Do You Know What You Know? Exploring the Metacognitive Calibration of Senior High School Students of E. T. Tirona Memorial National High School S.Y. 2017-2018

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Metacognitive calibration is one among the many aspects of metacognition. The study focused on determining the senior high school students' metacognitive calibration through an investigation into how well students are able to predict which questions they will or will not be able to answer correctly on an upcoming assessment in an elective subject from the STEM Strand, General Physics 2. A number of literatures on metacognitive calibration has been identified, however, the extent of its investigation and implications in the Philippines is still limited. The results of this study have implications for future research on metacognition for Filipino learners.

METHODS

In order to determine the students' metacognitive calibration, this descriptive research made use of the Knowledge-Survey (KS) test to match the students' perceived results of the semesterly exam with their actual individual result. Correlation between the KS Score and the Assessment Score was established. Two intact sections with a total of sixty (60) students were the respondents in the study selected via purposive sampling. Factors such as respondents' sex, age, and socioeconomic status were not considered in the study.

RESULTS

Matching the results of the Knowledge Survey (KS) with that of the Assessment Score (AS) revealed a positive correlation between the two variables. This indicates that students who scored high on the Knowledge Survey also scored high on the actual assessment. To further establish correlation, grouping the results as to High, Middle, and Low revealed positive correlation in the high and low performing students, but slightly negative correlation among the middle/average performing students.

DISCUSSIONS

Results from the Knowledge Survey and Assessment Score revealed that high performing students and low performing students are more metacognitively calibrated. That means that these students have the skill of discriminating questions that they can answer with ease and those that they cannot. On the other hand, average performing students tend to overestimate their abilities. That means, they thought that they believed they can answer certain questions, but weren't able to deliver the correct response in the end. Examination of the data at the level of students' overall scores reveal results that are consistent with the Dunning-Kruger effect, in which low-performing students tend to overestimate their abilities, while high-performing students estimate their abilities more accurately.