An important goal in contemporary educational psychology research is adolescent
students’ development of higher‐order thinking, which includes, among other
things, that these students become competent and independent learners and
problem solvers. This goal comes forth from the notion of education for life that
emphasizes that students can direct their learning and problem solving of their
own accord. Especially high‐school students can encounter difficulties in
independent learning and problem solving when they make the transition to higher
education. To counter this, these students need to possess, among other things,
metacognitive knowledge, which they may have insufficiently.
This book offers new insights about late adolescent students’ understanding of their metacognitive
knowledge regarding learning and problem solving. It offers a description of a research project conducted
to obtain a better understanding of the students’ abilities and views with respect to what their
metacognitive knowledge encompasses, and how they attempt to develop, apply, and improve this
knowledge regarding learning and the solving of mathematical and first‐language problems in a more
effective way of their own accord. Specifically, the results of the studies of the research project enable us to
understand metacognitive knowledge better, in that it provides
explanations about the students’ development of this knowledge across
domains. This book offers further details in terms of providing evidence for
theory building regarding metacognitive knowledge.