Abstract:

Background:
Interest in the role of metacognition has been steadily rising in most forms of education. The present paper focuses on the construction of a questionnaire for measuring metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive regulation and metacognitive responsiveness among students in Secondary school and the subsequent process of testing to determine its validity.

Purpose:
The aim of the study was to construct an original instrument for measuring features of metacognition, henceforth referred to as the Awareness Learning Metacognitive (ALM) Inventory, and further to establish the similarities and differences between this model and existing instruments for measuring metacognition.

Sample:
The ALM Inventory was distributed to 4119 students, (230 school classes) in various types of schools in Palermo, Italy.
Design and methods: The ALM Inventory instrument was constructed on the basis of a facet design along two dimensions: components of metacognition and topics related to the use of ICT in students attending Secondary school. The data gathered with the instrument were analyzed by means of a generalization study and a decision study.

Results:
The generalization study showed that the reliability of the instrument was satisfactory. The decision study revealed that the number of items included in the questionnaire could be reduced substantially by leaving out two components of one of the dimensions in the facet design, without losing too much generalization.

Conclusions:
The ALM Inventory is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring metacognitive knowledge, regulation and responsiveness. It is suitable for use in the evaluation of the effects of interventions aiming at increasing metacognitive knowledge, regulation and responsiveness in students attending Secondary school.

Keywords:

Metacognition, Secondary School, Awareness Learning, Questionnaire.