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Abstract
This study investigated the effects of learning strategies instruction on metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive skills, and achievement. An experimental pre-test/post-test control group design was used in the research. The study was conducted in the 2008-2009 school year on 6th grade students at Orgeneral Tural and Dikmeli Primary Schools located in the city center of Konya. Forty-two students participated in the study, 21 in the experimental group and 21 in the control group. Groups were equalized on the basis of the Learning Strategies Scale, Turkish Lesson Metacognitive Knowledge Interview Form, and pre-test results of Turkish Lesson Achievement Test. In the experimental group, strategy instruction was given by the researcher himself for 15 weeks, using a direct instruction approach. At the end of the study, it was found that learning strategies instruction increased awareness of strategy and metacognitive knowledge and it was effective in using metacognitive skills. It was also found that using metacognitive skills increased achievement.
Key Words
Learning Strategies, Learning Strategies Instruction, Metacognitive Knowledge, Metacognitive Skills, Direct Instruction.
The ultimate goal of all efforts in education is to increase student success. Therefore, all attention is focused on raising the efficiency of the teachinglearning process. The formation of permanent behavioral change in individuals, in other words, individuals' learning is possible through the effective organization of the teaching-learning process. Change and innovation observed especially in the field of education have come to the foreground in the teaching-learning process (Güven, 2004, p. 20). On the other hand, increasing efficiency in the teaching-learning process is possible above all through understanding how learning takes place in the individual (Öztürk, 1995, p. 46). Learning theories have been developed as a result of studies concentrating on how learning takes place, how the individual receives, processes, and stores knowledge. One of these theories is the "Information Processing Theory", which perceives learning as a mental process. The information processing theory explains the learning process as receiving stimulant, attaching meaning to it, storing it, remembering it to be used, and turning it into behavior. This theory argues that individuals must also become involved in the learning process during learning and make certain efforts. Individuals who become involved in the process during learning and make efforts may enable their own learning. Students who can enable...