**9. Metacognitive development, culture, and social context**

Piaget himself recognised that an environment rich with challenges appropriate to the stage of a child's development was more important than trying to force the pace of change in order to help increase the pace of cognitive development. Therefore, it should not be surprising to find that metacognitive development also progresses as a result of challenges from the environment and, if these challenges are the result of a significant life event like leaving home (perhaps for the first time), it seems likely that this will involve the internalisation of new experiences and subsequent increases in metacognitive activity.

The data presented in this study suggests that these findings are equally relevant to metacognitive development. The overall LASSI scores presented in table 2 demonstrate that students who have moved from the Chinese mainland (n=127) to study in Hong Kong score significantly above the mean LASSI score (N=1815) for the sample. Additionally, students from Hong Kong who had moved into student halls of residence on campus, and so had moved away from home (although not quite so far in geographical terms) also scored well above the mean LASSI score, although somewhat lower than their mainland Chinese counterparts. The first of these findings suggests some element of cultural difference in metacognitive development (Serpell, 2000), and this suggestion might rely on the particular type of education experience encountered by the mainland Chinese group. However, the fact that the group of students living in halls, from the very different cultural context of Hong Kong also score much more highly than their Hong Kong counterparts living in the family home (the general norm for Hong Kong undergraduates) suggests that there is something about the changed social context (moving away from home) that impacts upon metacognitive development. Analysis of the component scores for 'will', 'skill', and 'selfregulation' casts some light on this process.

## **10. Skill, self-regulation and social context**

144 Current Topics in Children's Learning and Cognition

self-regulation

**Table 6.** ANOVA

**7. Discussion** 

cognition develops over time.

happen?

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

 Within Groups 6205872.248 1809 3430.554 Total 6752756.180 1814

 Within Groups 9093021.373 1809 5026.546 Total 9878387.468 1814 LASSI Between Groups 5478997.128 5 1095799.426 45.101 .000 Within Groups 43952864.391 1809 24296.774 Total 49431861.518 1814

component Between Groups 785366.094 <sup>5</sup> 157073.219 31.249 .000

These results raise the question of the extent to which the metacognitive skills, assessed by the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory, are influenced or associated with moving away from the home environment in order to engage in undergraduate study. In other words, does a significant change in the social context, like moving away from home to study, impact positively upon metacognitive development and, if so, why is this likely to

Piaget (1929, 1954, 1977) describes the process of intellectual development in terms of a movement from 'egocentrism' to 'decentring'. This is a cognitive developmental process that culminates in attaining the formal operational stage characterised by advanced deductive logic and the ability to reason from abstract to logical conclusions. One criticism of Piaget's approach is that it asserts that much of cognitive development is a result of maturational processes within the child, and the environment has very little impact on how cognitive abilities change over time. However, since Vygotsky (1975) highlighted the role of social interaction in cognitive development, more contemporary researchers (Rogoff & Chavajay, 1995; Lourenco & Machado, 1996; Serpell & Boykin, 1994; Downing & Chim, 2004) have tended to focus on the role of culture and social interactions in cognitive development. This view posits that children and young adults develop through a process of internalisation, absorbing knowledge from their social context which has a major impact on how their

Piaget himself recognised that an environment rich with challenges appropriate to the stage of a child's development was more important than trying to force the pace of change in order to help increase the pace of cognitive development. Therefore, it should not be surprising to find that metacognitive development also progresses as a result of challenges from the environment and, if these challenges are the result of a significant life event like

