Metacognitive Inventory for nursing students in Taiwan: instrument development and testing

Abstract

This paper is a report of the development and testing of an instrument that measures metacognitive abilities of nursing students. Metacognition refers to an individual's knowledge, awareness and command of thinking and learning strategies. Nursing students are challenged to think and learn in ways that will prepare them for practical work in a complex healthcare environment. Nursing educators have the responsibility to produce graduates who possess and use metacognitive skills to facilitate the solving of ill-structured problems using a variety of mental processes, such as reasoning, judgment and creativity. In 2007, the Metacognitive Inventory for Nursing Students was developed, based on previous instruments, and administered to a sample of 802 senior nursing students in two nursing colleges and a university in Taiwan. Principal axis factor analysis and other statistical tests were performed to test the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. Preliminary analysis reduced the original 40 items to 28. Five factors were retained, accounting for 53·09% of the variance, and these five factors were identified as self-monitoring, self-modification, self-awareness, effective learning and problem-solving. The resultant Metacognitive Inventory achieved good internal consistency reliability, with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0·94 and the coefficient for the five factors ranged from 0·73 to 0·90. Nurse educators in Taiwan could use the Metacognitive Inventory for Nursing Students to assess students and facilitate metacognitive skill development in classrooms and in practice settings.