THE ABILITY TO ESTIMATE KNOWLEDGE AND PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGE - A METACOGNITIVE ANALYSIS

While in college students learn a great deal of new knowledge, and ove r time successful students learn to update their knowledge as new conc epts, facts, and procedures are acquired. The metacognitive ability to accurately estimate one's knowledge was hypothesized to be related to academic achievement in college. The two studies reported in this pap er examined the relationship between a measure of metacognitive word k nowledge (the KMA) and performance in college. Using undergraduate gpa in a number of academic domains as criterion measures, this research provides support for the validity of the KMA as a predictor of success in college. Suggestions for further research relating performance on the KMA to learning in complex domains are offered.