Thinking about your thinking: A more fine-grained study of the role of metacognitive monitoring in children’s arithmetic learning

Good arithmetical skills are crucial to life success in our society. There are large individual differences in the way children acquire these skills. One critical factor that predicts these differences is metacognitive monitoring, i.e. how people monitor their cognition during ongoing tasks. Starting from 4 gaps in the literature, I aim to further investigate the role of metacognitive monitoring in arithmetic via 4 work packages. (1) I will study metacognitive monitoring in children with difficulties in learning arithmetic (i.e. dyscalculia). (2) I will examine how metacognitive monitoring is related to children’s learning of arithmetic via a training study. (3) I will test the effect of training metacognitive monitoring on arithmetic learning. (4) I will investigate whether development in metacognitive monitoring is due to maturational age-related changes or to grade-related changes in schooling. This project will provide a critical ground for the development of educational interventions.

Keywords:Metacognitive monitoring, Arithmetic, Children, Learning

Disciplines:Mathematics and numeracy curriculum and pedagogics, Special needs education, Educational and school psychology