The use of metacognitive strategies by Chinese PhD students of social sciences in Australian universities

Abstract

Compared with school and undergraduate courses, a PhD program has more unstructured and negotiable curricula. To better understand the learning processes of doctoral candidates, this study examined the use of metacognitive strategies (as one of three types of learning strategy) by six Chinese PhD students of social sciences studying in Australian universities using the narrative inquiry method which was comprised of three interviews over two years. The study shows that the students adopted a range of metacognitive strategies to improve their learning efficiency and to facilitate the development of their research competence — planning, monitoring and evaluating. The findings provide additional evidence for the significant role of metacognitive strategies in timely completion of doctoral theses, support the contextual rather than cultural explanations for Chinese students’ learning styles observed in Western universities, and highlight the critical role of metacognitive strategies in PhD students’ development as researchers. The implications of the findings for both PhD students and universities are also discussed.