Dimensions of Metacognitive Strategies of Information Search in BA and MA Students of Shahed University

The purpose of this study is to study the metacognitive strategies of information search skills of the students. This purpose is followed in order to explore the dimensions of metacognitive strategies of information search among students in Shahed University and validate an instrument for measuring these strategies.

This research is a survey research. The statistical population of this research included all undergraduate and postgraduate students of Shahed University that 386 numbers of them randomly selected, who were requested to complete a modified version of the Metacognitive Strategies for Library Research Skills Scale (Catalano, 2017) with 29 items. The collected questionnaire data were analyzed via the SPSS and AMOS software.

Findings showed that awareness, planning, cognitive strategy, debugging and self-checking are the most important dimensions of meta-cognitive skills of information search of Shahed University students. And all dimensions have a positive and significant relationship with each other and have a desirable situation. Also, comparison of metacognitive skills of information search among bachelor and master students showed that planning, cognitive and self-checking factors in senior students were significantly higher than undergraduate students.

The results showed that the metacognitive of information search among Shahed University students have different dimensions, and that the reliability and validity of the examined questionnaire are established. Since, metacognitive strategies are important in information search success, it is recommended that these strategies are instructionally strenghthened in university students.