Exploring the metacognitive skills of secondary school students' use during problem posing

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to explore students' use of metacognitive skills during problem posing activities. This qualitative research explored the metacognitive skill of 21 secondary school students in a rural Anambas Indonesia while posing individually mathematical problems. Thinking-Aloud protocol was conducted during the problem posing activities. The audio recordings of Thinking-Aloud protocol for the students provided the data to address this question. Analysis of their written work and Thinking-Aloud protocols provided evidence of how students used metacognitive skills while problem posing and revealed different levels of these skills. Analyses of the Thinking-Aloud protocol also provided evidence for the metacognitive skills associated with planning, monitoring, and evaluation. The students used planning and monitoring skills equally. Furthermore, different levels of sophistication of planning were apparent. Students who combined these metacognitive skills demonstrated a higher level of monitoring. However, from our analyses that there was considerable overlap in the metacognitive activities associated with monitoring and evaluation.