Meta Cognitive Thinking and its Relation to life Meaning Among university Students

Abstract

The current research aims to identify: 1. Metacognitive thinking among university students. 2. The significance of differences in metacognitive thinking among university students according to the variables of gender (male-female), specialization (scientific-humanities), and academic level (second-fourth year). 3. The meaning of life among university students. 4. The significance of differences in the meaning of life among university students according to the variables of gender (male-female), specialization (scientific-humanities), and academic level (second-fourth year) 5. The correlational relationship between metacognitive thinking and the meaning of life among university students. To achieve the research objectives, the researcher adopted the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) by (Schraw & Dennison, 1994), which was adapted to the Arabic environment by (Al-Hammouri & Abu Mukh, 2016), and the scale by (Hill et al., 2018), which was adapted by the researcher to the Iraqi environment. After extracting the psychometric properties of the scales, the researcher applied them to a sample of (400) male and female students from Mustansiriyah University. Using appropriate statistical methods, the results revealed the following: 1. University students possess a high level of metacognitive thinking. 2. There are no significant differences in metacognitive thinking based on gender. However, there are statistically significant differences based on specialization in favor of scientific majors, and based on academic level in favor of the fourth-year students. 3. University students possess a clear sense of the meaning of life. 4. There are no statistically significant differences in the meaning of life according to the variables of gender, specialization, or academic level. 5. There is a significant positive correlational relationship between metacognitive thinking and the meaning of life among university students. In light of these results, the researcher proposed a set of recommendations and suggestions.