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Executive functioning, metacognition, and self-perceived competence in elementary school children: an explorative study on their interrelations and their role for school achievement

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Abstract

In the present study, associations between executive functioning, metacognition, and self-perceived competence in the context of early academic outcomes were examined. A total of 209 children attending first grade were initially assessed in terms of their executive functioning and academic self-concept. One year later, children’s executive functioning, academic self-concept, metacognitive monitoring and control, as well as their achievement in mathematics and literacy were evaluated. Structural equation modeling revealed that executive functioning was significantly related to metacognitive control, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and that self-concept was substantially associated with metacognitive monitoring, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Individual differences in executive functioning and metacognitive control were significantly related to academic outcomes, with metacognitive control appearing to yield a more circumscribed influence on academic outcomes (only literacy) compared to executive functioning (literacy and mathematics).

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Notes

  1. Unfortunately, the only relative pure updating task included in the study (Backward Color Recall task) proved to be unreliable (due to too few trials on one sequence length) and did not load substantially on the one resultant EF factor; one additional task of verbal fluency (Rapid Naming) was excluded in order to receive a well-balanced EF latent variable with the four dimensions being reflected by one task each.

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Authors’ Note

The present study was partially financed by the Jacobs Foundation Zürich (project “Transition to School”; PI: Claudia M. Roebers). We wish to thank the participating children, and gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the children’s teachers and principals. We also wish to thank the student research assistants who helped with data collection and Uli Orth for teaching us structural equation modeling techniques.

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  1. Center for Cognition, Learning, and Memory & School of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Claudia M. Roebers, Patrizia Cimeli, Marianne Röthlisberger & Regula Neuenschwander

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  1. Claudia M. Roebers
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Roebers, C.M., Cimeli, P., Röthlisberger, M. et al. Executive functioning, metacognition, and self-perceived competence in elementary school children: an explorative study on their interrelations and their role for school achievement. Metacognition Learning 7, 151–173 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-012-9089-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-012-9089-9

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