THE INFLUENCE OF METACOGNITIVE STRATEGY USE ON PRESERVICE EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS' COHERENCY OF CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDINGS

Abstract

The purposes of the study was to examine the relationship between the coherency of preservice early childhood teachers' conceptual understandings and their level of metacognitive strategy use and the type of conceptual understandings they construct after instruction. A total of 52 preservice early childhood teachers participated in the study. Participants were enrolled in a science method course, which was part of the early childhood education program. All 52 participants were interviewed before and after instruction. Two data gathering techniques were used in the study: a self-report instrument and semi-structured interviews. To measure participants' use of metacognitive strategies, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire was used. To reveal the participants' understanding of moon phases, semi-structured interviews were conducted before and after instruction. Data obtained through interviews were analyzed using constant comparative method of analysis to reveal participants conceptual profiles and the coherency of their conceptual understandings. To make statistical analysis possible, participants' pre- and post-conceptual understandings were scored with rubrics designed for this study. Quantitative data were analyzed using a partial least squares path analysis with observed variables. Results demonstrated that participants with high a metacognitive state were more likely to construct coherent mental models. In other words, these participants' conceptual understandings of the cause of lunar phases included a single, coherent, causal explanation before instruction. They were also more likely to construct coherent mental models after instruction. These results suggest that learners' metacognition should be promoted to help them construct coherent understandings of natural phenomena. Keywords: Metacognition, Conceptual Understandings, Preservice Early Childhood Teachers