Metacognitive awareness and academic motivation and their impact on academic achievement of Ajman University students

Abstract

Metacognition is the ability of learners to take necessary steps to plan suitable strategies for solving the problems they face, to evaluate consequences and outcomes and to modify the approach as needed, based on the use of their prior knowledge. Metacognition helps learners to successfully achieve a personal goal by choosing the right cognitive tool for this purpose. The study, therefore, aims to explain the relationship and impact of metacognitive awareness and academic motivation on student's academic achievement. This descriptive and correlational study design has included 200 students (60 males) studying sociology in the College of Mass Communication and Humanities at Ajman University, UAE. Academic intrinsic motivations scale and the metacognitive awareness inventory were used as instruments. PLS-SEM was used to examine the relationship between metacognitive awareness and academic motivation, and their impact on academic achievement. Females obtained significantly higher levels than males on the two scales of metacognitive awareness, as shown in metacognitive knowledge. Females reported a higher-level academic extrinsic motivation than males. There is a highly significant correlation between the students' academic achievement and academic motivation; academic achievement and academic intrinsic motivation; academic achievement and academic extrinsic motivation. Metacognitive awareness is a major contributor to success in learning and represents an excellent tool for the measurement of academic performance.