Metacognition Strategies in Solving Mathematics at a Secondary School in Zambia

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to explore the metacognition strategies used by learners in solving mathematics problems at a Government Secondary School in Western Province of Zambia. This study was a qualitative case study. The semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore metacognitive strategies pupils used inside and outside the classroom in terms of their teaching experience, active participation, problem solving contexts, corrective feedback utterances and thinking enrichment opportunities during teaching and learning. The unstructured interviews were used to follow up interesting reactions, responses and stories during the mathematics lessons observed.A thematic Analysis technique was conducted where codes, categories and themes were used in analyzing the qualitative data. The codes came out from the actual words of the participants during interviews and observed lessons.  Themes and categories came from the literature reviewed on metacognition. The study found that metacognitive strategies used by the learners were neglected. The study revealed that the main reason for neglecting them was that learners were not aware of them. The findings also indicated that learners were rarely engaged in constructive use of metacognitive strategies in their learning and study of mathematics. The highest used metacognitive strategies were clarifying learner’s ideas, cooperative learning and problem solving. The fact that clarifying learners’ ideas was highest indicated the much problems and complaints pupils faced. While the highest in cooperative learning and problem solving showed how much pupils interacted with one another in groups during mathematical problem solving but less of teacher’s prompts to clarify value judgements on their strength and weaknesses. Furthermore, pupils used problem-solving activities more frequently indicated the extent cognitive processes were over- emphasized as opposed to them working simultaneously with the metacognitive processes.  Pupils used least journal keeping, evaluating ways of thinking, planning strategy and identifying difficulty, which was a good indication that they could not use metacognitive strategies to record, set their own goals, assess their own thinking and be supported according to their individual needs. These results point that a teacher has to find ways of making mathematical concepts available to learners so that learning creates a metacognitive environment where mathematical authority empowers the learners’ mathematical work to indulge in metacognitive strategies useful during lessons and their studies.

Keywords: mathematical problem solving, metacognitive skills, Metacognitive strategies, mathematical authority.

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-15-15

Publication date:May 31^st 2019