The effect of metacognitive writing strategies on writing skills and writing attitudes

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of education based on metacognitive writing strategies on seventh grade students' awareness of metacognitive writing strategies, writing skills and writing attitudes. In the study, explanatory sequential design, which is one of the mixed methods that includes qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques, was used. In the quantitative part of the research, one of the real experimental designs, pre-test and post-test control group random design; in the qualitative part, semi-structured interview technique was used. The study group of the study was selected among the seventh grade students, studying at AKEDAŞ Secondary School in Kahramanmaraş province Onikişubat district in the academic year of 2020-2021. The study group consists of 60 students, 30 of which are experimental and 30 are control, by random assignment method. "Informative Texts Written by Students" and "Metacognitive Writing Strategies Scale", "Writing Attitude Scale", "Rubric for Metacognitive Writing Strategies" and "Semi-Structured Interview Form" which developed by the researcher are the main data collection tools of the research. In the application dimension of the study, the students in the experimental group were trained on metacognitive writing strategies through distance education for 10 weeks, and the control group was trained according to the current curriculum of the Ministry of National Education. The quantitative data of the research; was analyzed by the paired-samples t test, independent-samples t-test, Mann-Whitney U test and the Wilcoxon signed rank test depends on the situation. The qualitative data obtained through semi-structured interview forms were analyzed using descriptive analysis method. According to the research results; the metacognitive writing strategies training increased the experimental group students' general awareness of metacognitive writing strategies, and their awareness of self-monitoring and self-assessment strategies; while did not make a difference at the level of planning strategies awareness of the experimental group students. Metacognitive writing strategies training were effective in improving students' general attitude towards writing and attach importance to writing; it was not effective in writing perception and writing pleasure attitudes. According to the research findings, the experimental process was effective in increasing the writing skill success level of the experimental group students. In the experimental group in which metacognitive writing strategies training was applied and in the control group that was educated in line with the current curriculum of MEB; when the final measurement scores of the informative texts written by the students were compared, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of success in writing skills. The students in the experimental group expressed a generally positive opinion about the training of metacognitive writing strategies. The experimental process that was applied had a positive effect on the students' writing skills, their thinking and attitude and the feeling of starting writing. The education provided contributed to the increase in the writing habits of the students in the experimental group and to the decrease in writing anxiety. The students in the experimental group believe that training in metacognitive writing strategies increases their writing skill success levels. Findings show that metacognition is a teachable skill and a powerful predictor of learning. For this reason, it is recommended to encourage students to learn autonomously, to perform out-of-class activities where responsibility is gradually transferred from teacher to student, to model various learning processes by teachers and to give students the opportunity to multiple applications. Researchers who want to work on metacognitive writing strategies can perform a similar study with different level classes or for different text types. Research can be conducted on the use or effect of metacognitive strategies in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. Key Words: Metacognition, metacognitive writing strategies, strategy education, writing skill, writing attitude