The study was conducted to examine the difference and its causes in the level of metacognitive development of elementary school students according to whether they have experienced invention education or not. For this purpose, we analyzed the metacognition of elementary school students in two groups: 142 elementary school students who have experienced invention education for at least one semester in the Invention Education Center in Seoul and 121 elementary students with no such experience.
Their metacognitive development was measured by a metacognitive testing tool whose items are categorized into five subcomponents, subsumed under two broader categories, namely knowledge of cognition (declarative knowledge, conditional knowledge) and regulation of cognition (planning, monitoring, evaluating). The results of this study were as follows:
First, the metacognition level of the elementary school students with experience in invention education was higher in all five subcomponents than that of the students who hadn’t experienced invention education. Second, the metacognition level of those with no experience in invention education varied according to gender, while the students with invention education experience it showed varying levels of metacognition according to the satisfaction of invention education and the motivation to participate in the education course rather than gender.
The results of this study could be used as a reference to suggest directions of invention education in relation to metacognitive development of elementary school students.