CONSTRUCT-VALIDATION OF METACOGNITION

Recent investigations have established the importance of metacognition in the acquisition and application of learning skills in diverse doma ins of inquiry. Despite the voluminous theoretical and empirical resea rch, there remain some unanswered questions regarding the specific com ponents underlying the construct and whether these components are diff erentially employed as a function of context. Using a self-report meas ure developed for this study, we sought answers to these questions amo ng a sample of 126 high school students. Factor analysis of the items revealed six components of metacognition that accounted for 62% of the explained variance. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that the comp onents were interdependent and were used across all types of problem-s olving situations. The results, although no more than a first step in the construct-validation process, contribute to a more informed unders tanding of the nature and function of the metacognition construct in d ifferent contexts.