A Primary Research On High School Students' Metacognitive Ability In Physics Problem Solving

Since the 1970's, people have begun to probe into intelligence from the perspective of information-processing as cognitive psychology became prevailing. With the deepening of the research, it is found that behind all the cognitive processes there exists another cognitive process directing to the process of itself, that is "metacognition". As it was put forward, it drew great attention because of the important role it played in the intellectual activities. Seen from different point of view, the researches into metacognition are taking a leading role in present researches of intelligence, having made considerable achievements. As metacognition means one's cognition to the cognitive process, it bears the nature of self-awareness and the function of self-control. It can enhance the cognitive efficiency and reduce the blindness and impulse in the cognitive activities. Therefore, metacognition is helpful for students to improve their studies and succeed in the problem solving. It opens a new train of thought for us to study the thinking process in physics problem solving.Because of the important role the metacognition plays in improving students' thinking way and developing their intellectual level, many of the thinking trainings are going on with metacognition as a center consciously or unconsciously. But how to measure and evaluate the students' metacognitive level, especially the metacognitive level in particular subject learning is a big problem as well as a weak link in present metacognitive researches.Acording to the characteristics of the physics subject and the metacognitive theory, combining with the thinking process in physics problem solving, we attempt to measure and evaluate the high school students' metacognitve ability in physics problem solving so as to call attention to the cultivating of it and offer a reference for the reform in the physics instruction as well.To achieve the aim, I have consulted many literatures concerned and made an analysis on the related questionnaires and scales from home and abroad. Furthermore, I went to middle schools to consult with teachers and students, combining with the testing of an open questionnaire to find out the various behaviors of the metacognitive monitoring in the process of physics problem solving; Meanwhile, I had a self-examination on my own thinking process in physics problem solving, drew on the experience of therelated questionnaires and scales. By extracting and summing up the materials above, I concluded five aspects of the metacognitive ability to be measured, including the planning, awareness, method, regulation and conclusion in physics problem solving. On the basis of the five aspects, I drafted the original "questionnaire on high school students' metacognitive ability in physics problem solving ". Then I took the first survey using the questionnaire. After the item analysis and revision, I turned the questionnaire into a formal one using for testing along with another " questionnaire on students' motivation in physics learning". After analyzing the data of the formal questionnaire using SPSS, I find that it has a high reliability and validity. In addition, I analyze the developing level, characteristics and laws of the metacognitive ability in high school students' physics problem solving as well as its relationship with physics learning achievement. The results of the statistics indicate that the developments of the high school students' metacognitive ability and the abilities of its various aspects are lopsided in physics problem solving. Except that the development of the conclusion aspect is below the middle level, the developments of the other aspects are all above it. Furthermore, the tempos of the various aspects are different in different grade. But as a whole, the abilities of metacognition and its various aspects (except for the planning aspect) all have obviously developed during the study of grade one and grade three in senior high schools. With the grade's increasing and the going up of the complex degree of physics...