Intercultural Investigation of Metacognitive Awareness Among Undergraduate Students From China, Colombia, Spain, and the United States

• In Event: Motivational and Cognitive Processes in Understudied and Minoritized Student Populations: Centering Voices and Experiences

Abstract

Metacognition is understood as the knowledge and regulation of one’s own cognitive activity that deals with one’s agency over mental activity in a conscious and deliberate way. However, how metacognition operates inter-culturally is not yet well understood. Thus, the present study explored the influence of culture on self-report metacognitive awareness (via the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory) in a sample of 366 undergraduate students from four countries (China, Colombia, Spain, and the U.S.). Results revealed that metacognitive awareness is not a universally conceptualized construct. Not only were correlational patterns distinct across cultures, but there were significant differences among the four cultures in both a finer- and coarser-grained analysis. These findings have profound repercussions for theory, applied research, measurement, and practice.

Authors

• Antonio P. Gutierrez de Blume, Georgia Southern University

• Ying Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Hongcui Du, The Pennsylvania State University