Intermediate phase teachers' metacognitive awareness and worldviews for the process of self-directed learning in private school settings

Abstract

In an era of transformative education and curriculum re-landscaping, teachers’ awareness and personal attributes, such as their worldviews, are often neglected and overlooked. Recognising a worldview as a significant element in the educational context of teaching and learning is a necessary step towards understanding teacher beliefs about knowledge and knowing. This study proposes a model for the content of and relationship between metacognitive awareness, worldview and self-directed learning of Intermediate Phase teachers from a private school group in South Africa. The researcher adopted a pragmatist paradigm with a mixed-methods approach and followed a convergent parallel design. The population of the study consists of Intermediate Phase teachers (Grades 4-6) from a private school group in South Africa from which the sample was drawn. Analyses of the data obtained from a worldview test, a metacognitive awareness inventory for teachers and a learning diagnostic tool constituted the quantitative part of the study, whereas a reflective narrative comprised the qualitative part. The results and findings of the two data sets were triangulated with a conceptual framework to answer the primary research question, namely: What role do private school Intermediate Phase teachers’ metacognitive awareness and worldview play in the process of their self-directed learning? The results indicate metacognitive knowledge and an integrated worldview promote self-directed learning, whereas the findings propose an interaction between metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation as well as an awareness of the subcategories of a worldview to promote self-directed learning. Through triangulation the conclusion was made that metacognitive awareness and an integrative worldview promote teacher’s process of self-directed learning.