The contribution of meta-cognitive elements on essay writing performance

Review of literature and report of past studies supported the role of metacognitive in students learning. This study aimed to identify the contribution of meta-cognitive elements on students writing performance. A quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design was used in this study. Sample consisted of 136 form four students from three schools in Malaysian education system (one experimental group and one control group from each school). Total number of student in the experimental group and control group is 65 and 71 respectively. Students in the experimental groups were exposed to meta-cognitive strategy named 4META strategy for 12 weeks. Meanwhile, the control group, were taught using a conventional methods. The teachers who taught the experimental groups were trained by the researchers to use 4META strategy prior to the intervention. Before the interventions were carried out, both groups were given a pre-test to measure their initial performance in writing using a writing achievement test. A set of questionnaire were also used to measure students’ meta-cognitive awareness, meta-attention, meta-comprehension and meta-cognitive reflection. After the intervention, post-test were administered to measure students writing performance and also meta-cognitive elements using the same questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics based on the objectives of the study. Analysis from Stepwise multiple regressions revealed that two independent variables were significantly contributed to the variance in the writing scores. The independent variables were meta-cognitive awareness and meta-cognitive reflection. Finding of the study provide evidence on the importance of meta-cognitive awareness and meta-cognitive reflection to help students improve their performance in writing.