Promoting Student Success in Early College Credit Courses
Category: Student Learning
Instrument Overview
Expert Notes AvailableView expert commentary on strengths and cautions for this instrument
Strengths
Comprehensive coverage of regulation skills: captures important aspects like planning, monitoring, and evaluating one's learning. Widely used and recognized: makes it easier to compare findings across studies and settings. Strong overall construct: works well as a general metacognitive measure with acceptable internal consistency for total scale. Stable over time: strong measurement invariance supports longitudinal use.
Cautions
Subscales may be less reliable like evaluation and debugging, especially when administered using True/False format. Dimensional ambiguity: using the two-dimension solution (knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition) may be more psychometrically appropriate than having all subscales within each dimension. Self report limitations: Responses may reflect what students think they do rather than what they actually do while learning. Cross-group differences: some items may not show measurement invariance across racial/ethnic groups, especially reflection-related items.
The Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) is a 52-item survey. Metacognition was defined by Schraw and Dennison as: "the ability to reflect upon, understand, and control one's learning."
This instrument measures a student’s ability to reflect upon, understand, and control their learning. The tool focuses on two main categories: Knowledge of Cognition and Regulation of Cognition. These categories include eight subscales, such as planning, monitoring, and evaluation. The MAI is designed for use with adolescents and adults. It provides a quick and accurate way to assess metacognitive skills using a Likert-style format.
Educational leaders can use this tool for screening or diagnostic purposes. It helps identify how well students manage their own learning processes. This inventory is easy to score and can guide the development of learning strategies in schools.
Organization
Topic
Collection Category(ies)
Content
Grades
9th Grade,
10th Grade,
11th Grade,
12th Grade,
Post secondary
Respondent
Student
Administration Information
Length
52 items
Access and Use
Contact
Email Gregory Schraw at gschraw@unlv.edu
Open Access
Yes
Use in Research
Sperling, R. A., Howard, B. C., Miller, L. A., & Murphy, C. (2002). Measures of children's knowledge and regulation of cognition. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27(1), 51–79.
Coutinho, S. A. (2007). The relationship between goals, metacognition, and academic success. Educate~, 7(1), 39–47.
Young, A., & Fry, J. D. (2008). Metacognitive awareness and academic achievement in college students. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 8(2), 1–10.
Farahian, M., & Avarzamani, F. (2018). Metacognitive awareness of skilled and less-skilled EFL writers. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 3, 10.
Psychometrics (additional guidance)
Reliability
.88 (Cronbach's alpha)
Psychometric References
Schraw, G., & Dennison, R. S. (1994). Assessing metacognitive awareness. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 19(4), 460-475.
Sperling, R. A., Howard, B. C., Miller, L. A., & Murphy, C. (2002). Measures of children's knowledge and regulation of cognition. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27(1), 51–79.
Huertas-Bustos, A. P., Vesga-Bravo, G. J., & Galindo-León, M. (2014). Validación del instrumento ""Inventario de Habilidades Metacognitivas (MAI)"" con estudiantes colombianos. Praxis & Saber, 5(10), 55–74.
Item Type
Likert
