The Effect of Metacognition Skills Instruction Eexam Anxiety and Academic Angagement in Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of metacognition skills instruction exam anxiety and academic angagement in students. The research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and control group. The statistical population of this study consisted of all third-grade female students of high schools in Taybad city in the academic year of 2018-2019. After an initial assessment using the TAI scale, a total of 30 female students were selected using purposeful sampling and randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=15) and a control group (n=15). The experimental group received metacognition skills instruction protocols for 9 sessions of 60 minutes (1 session per week); the control group was on the waiting list. The Test Anxiety Questionnaire (Abolghasemi et al, 1989) and Student Engagement in Schools Questionnaire (Fredricksen al.2004) was used for data collection in two stages of pre-test and post-test. MANCONA analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean of post-test scores of the experimental and control groups in exam anxiety and academic angagement. According to the results of this study, it is suggested that psychologists and counselors use the results of metacognition skills instruction to reduce exam anxiety and increase academic engagement in students.