LITERATURE REVIEW
Level 3: Applied
2.15 ROLE OF THEORY IN THE STUDY
2.15.1 Metacognition Theory
According to Meniado (2016: 119), meta-cognition implies thinking about thinking.
Karbalaei (2011: 6) states that metacognition refers to the knowledge and control that one has over their cognitive processes. The word metacognition is always linked with
Reading textbook
Planning before reading
Monitoring during
reading Evaluating after
reading
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Flavell (1979), who argues that it includes the reader’s awareness of his reading process, active monitoring and constant regulation of cognitive processing activities.
Aflah (2017: 11) posits that researchers concur that readers’ ability to be aware and monitor their own comprehension process is a significant feature of the reading skill.
Thus, students’ knowledge of their cognitive process is recognised as metacognition.
Çakici (2017: 71) maintains that as a cognitive process, RC needs meta-cognitive awareness and regulation of the reader’s thinking process during reading through planning, monitoring and evaluation.
It is common in reading to refer to what one knows (meta-cognitive awareness) and the skill to know when, where and how to use strategies. This is what one can do, referred to as meta-cognitive regulation and or control. Implicitly, meta-cognitive strategies are based on the notion that successful readers must think about their thinking while in the process of reading. Metacognition aspects include consciously applying learned strategies in the process of engaging in a task, knowledge and awareness of the strategic options that a student can choose from, and having the skill to choose the most effective strategy to employ, evaluate and adjust performance in the process of performing tasks, and lastly, a plan for future performance based on their prior evaluation (Abdul-Majeed & Muhammad, 2015: 98).
Shehu (2015:93) states that metacognition includes thinking about what one is doing when reading. Strategic students attempt to identify the purpose of reading before they can start reading, identify what type or form of text it is and think of features of the form and type of the text; that is, they identify the topic sentence, supporting details and the conclusion. They also project the purpose of the author for writing the text. They choose, scan and read in detail and make predictions and inferences, and use prior knowledge. In addition, Hans and Hans (2015: 63) also state that skilled readers create questions based on the main idea, message or text’s plot, and attempt to get clarity on the part of the text that confuses them. In addition, they monitor their understanding of the sequence, context or characters.
There is a significant number of studies that have unveiled the differences between good and poor readers. Metacognition is an approach of awareness to readers relating to the ability to utilise dissimilar strategies in order to understand the reading material.
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Meta-cognitive knowledge refers to knowledge related to learners and their usages of different strategies and tasks in reading activities. Meta-cognitive controlling, on the other hand, implies self-regulatory efforts of the cognitive approach which includes planning, efforts, evaluating, remedying and testing (Shehu, 2015:181).
2.15.1.1 Cognitive Knowledge and Meta-cognitive Control Process
According to Schraw and Moshman (1995: 352), metacognition makes the basic differentiation between cognitive knowledge and the meta-cognitive control process.
Knowledge of cognition refers to what one knows about his or her own cognition or cognition in general. Usually, this often involves three different types of meta-cognitive awareness: declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge. Declarative knowledge means knowing about things whereas procedural knowledge means knowing how to do things. However, conditional knowledge refers to knowing about the why and when of features of cognition (Schraw & Moshman, 1995: 352).
Furthermore, the regulation of cognition refers to meta-cognitive activities that assist one to control one’s thinking and learning. The three important regulatory skills identified are planning, monitoring and evaluation. Planning includes having to select the appropriate strategies and to allocate resources that affect performance. This refers to making predictions before reading, strategy sequencing and allocating time or attention selectively prior to starting a task (Schraw & Moshman, 1995: 354).
Whereas learning needs the ability of planning for learning strategies, reading is regarded as a three-step that includes pre-reading, reading and finally, post-reading (cf. Brown & Palincsar, 1982; Zimmerman & Pons 1986; Reading Comprehension Strategies).
In line with the above, Schraw and Moshman (1995: 354) state that monitoring refers to an individual’s consciousness of comprehension and task performance. This is the ability to engage in constant self-testing while simultaneously learning. However, it is argued that the ability to monitor oneself tends to develop slowly and poorly in children and even adults. Some studies have also shown that the monitoring ability also improves with training and practice. According to Thiede, Anderson and Therriault
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(2003), reading and comprehension exercises need to monitor students’
comprehension during reading accurately. Thus, self-regulated behaviour in reading can be identified through monitoring the text when it is understood by the reader, and that readers can also be helped by self-regulated learning models such as the think- aloud strategy, the question strategy and the self-regulatory strategy.
Moreover, evaluation refers to appraising the products and being able to regulate one’s process of learning. This includes being able to re-evaluate one’s goals and conclusions (Schraw & Moshman, 1995: 354). Evaluating has a vital role to play in reading for numerous purposes. It is also considered a post-reading strategy that reveals the needs of students to summarise the main ideas for comprehension of specific texts and to discover supplementary evidence for outside needs. This evaluation strategy assists readers to make an appropriate conclusion about the material, and makes a way to guess the meaning appropriately by devising a plan for further reading strategies (Channa, Nordin, Siming, Chandio & Koondher, 2015: 183).