Review Studies Related to Metacognition of Teachers: Awareness, Skills, Understanding and Practices

Teachers are among the most important school-based resources for determining students’ long-term academic success and outcomes. The ultimate objective of improving professional change of teachers is to gain higher achievement levels of students. Professional development of teachers has become an important issue in transforming school education for the 21st century according to research conducted by National Education Commission, Sri Lanka. There should be new thinking on how the professionalism of teachers should be improved for the future development of teaching and learning. Therefore, the psychological concept “metacognition†defined as knowledge and regulation of one’s thinking processes can be incorporated into teaching. Through metacognitive ability, teachers can observe, regulate, and control their thinking processes to become excellent. There are many studies at the international level related to the metacognition of teachers concerning their performances. However, Sri Lankan context, there are only 11 published studies related to that. The study’s goal was to review studies related to the metacognition of teachers: awareness, skills, understanding, and practices and to make conclusions for future educational goals. Data were gathered by a documentary survey searching Google Scholar and Research Gate. Qualitative data analysis was used. The overall findings revealed that the metacognition of teachers positively influences their teaching performances. The metacognitive awareness level of teachers was good, while their skills were relatively low. Many pre-service teachers didn’t understand what metacognition is and how to empower it. Hence, familiarizing and practicing “metacognition†can be recommended for the improvement of quality teaching in Sri Lanka.