Investigating middle school students' mathematical metacognition awareness and critical thinking dispositions

The aim of this study is to examine the levels of mathematical metacognitive awareness and critical thinking disposition of middle school students and to compare them according to demographic variables (gender, class and mathematics achievement level). This study, which was conducted using survey, causal comparison and correlational research models from quantitative research models, has 482 students who are studying in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades of secondary school as its sample. The "Mathematıcal Metacognıtıon Awareness Inventory" and "Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale" were used as data collection tools. Descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance between groups, independent samples t-test, correlation and simple linear regression analysis were used for data analysis. According to the findings obtained from the study, both the mathematical metacognitive awareness levels and the critical thinking disposition levels of the students are "high". The results of the study showed that the mathematical metacognitive awareness of the students differed significantly in favor of female students according to gender variable, but their critical thinking disposition did not differ significantly according to gender. It was observed that the mathematical metacognitive awareness of the students differed significantly in favor of fifth and sixth grades according to class level, while their critical thinking disposition differed significantly in favor of sixth and seventh grade students. It was determined that both mathematical metacognitive awareness and critical thinking disposition of students with high mathematics achievement level differed significantly. In the study, it was found that there was a high level, positive and significant relationship between students' mathematical metacognition and critical thinking disposition. In addition, regression analysis showed that mathematical metacognitive awareness was a variable that predicted critical thinking disposition. Besides these results, mathematical metacognitive awareness explained 35% of the variance related to critical thinking disposition. Suggestions for researchers and practitioners were presented in light of the results of the study Key Words: Critical Thinking, Metacognition, Mathematical Metacognitive Awareness, Mathematics Education