Metacognitive Differences in Gender and Academic outcome among Chemistry Education Students of Kaduna State University

Abstract

This study investigated the gender differences in metacognitive ability and academic outcome among chemistry education students of Kaduna State University in Nigeria. A total of 75 students (20males and 55females) of 2023/24 academic session drawn randomly from a population of one hundred and fifty 200level first degree chemistry education students of the institution constituted the sample size for the study. A survey research design was used for the study with two instruments, viz, the Metacognition Assessment Scale (MAS) and Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) deployed to gather data to answer two research questions and test two corresponding null hypotheses. The data collected were analysed using means, standard deviations and t-test comparison of means. The results of the study revealed that the female students had higher metacognition than their male counterparts while on the basis of academic outcome, the reverse was recorded. However, the observed differences were not statistically significant (P-metacognition = 0.42 ˃ 0.05; P-academic performance = 1.17 ˃ 0.05, df = 73). This implies that the students might not have well developed metacognitive strategies for effective learning. It is recommended, among other things, that the science (chemistry) students should be exposed to training in metacognition and its various strategies so as to deploy them in learning situations for effective academic outcome.

Keywords: Metacognition, gender differences, academic outcome