The role of reading metacognitive strategies in prediction of critical thinking in students-teachers in Shiraz

Critical thinking refers to an informed and deliberate assessment of information to arrive at the correct judgment. Metacognition is one of the most important predictors of this variable that has been studied in this research. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of meta-cognitive reading strategies (general, support, and problem-solving) in predicting Shiraz students-teachers′ critical thinking in the academic year of 2016-2017. 234 students (180 girls and 54 boys) were selected through random cluster sampling and they completed California critical thinking questionnaire (Form B, 1990) and meta-cognitive reading strategies of  Mokhtari & Richard(2002). Then, the data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression. Findings indicated that there is a meaningful relationship between general, support and problem-solving meta-cognitive strategies with critical thinking. Also, multiple regression coefficients showed that global meta-cognitive strategy has no role in predicting critical thinking, but support and  problem solving meta-cognitive strategies can predict critical thinking, and about 17 percent of the variance of critical thinking is explained through support and problem-solving meta-cognitive strategies. As the field of study, the different educational backgrounds of students before entering university and the different cultural context among the students are not included in this research, such factors could be  the reason why  the beta coefficient for the global strategy is not meaningful.  According to the results of this research, support and problem-solving meta-cognitive reading strategies play role in prediction of critical thinking. Therefore, it is necessary to plan for teaching students-teachers the types of support and problem-solving meta-cognitive strategies.