ABSTRACT
Metacognition is the awareness of one’s thinking process and how he or she is able to control these processes. Today, one of the main goals of education is to make the students gain the thinking skills and strategies which they will use throughout their lives, rather than storing information. This study used descriptive research. The methods involve the questionnaire, interview or observation and documentation. This study determined the level of awareness of teachers on metacognitive strategies in teaching science in private secondary schools.
Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions; How may the profile of the Science teachers in private secondary schools be describe in terms of: age; sex; civil status; educational attainment; specialization; subject taught; number of subject preparation; average class per section; length of teaching science; and trainings attended? How may the level of awareness of teachers on metacognitive strategies of teaching Science among private secondary schools be described in terms of: (1) knowledge of cognition; under knowledge of cognition are; declarative knowledge; procedural knowledge; conditional knowledge; (2) regulation of cognition; under the regulation of cognition are; planning; information management; monitoring; debugging and evaluation. Is there a significant relationship between the profile variables of the teachers and the level of awareness on metacognitive strategies in teaching Science? Is there a significant difference between the perceptions of teachers and learners on the level of teacher’s metacognitive awareness? And what metacognitive strategies may be proposed to enhance the teaching of Science? The teacher-respondents were between the ages of 25 years and above, mostly female, three single teachers and three married teachers, had B/S or A.B units in Education and with M.A units, mostly earned baccalaureate degree and specialization in general science, biological science and chemistry, majority had three years length of teaching science, one training attended, two subjects taught, two preparations and had class size of 40. Debugging as the component of metacognitive strategies got the highest weighted mean by teacher-respondents. Planning as the component of metacognitive strategies got highest weighted mean of learner-respondents. Planning also got the highest mean by both teacher- and learner respondents. Declarative knowledge and evaluating were components of metacognitive strategies given the lowest mean by teacher-respondents. Monitoring got the lowest means by learner-respondent. There were two variables, namely: majors and length of teaching had a significant relationship in perceived level of metacognitive awareness. There is significant difference between the perceptions of teachers and learners on the level of metacognitive awareness. Metacognitive activities are the proposed output to enhance the teaching of Science. The researcher recommended the following; for the schools to provide activities for teachers on metacognitive strategy’s components; declarative knowledge and evaluating to enhance the metacognitive strategies in teaching Science. Further studies may be conducted particularly— studies using larger samples which can be drawn from the other schools so that the results may be generalized for all teachers and learners in the district of Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija and longitudinal studies may be conducted to help reveal level of awareness on metacognitive strategies in teaching science. This will help examine and validate the level of awareness on metacognitive strategies of teachers in teaching science.