The Relationship Among Meta-Cognition Self-efficacy And Perceived Critical Thinking In Nursing Students

Objective:This paper is investigate the meta-cognitive ability, self efficacy and critical thinking ability of the nursing undergraduates; to explore the effect of general information of nursing undergraduates on the meta-cognitive ability, to analyze the characteristics of self-efficacy and critical thinking ability of nursing undergraduates, as well as their correlation with meta-cognitive ability, so as to provide the reference for the training of high quality nursing personnel.Methods:507nursing undergraduates in the second and third college year were recruited in one medical college in2012. Cognitive ability scale, self-efficacy scale, the Chinese version scale of critical thinking ability (CTDI-CV) and general self-designed questionnaire were used to measure the Meta-cognitive ability, self-efficacy, critical thinking ability and the general information of nursing undergraduates. The software of SPSS13.0was used for data analysis, and the statistical analysis methods included descriptive analysis, t test, analysis of variance, Spearman correlation analysis and regression analysis.Results:1.507nursing students agreed to accept the investigation and all of them completed questionnaires. The recall rate and effective rate were both100%.2. The total score of meta-cognitive ability of nursing undergraduates was80.77±4.30. And the scores of its four dimensions were:18.21±1.81in meta-cognitive evaluation,20.58±1.82in meta-cognitive monitoring,19.44±1.81in meta-cognitive adjustment, and22.54±1.86in meta-cognitive plan, respectively. Among them, the score of Meta-cognitive plan was the highest and that of meta-cognitive evaluation was the lowest.3. The impact of general information on the meta-cognitive ability:there were significantly statistical differences on meta-cognitive ability between the senior nursing undergraduates and the juniors, between the ordinary nursing undergraduates and the vocational undergraduates, and between those nursing undergraduates who like the nursing major and those who didn’t like. And the senior nursing undergraduates, ordinary nursing undergraduates, and those nursing undergraduates who like the nursing major had the higher scores.4. The score of self-efficacy of nursing undergraduates29.46±5.33is much less than the international adult normal19.23±1.78.The self-efficacy of nursing undergraduates had positive correlation with their meta-cognitive ability(r=0.689, P <0.05), with the strongest correlation in meta-cognitive plan dimension (r=0.821, P <0.05), and a weakest correlation in meta-cognitive adjustment dimension (r=0.445, P<0.05).5. The score of the critical thinking of nursing undergraduates is146.4±16.41, lower than210, which represents the negative critical thinking of the score of systematic capacity is the lowest. The critical thinking ability was positively correlated with their meta-cognitive ability. The scores of following five dimensions of the critical thinking were positively correlated with the total score of meta-cognitive ability:seeking the truth, intellectual curiosity, systematic capacity, self-confidence and ability of analysis (r=0.789, P<0.001; r=0.632, P<0.001; r=0.536, P<0.001; r=0.458, P<0.01; r=0.426, P<0.01) But the dimensions of being open-minded and cognitive maturity showed no relationship with meta-cognitive ability (P>0.05).6. The regression results showed that the grades, academic levels, the extent of their liking nursing major, self-efficacy and critical thinking ability were influencing factors of cognitive ability, which may explained18.7%of the variation. The grades, academic levels, the extent of their liking nursing major, self-efficacy and critical thinking ability were also influencing factors of meta-cognitive plan, meta-cognitive monitoring, meta-cognitive adjustment and meta-cognitive evaluation, which may explained22.1%,21.2%,28.5%and33.2%of the variation respectively. Conclusions:1. The level of meta-cognitive ability of nursing undergraduates in our study is low, which implied that nursing educators should cultivate these students’ meta-cognitive ability, especially their meta-cognitive evaluation ability.2. The level of self-efficacy for nursing undergraduates is a little bit of lower, the better self-efficacy and the stronger their meta-cognitive ability.3. The level of critical thinking ability for nursing undergraduates is a little bit of lower, the better critical thinking ability and the stronger their meta-cognitive ability.4The grades, academic levels, the extent of their liking for nursing major, self-efficacy, critical thinking ability might be important predictors of the meta-cognitive ability in nursing undergraduates.