The relation between metacognitive skillfulness, intellectual ability, prior knowledge, causal mechanisms and inquiry learning performance in fourth- and sixthgraders

Several factors influence discovery learning. The present study was performed to investigate the impact of metacognitive skillfulness, intellectual ability, prior knowledge and the generation of causal mechanisms on inquiry learning. In addition, age differences are analyzed. Fourth- and sixth-graders from a Dutch elementary school were randomly assigned to two tasks in either the biology or the geography domain. Think-aloud protocols including responses to specific prompts were obtained to measure metacognitive skillfulness and the generation and use of causal mechanisms. Correlational analyses and MANOVA’s were used to analyse the relationships between metacognitive skills, intellectual ability, prior knowledge, the generation of causal mechanisms and learning performance. The comparison between adults and children showed that scientific reasoning develops with age. The correlational analysis showed that the same inquiry learning measures are of importance in the learning process of children and adults. Causal mechanisms were significantly more often generated by younger students and showed to be negatively correlated with metacognitive skillfulness. A significant correlation was found between intellectual ability and metacognitive skillfulness. The effect of metacognitive skillfulness, prior knowledge and intellectual ability on learning performance depends on age.