Abstract:
This study aimed at scrutinizing the mediating role of critical thinking in relation to higher education students' metacognition and self-efficacy in Islamic Azad University, Nourabad Mamasani. Samples were collected through random sampling method and it was equal to 248. Instruments used in this study were three standard questionnaires including critical thinking, metacognition and self-efficacy. Cronbach's alpha was employed to estimate the instruments’ reliability, based on which critical thinking was found to be 0. 88, metacognition 0. 89 and self-efficacy 0. 87. Findings revealed that meta-cognition could significantly predict students' self-efficacy and critical thinking. Also, it was found that meta-cognition and critical thinking could significantly predict students’ self-efficacy. This study also showed that critical thinking had a mediating role in relation to students’ meta-cognition and self-efficacy. The dimensions of meta-cognition and critical thinking could significantly predict students’ self-efficacy.
Machine summary:
The Mediating Role of Critical Thinking in Relation to Higher Education Students' Meta-Cognition and Self-efficacy Alireza Ghasemizad, Ph. D.
Sc. Department of Educational Administration, Kazerun Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kazerun, Iran Abstract This study aimed at scrutinizing the mediating role of critical thinking in relation to higher education students' metacognition and self-efficacy in Islamic Azad University, Nourabad Mamasani.
Instruments used in this study were three standard questionnaires including critical thinking, metacognition and self-efficacy.
Findings revealed that meta-cognition could significantly predict students' self-efficacy and critical thinking.
Keywords : Critical thinking, higher education students, meta-cognition, self-efficacy Introduction Thinking is regarded as the most complicated form of human behavior and the highest form of rational and mental activities.
With regard to the subject mentioned above, the main research question raised in the present study is: whether critical thinking has an intermediary role in relation to students' metacognition and self-efficacy in Nourabad Islamic Azad University?
This research merely studies students’ self-efficacy and its relation to metacognition and critical thinking.
Critical thinking as a bias against a lot of things can also cause assessment and judgment about issues and it can influence people's self-efficacy (Bandura, 1993; Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara, & Pastorelli, 1996; Coutinho, 2008).
In the fourth hypothesis, the researcher aimed to determine that critical thinking has an intermediary role in relation to students’ metacognition and self- efficacy.
Therefore, the most important finding of this research shows students' critical thinking has a mediating role in relation to metacognition and self-efficacy.