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Table 8: Students’ responses to question 8
Serdar Çiftci and Mehmet Akif Ocak
Keywords f %
There is no deficiency of the MMT 5 29,41
There are problems with design 2 11,76
Some constraints exist 2 11,76
Time management problems 2 11,76
Technical problems 2 11,76
Detailed information is needed 2 11,76
It should be developed 1 5,88
Personalization problems 1 5,88
Total 17 100
9. While studying in a web based environment, do you need this kind of tool/ support / guidance?
Findings show, while students study in web based environment, it was observed that they need such
a tool. When studying in an individual lesson via the Internet, one of the important considerations was
distracting variables affecting the students’ interest and attention. The MMT made a positive effect on
planning to deal with such issues. When analyzing the answers given by the students, responses are
shown in Table 9.
Table 9: Students’ responses to question 9
Keywords f %
Yes (For learning) 15 65,22
Yes (For the web) 4 17,39
Partially yes 2 8,70
No 2 8,70
Total 23 100
Sample answers given by students to question 9 are as follows: “I have not used this type of a web
based tool before. It caught my attention and I started to use. I think it is great for planning and
monitoring.”, “When using web based course, it is very easy to lose my interest since the internet is
always under my hand. But thanks to this tool that helped to develop a plan and according to the plan,
I was able to focus on to what I really have to do.”, “I think it is necessary to have such a tool not only
in web based environments but also in other learning environments. So far, I was not aware of the
need to use such a tool. Moreover, I think everyone needs such a tool.”
6. Conclusion and recommendations
The purpose of the study was to examine students’ metacognitive activities in a web based learning
environment. The MMT was developed to guide and allow students to achieve structured learning
task. Results found that the MMT constructed according to metacognitive components (planning,
monitoring, self-evaluation and revision) was used by the students efficiently and positively.
Thinking about online courses, Henning (2003) indicated that we need “more than data of
performance in the technology is needed to interpret the learners’ social position comprehensively” (p.
304). Hence, supporting students’ metacognitive activities with learning tools would be a solution to
this obstacle. The American Psychological Association (APA), in its report for a framework for school
redesign and reform (APA, 1997), concluded that metacognition is one of the most important
principles for learning. It is important to note that that basic concept behind the metacognition differs
from adaptive instructional systems. In this study metacognition mainly deals with students’ selfregulated
learning strategies and perceptions on metacognitive skills. As indicated by Carrier and
Jonassen (1988), adaptive learning includes following variables: (a) aptitude variables (b) prior
knowledge (c) cognitive styles and (d) personality variables. The structure of an adaptive system
needs collection of information about individual user. This study did not focus on the variables
indicated above; however further research will be needed to investigate the relationship between
metacognition and adaptive system in terms of learning tools.
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