The Relationship between Thinking Styles and Metacognitive Awareness among Iranian EFL Learners

Abstract

Throughout the recent decades, within the realm of educational psychology, learners’ thinking styles and metacognitive awareness as influential factors on learning and thinking have received considerable attention. The present study explored the relationship between thinking styles and metacognitive awareness of Iranian EFL university students majoring in English Literature, English Translation, and English Language Teaching. In addition, the study pursued whether thinking styles could act as the predictors of metacognition. Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI) and Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) were administered at 100 Iranian senior undergraduate EFL students at the University of Sistan and Baluchestan and Islamic Azad University of Zahedan. The reliability of TSI and MAI was confirmed, and the analysis of data through Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient indicated that functions and levels of thinking styles were positively correlated with metacognitive awareness. Moreover, significant positive correlations were found between hierarchical, anarchic, and external styles and metacognitive awareness. However, results manifested no significant relationship between monarchic, oligarchic, and conservative styles and metacognitive awareness. The analysis of data also showed positive and significant relationship between the two scopes of thinking styles, namely internal and external, and knowledge of cognition as one of the components of metacognition, whereas merely external style was positively and significantly correlated with the other component of metacognition called regulation of cognition. Furthermore, regression analysis suggested that executive, hierarchical, and conservative styles could predict metacognition.