Exploring the Use of Metacognition in Teaching Writing: A Case Study of the First-Year Composition Instructors in the U.S

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the US-based First-Year Composition (FYC) instructors understand and facilitate metacognition in their classes and assess students' metacognition through exploratory, mixed methods approaches. I argue that even if we understand the importance of metacognition generally for student populations, we need to understand the FYC instructors' understanding of metacognition and the metacognitive strategies they use in teaching composition. I argue that FYC composition courses are not merely about developing writing but also it is about enabling students to reflect on their writing knowledge, skills, and strategies. Thus, the dissertation examines not only the FYC instructors' understanding of metacognition but also how they meaningfully incorporate metacognitive strategies in teaching composition. As metacognitive is commonly known as thinking for or about thinking, instructors' understanding of metacognitive strategies and the ways those strategies are incorporated into teaching composition not only helps them monitor and evaluate their own teaching practices but also has direct effects on students' metacognitive development in writing. That is, metacognitive teaching of composition enables students to monitor their level of understanding and develops students' reflection on their own writing processes. Therefore, writing to learn functions as a teaching tool to develop students' self-regulated learning. The quantitative analysis of my data from the online survey revealed that there is a significant correlation between the First-Year Composition (FYC) instructors' metacognitive knowledge, skills, experiences, and assessment. This suggests that teaching the FYC based on metacognition requires an objective understanding related to various aspects of metacognition. The quantitative findings are profoundly supported by the qualitative results descended from the analysis of two-open ended questions in the online survey in conjunction with insights received from interviews and analysis of teaching artifacts. In the same vein, after the qualitative analysis of the two open-ended questions, it is revealed that FYC instructors recognize metacognition as integral to their teaching. The results show that the participants identified 11 key premises through which they apply 15 major metacognitive strategies for developing students' metacognitive awareness in composition. Similarly, the interview analysis that includes 98 salient themes confirms that FYC instructors possess all four aspects of metacognition: metacognitive knowledge (N=36), metacognitive skill (N=33), metacognitive experience (N=16), and metacognitive assessment (N=13).In addition, the analysis of teaching artifacts revealed the FYC instructors' metacognitive knowledge, skills, experience, and assessment in teaching composition through five salient themes: preassessments, the muddiest point, retrospective post-assessments, integrating reflection into students' learning goals, and reflective journals. The participants' metacognitive knowledge emerged from the integration of reflective practices into student learning objectives. Also, their metacognitive skills and experience are embodied in providing students with tools to identify confusions and assigning reflective journals. In addition, the FYC instructors' metacognitive assessment was analyzed and observed the use of preassessments and retrospective post-assessments. This dissertation greatly contributes to the field of FYC teaching in five particular ways: First, it discovers and examines 11 metacognitive strategies in teaching writing pertaining to the FYC instructors' metacognitive perceptions and 15 metacognitive strategies in teaching writing pertaining to effective metacognitive pedagogical strategies emerging from the online surveys. Second, it constructs five strategies under each metacognitive component: knowledge, skills, experience, and assessment, which are 20 strategies in general emerging from the interviews of the participants. Third, this study provides theoretical venues for infusing metacognitive strategies through teaching artifacts. In addition, it formulates pedagogical implications through constructing four metacognitive pedagogical approaches for teaching the FYC courses. Lastly, this study highlights a number of possible future directions for metacognitive research in the FYC context. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]