TITLE:
Predicting School Achievement Rather than Intelligence: Does Metacognition Matter?
AUTHORS:
Cristiano Mauro Assis Gomes, Hudson F. Golino, Igor Gomes Menezes
KEYWORDS:
Metacognition, Intelligence, Academic Achievement
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.9,
July
24,
2014
ABSTRACT:
This paper
investigates the role of specific and general metacognitive ability on specific
and general academic achievement, controlling for the effects of intelligence.
Four hypotheses were elaborated and empirically tested through structural
equation modelling. The sample was composed by 684 students (6th to 12th
graders) from a private Brazilian school, which answered to three intelligence
tests and three metacognitive tests. The modeled hypotheses presented a good
data-fit (χ2 = 51.18; df = 19; CFI = 1.00; RMSEA = 0.05), showing that the
general metacognitive ability explained general academic achievement rather
than intelligence, but did not explain specific academic achievement. On the
other hand, specific metacognitive ability explained specific academic
achievement rather than intelligence, but did not explain general academic
achievement. The predictive power of the general metacognitive ability was
greater than fluid intelligence in the explanation of general academic
achievement. In the same line, specific metacognitive ability had a greater
predictive power than intelligence and specific knowledge in the explanation of
specific academic achievement. Finally, a new structural model of metacognition
and its role in academic achievement are proposed.