The role of metacognitive teaching strategies on students' on problem solving abilities in public secondary schools in tharaka south sub county, kenya.

Abstract

The current study investigated the Role of Metacognitive Teaching Strategies on Students' on Problem Solving Abilities in Public Secondary Schools in Tharaka South Sub County, Kenya. Teaching and learning of mathematics has become the basic framework on which modern technological advancement and digital entrepreneurship are being anchored. Students competencies in both the routine mathematics skills and the problem-solving abilities, should be emphasized on both the mathematical contents and processes when teaching and learning of especially at secondary school levels and beyond. The main thesis of metacognitive strategies is multidimensional knowledge and domain-general in nature. Metacognitive knowledge subsumes cognition and regulation of cognitive perceptions. Quasi-Experimental Research of Two Group Pretest-Posttest Design was utilized. Data was collected four schools selected purposively. This paper does explicit on the importance of metacognitive strategies to the learning of mathematics on problem solving abilities. Metacognition is a function of problem-solving relevant awareness of one’s thinking, monitoring and regulation of thinking processes, along the application of heuristics. A sample of 145 Form Three students in Tharaka South Sub-County participated in the study: The instrument to collect data utilized was Problem Solving Abilities Test (PSAT) composed of 3 structured items scoring at maximum of 20 points. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential of ANOVA. The findings of the study showed a statistically significant difference in problem solving abilities in mathematics between the students exposed to metacognitive strategies and those not exposed. The experimental group outperformed control groups in PSAT. This implied that metacognitive strategies are effective in improving students’ problem solving abilities in mathematics. Also the results indicated that metacognitive strategies are good precursors to problem solving abilities among the learners. It was concluded that metacognitive strategies do improve students' problem solving abilities in mathematics.