Differential Effect of Young Adults and Students Metacognitive Skills in Mathematics Problem Solving Process

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how young adults and pupils use their metacognitive abilities such as cognitive strategies and self-checking during the mathematics problem-solving process. The study group consisted of 12 young adults selected from three different faculties in a foundation university and 32 pupils from public and privateK-12 schools, Istanbul, Turkey. Multimodal mixed-methods design was employed, where participants were asked to think out loud while solving ten mathematical problems. The experimental process was recorded with the use of eye-tracking, which was utilized to evaluate the active use of metacognitive sub-skills. The findings from the experimental process revealed that there is a significant difference between the amount of reflection of young adults’ and pupils' cognitive strategy and self-checking skill levels on their responses to mathematics problem solving process in favor of pupils.