the tendency for researchers to use metacognition as an overarching umbrella term, cognitive and educational theorists argue as to whether metacognition is a single construct or made up of distinct, differentiable factors. Given the lack of clarity in the definition of metacognition and its potential components, the purpose of this investigation is to determine whether a two-factor model, representing knowledge and regulation of metacognition, or five-factor model, representing metacognitive knowledge, planning, monitoring, regulation/control, and evaluation, emerges following both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Participants (N =644) from a select number of classes at a large Midwestern university we selected to complete the Metacognition Questionnaire, a 30 item survey designed to measure five components of metacognition that are rarely measured concurrently. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed a two-factor model resembling metacognitive knowledge and regulation. This two-factor model had Further confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) showed that the two-factor model outperformed the five-factor model based on the fit indices. This study confirms that the componential view of metacognition should be based on the same two-factor model that has been used in previous literature. Educational implications of this study are discussed.