**8. Cognitive development, culture, and social context** 

**9. Metacognitive development, culture, and social context** 

The differences from the mean scores (N=1815) for the 'will' component are 52.56 (n=127) for the Chinese mainland students studying in Hong Kong and 50.93 (n=45) for students living in halls of residence on campus, not much to write home about! However, differences between these two groups start to look more interesting when we consider the 'skill' and 'self-regulation' components. The differences from the mean scores (N=1815) for the 'skill' component are 56.52 (n=127) for the Chinese mainland students studying in Hong Kong and 38.88 (n=45) for students living in halls of residence on campus. For the 'self-regulation' components these figures are 68.16 (n=127) and 48.28 (n=45) respectively suggesting that these two components are differentially influenced in the two groups and raising the question why? Once again the social context might provide us with a partial answer. The students from mainland China are geographically distant from their home base and their parent culture and so the requirement to self-regulate, and to think about this process (metacognition) is likely to be more pressing than those students living in their own culture but away from the family home. For both groups, the changed social context is likely to influence their perceived ability to concentrate and focus attention positively because they are not subject to the often considerable demands of living in the family home, and this will no doubt impact on the sense of control they perceive in relation to their time-management abilities. In terms of the perceived use of self-testing and study aid strategies, the changed social context gives students everyday opportunities to try out different problem-solving strategies ('skill' component) and weed out those that do not work as well, gradually evolving new strategies depending on changes in the situation in the same way as Siegler, (1996) describes for cognitive development.

In line with Piaget's view that an environment rich with challenges appropriate to the stage of a child's development was more important than trying to force the pace of change in order to help increase the pace of cognitive development, it seems that everyday challenges emerging from the new social context in this study, provide fertile environments for the development of metacognition. The highest 'meta-level' of cognition is usually not implicated when we receive an outside task and when the task solution is known. This is one reason why we do not think about our life goals in our everyday activities. The metalevel only tends to be consulted when things go wrong or when the situation is new. Therefore, the meta-level tends to come into play when we move house or location, or we are encouraged to consider our life and or educational goals in a more general sense, something we are surely disposed to do when moving away from home environment and culture. In other words, the challenging new social context of living away from home, and for the mainland Chinese students, in a different culture increases the use of metacognition because the student cannot call upon routinised or 'automatic' cognition. There is almost a requirement in these circumstances to have knowledge about and control over thinking processes (Allen & Armour-Thomas, 1991).

The Impact of Moving Away from Home on Undergraduate Metacognitive Development 147

environment outside what might be termed your 'comfort zone' (Driscoll's, 1994, Principle 1) will undoubtedly provide an action and discovery oriented learning environment, whilst the scope for peer interaction and social negotiation is also considerably widened (Principle 2). Finally, Socratic Dialogue is a method widely used in Europe which allows for in-depth understanding of various issues concerning everyday life. Through rigorous inquiry and consensus students start to unravel some of their basic assumptions and develop metacognitive skills and knowledge. This approach has long valued everyday life as a

Scruggs et al (1985) and Ning & Downing (2010b) suggest that direct instruction in metacognitive strategies leads to increases in learning (e.g. Learning to learn courses), and that independent use of these strategies develops only gradually. Whilst there is a wealth of research in support of these viewpoints (Hanley, 1995; Bogdan, 2000; Driscoll, 2004;), it is also essential that educators do not neglect the crucial role of the student's experience outside of the classroom in the development of metacognitive skills. Independent use of metacognitive strategies is a by-product of coping with everyday new social contexts and cultures. It seems very likely from the data presented in this paper that the experience of moving away from home (and culture) creates a metacognitive environment which fosters the development of 'thinking about thinking' and provides students with more opportunities to become successful problem-solvers and lifelong learners. In our rapidly changing world, the challenge for teachers is to help undergraduate students develop skills which will not become obsolete. As such, metacognitive strategies are essential for the twenty-first century because they will enable students to successfully cope with new situations, and the challenges of lifelong learning. To return to Socrates, it is clear that moving away from home and culture into a new social context ensures that everyday life is examined, and this study suggests that this examination promotes the development of metacognitive skills which go some way to equipping student's for the demands of a worthwhile career in a rapidly changing world.

Allen, B.A., & Armour-Thomas, E. (1991), Construct validation of metacognition. *Journal of* 

Bogdan, R.J. (2000), Minding minds: Evolving a reflexive mind by interpreting others.

Brown, A. (1987), Metacognition, executive control, self-regulation, and other more mysterious mechanisms. In F. Weinert, & R. Kluwe (Eds.), *Metacognition, motivation, and* 

Brown, R. (1973), *A first language: The early stages*. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

formidable teacher of self-reflection (Principle 3).

*City University of Hong Kong, Yau Yat Tsuen, Kowloon, Hong Kong* 

*understanding* (pp. 65-116). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

**Author details** 

Kevin Downing

**12. References** 

*Psychology*, 127(2), 203-211.

Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
