The Design And Evaluation Of Integrating Metacognitive Strategy Into A Virtual Scientific Experiment For Elementary School Students

Metacognitive strategy is important for cultivating and improving students’ abilities of selfplanning,self-monitoring and self-evaluation,which is often adopted by discipline teaching.The main purpose of this study is to explore the effect of integrating metacognitive strategies into a virtual scientific experiment environment on elementary students’ scientific conceptual understanding and metacognitive skills of science learning,and further investigate the differences between high prior knowledge students and low prior knowledge students in scientific conceptual understanding and metacognitive skills of science learning,as well as explore whether students’ metacognitive skills of science learning could affect their scientific conceptual understanding.This study adopted a quasi-experimental design.Sixth grade students(n = 54)in two classes of elementary school in Hangzhou were recruited as the participants.One class students(n = 27)studied in a virtual scientific experiment environment that integrating metacognitive strategies,while another class students(n = 27)studied in virtual scientific experiments without metacognitive strategies.The teaching experiment carried for 6weeks and 40 minutes per week.Results showed that integrating metacognitive strategies into a virtual scientific experiment have a positive effect on students’ scientific conceptual understanding,as well as improve students’ metacognitive skills of science learning(in terms of student monitoring,evaluation and planning skills),but have no significant influences on students’ attitude towards virtual scientific experiment,learning engagement and tasks load.Moreover,after studying in a virtual scientific experiment environment that integrating metacognitive strategies,students’ metacognitive skills of science learning can predict their scientific conceptual understanding performance.In addition,integrating metacognitive strategies into a virtual scientific experiment have a significant impact on low prior knowledge students in the aspect of their scientific conceptual understanding and metacognitive skills of science learning.