Metacognitive Awareness of Pre-Service Teachers During their Teacher Education Continuum: A Comparative Study

Abstract

In teacher education, one of the most important competencies involves what is known as metacognitive awareness; that is, being able to monitor, evaluate, and control what goes on in one's way of thinking. It is a comparative cross-sectional study based on the metacognitive awareness of 120 pre-service teachers studying in a variety of semesters of a teacher education course at the University of Education in Lahore. Moreover, the study examined two dimensions, the knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition, using the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI; Schraw & Dennison, 1994). The descriptive and inferential tests identified that there is progressive development of metacognitive awareness during the teacher education continuum, where the early-semester students' level of metacognitive awareness was found to be low, the middle-semester students fell into a moderate level, and the final-semester students' level of metacognitive awareness was found to be high. The findings suggest that metacognitive awareness can be developed gradually over the semesters, perhaps because of the greater exposure to pedagogical education, reflective practice, and overall maturity in the academic program.  It is recommended that during the period of teachers' pre-service education, specific training in metacognitive strategies be included to expedite the production of reflective, adaptive, and self-regulating practitioners.