Using a Longitudinal Trajectory of Pre-Service Elementary School Teachers' Metacognition as a Quality Indicator of Higher Education

Quality of education is comprised in the quality of pre-service teacher education. However, to assess the quality of a teacher training program it is necessary to track some of the non-cognitive parameters. Metacognition is one of these parameters. The present study aimed at the longitudinal trajectory of the development of metacognition in pre-service teachers as an indicator of the quality of the applied teacher training program. The study included 160 pre-service elementary school teachers studying at Teacher Education Faculty at University of Belgrade. The participants' metacognitive development was measured by Metacognitive Awareness Inventory at three points of time (the beginning of studying, the academic year 2021/22 - T1, the end of the first year - T2, and the end of the second year, 2022/23-T3). The elementary school teacher training program is based on a combination of science and pedagogy related courses that together with school teaching practice start from the first semester. The courses based on problem solving and inquiry-based approach encourage students' search for adequate strategies and the assessment of their effectiveness. The findings point to a significant increase in total metacognition score between T1 and T2 and somewhat less intense increase between T2 and T3. The findings also point to a significant increase in all metacognitive subcomponents, with Conditional knowledge and Debugging strategies showing a significant increase only between T2 and T3. Between T1 and T2 the largest differences were detected in Declarative knowledge, Comprehension monitoring, and Planning. The results suggest that the teacher training program is metacognitively stimulating.