Metacognitive Skills and Academic Performance among Medical Students-An Analytical Cross Sectional Survey

Abstract

Objective: The study objectives were to identify the metacognitive skills in medical students and to find its association with
their academic performance.

Study Design: Analytical cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Army Medical College, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from May to Sep 2022.

Methodology: MBBS students from second, third and fourth year who had passed their last professional examination were included by convenience sampling. Sample size was calculated using WHO table and keeping 95% confidence level, d=0.05 and p= 0.20. Self-reported questionnaire Metacognitive Awareness Inventory was used to collect online data from 197 students. Hesitant students and incomplete questionnaires were excluded. Data analyzed through SPSS version 26. Mean and standard deviation for descriptive, independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were applied to find differences of mean among
different groups (p<0.05 statistically significant).

Results: Among 115 males and 82 females, almost 92(46.70%) were from second year, 33(16.75%) from third year, and 72(36.54%) were from fourth year. Mean score and standard deviation of knowledge and regulation of cognition was 10±4.3 and 20.4±8.6 respectively. No significant difference of metacognition scores for two domains was found among both genders (p value 0.730, 0.509 respectively), four categories of percentage scores (p-value 0.290, 0.724respectively) and all years (p-value 0.077, 0.280 respectively). A significant strong positive linear correlation between knowledge and regulation was found (r=797; p<0.001).

Conclusions: Metacognitive skills in medical students were moderately developed in using strategies of both knowledge and
regulation of cognition. No association was found between metacognitive skills and their academic performance.