The Role of Metacognition in Students’ Mental Models of the Quantization

As part of a multiphase study (Didiş et al., 2014; Didiş et al., 2016), this research focused on the effective issues on cognition, and it examined the role of metacognition in the construction of mental models. With the identification of students’ mental models of quantization of physical observables in the previous parts of the project, we considered metacognition theory to identify how knowledge about cognition influenced the construction of their mental models. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students by considering their knowledge and experiences about learning quantum theory during the semester. Based on the determined metacognitive behaviors, students’ mental models were reinterpreted by considering the metacognitive theory. The qualitative analysis results indicated that (1) students presenting more metacognitive behaviors constructed more coherent and scientific knowledge structures than the others and (2)satisfaction with knowledge was a breaking point for students’ reorganization of their knowledge. These findings are important to indicate the influence of metacognition on the construction and revision of mental models about physics concepts. In teaching of science at university level, students’ metacognitive evaluations should be taken into consideration together with their conceptions forscientific understanding.