The Effect of Metacognitive Strategy-Based Geometry Education on Young Childrens’ Metacognitive and Executive Functions Skills

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of the Metacognitive Strategy-Based Geometry Education Program (McGEP) on children's metacognition and executive function skills and the permanence of this effect. The study was designed in a quasiexperimental design with pretest-posttest control group with a total of 27 children attending to kindergartens affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Ankara City Center in the 2021-2022 academic year. WM, HTKS, FIST and Train Track Task were used to collect the data. Mann Whitney-U test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Friedman test statistics were used to analyze the data. As a result of the study, it was determined that the McGEP had significant effect on children's metacognitive skills of monitoring and control processes and that this effect was permanent. Moreover, it was found that the perseveration and distraction errors exhibited by the children decreased significantly after the implementation of the McGEP. In fact, it was found that there was significant difference in the three sub-tasks of the Train Track task in the sub-domains of Control, Metacognitive Skills, Perseveration and Distraction Errors, and Quality Score in favor of the children in the study group. Accordingly, it was found that the McGEP had significant effect on working memory, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control skills among children's executive function skills and that this effect was permanent. Therefore, it was concluded that the McGEP significantly affected both metacognitive skills and executive function skills of children.