Abstract:

Metacognition means the individual’s own cognitive process, products or knowledge concerning all about these. In other words, it is the individual’s knowledge and control over his own cognitive system. In this process the individual observes, organizes and evaluates his own cognitive process. However, motivation is not only a general term including desires, needs, impulses and interests but also means the commencement of goal-oriented behavior. Considering these two concepts together, an individual is expected to be eager to learn, in other words, to have a certain level of motivation in order to evaluate and organize his own cognitive process related to a new kind of subject. Some researchers emphasize the relationship between the metacognition and motivation in their explanations concerning metacognition. The basic aim of this research is to determine the relationship between the metacognitive awareness and motivation. The number of studies which examine the relationship between the motivation and metacognitive awareness is limited. Therefore, putting forward this relationship with data is important in terms of its contribution to the field. As the metacognitive awareness and motivation, and the relations between sex and grade level with these need to be determined, the study has the quality of descriptive research in the relative scanning model. The study group of the research comprises 130 students including 65 girls and 65 boys attending the 6th (n=59) and 7th (n=71) grade in a private school. In order to determine the metacognition awareness “Junior Metacognitive Awareness Inventory” and to determine the motivation level “Academic Motivation Scale” have been used as the means of data collection tools. According to the findings obtained, the metacognitive awareness and motivation levels of the students are above medium level and it does not demonstrate any difference regarding the sex and grade level. There were also a low, negative but significant relationship between metacognitive awareness and amotivation (r=-0.23, p<.01) and moderate, positive and significant relationships between metacognitive awareness and identified extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation (r=0.47, r=0.54, p<.01 respectively). The results showed that metacognitive awareness increases with the increase of the level of motivation. In accordance with the findings of the research, it has been stressed that motivation should be taken into consideration in the studies concerning the improvement of metacognitive awareness. The findings obtained from the research point out the necessity of considering motivation as a component in terms of determining the teaching and learning methods and the organization of the learning environments and also the improvement of metacognitive awareness. In light of this information, curriculum developers and teachers could be advised to take motivation into account in the studies carried out on the purpose of improving the metacognitive awareness. Besides, it is thought that researches paying attention to motivation about developing the metacognitive strategies and awareness will make a contribution to the body of literature.

Keywords:

Metacognition, metacognitive awareness, motivation, secondary school students.