Measuring metacognition: Validation of the assessment of cognition monitoring effectiveness

Metacognition has become an important concept in education and psychology. Metacognition is generally defined as knowledge about, and control of cognitive processes (e.g., Brown, 1987; Flavell 1987), including predicting, monitoring, coordination, and reality checking.; Importantly, unlike our traitlike view of intelligence, research suggests that metacognitive skills can be acquired, and that the acquisition of these skills can influence educational outcomes and narrow the gaps between learning disabled, normal, and gifted students (e.g., Worden, 1983).; These findings suggest that assessing student metacognition is crucial, in that it would guide interventions that could help students experiencing relatively poor academic outcomes. However, a recent review by Osborne (1998) concluded that few extant measures of metacognition were reliable and valid, and fewer still were appropriate for educators. The goal of this study was to develop and validate a measure of metacognition that would be sufficiently versatile and simple for classroom teachers, special education teachers, and other educators to utilize in a broad number of contexts.; The Assessment of Cognitive Monitoring Effectiveness (ACME) asks students taking a classroom quiz or exam to indicate which responses they believe are incorrect. When compared to actual performance, this measure provides educators and researchers with an index of general student metacognition that can guide further assessment and intervention.; Three fifth-grade classrooms completed the ACME while taking various routine classroom exams in spelling, mathematics, science, social studies, and reading. The results of this study show that the ACME is reliable, converges with three other measures of student metacognition, is related to theoretically-relevant criteria (test grades, cumulative grades, achievement test scores), discriminates between students assigned to resource room for remediation and "normal" students, accounts for significant portions of variance beyond that of other measures of metacognition, is generalizable across disciplines, and is appropriate for use by classroom teachers and other educators.; The ACME can be a valuable tool for educators and researchers who want to get a gauge of general student metacognition.