Investigation of metacognitive skills and parental attitudes of primary school children

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between metacognitive skills of primary school children and parental attitudes and to examine these according to some variables. 175 students studying in the 3rd and 4th grades of two primary schools located in a district center of Yozgat Province and their parents participated in the study. In this study in which the screening method was used, General Information Form, Metacognitive Awareness Scale (MCAS-C) and Parental Attitude Scale (PAAS) were used to collect data. SPSS 26 program was used to analyze the data obtained in the study. In the study, unrelated samples t-test was used for comparing paired groups exhibiting normal distribution, one way ANOVA test was used for comparing more than two phase groups, Kruskal-Wallis H test was used in cases where the assumption of homogeneity of variance was not provided, and Pearson test was used for correlation analysis. The research findings revealed that there were positive significant relationships between children's metacognitive skills and desired (democratic, supportive) attitudes shown by their parents, and negative significant relationships between undesirable (authoritarian, indifferent) attitudes. In addition, it was determined that demographic variables such as children's grade level, gender, birth order, number of children, preschool education status, and parents' age, education and employment status were related to both children's metacognitive skills and parental attitudes at different levels. The results obtained show that families play a critical role in the development of their children's higher-order thinking skills and that parental attitudes are guiding in this process. In this context, planning programs to raise parents' awareness will be effective in supporting children's metacognitive development.