Construction of a taxonomy of metacognitive activities to characterize problem solving learning

Abstract

This article documents the construction of a taxonomy of metacognitive activities that describes the metacognitive skills of university engineering students during problem-solving learning. The methodology used for the construction of the taxonomy was developed considering some requirements raised in the literature, the constant comparison method, and the execution of seven steps. The construction of the taxonomy was necessary given that the problem solving learning implies the participation of metacognitive skills and these are the set of activities that help the student to monitor and control their learning. Metacognitive skills must be evaluated to provide teachers with information to establish their instructing processes, considering the characteristics of the students. It is important to build a taxonomy of metacognitive activities to carry out an appropriate assessment of metacognitive skills that allows specifying the metacognitive behaviors of the students involved in the learning process. The constructed taxonomy contains detailed descriptions of metacognitive activities, facilitating that other investigations use this instrument. The document is written in such a way that it becomes a guide for future studies to have a reference on how to design a taxonomy of metacognitive activities.