Metacognition of Organization Members as the Basis of Learning Strategy in Higher School

Introduction

The theory of metacognition is currently one of the most studied topics of empirical research in cognitive psychology. Since the emergence of research interest in this field, a number of experiments has been made dealing with mechanisms that people use to overcome decision-making difficulties and form their perceptions of the surrounding world. Modern psychology has various approaches in defining metacognition: J. Flavell [1979], who introduced this term, meant a special cognitive process aimed at understanding one’s own cognitive activity or, in other words, “mental activity aimed at understanding the thinking process”. This is the definition followed by this article’s authors. J. Flavell distinguished three main components of metacognition: planning, monitoring, and regulation. W. Schneider and K. Lockl (2002), M. E. Marinez (2006), K. Ray, M. C. Smith (2010), B. White (2005) associate metacognition with a wide range of psychological phenomena such as motivation, critical thinking, and meta-memory. G. Schraw, K. J. Crippen, K. Hartley (2006) mentions the possibility of applying metacognition as an indicator of learning activities; these authors also note the possibility of viewing metacognition as an indicator of a higher school graduate’s realization as a specialist in an organization. The authors view a graduate’s metacognition as a component of planning which includes knowledge of the organization (their image of the relations between “myself”, “organization”, and “society”; metaphor of the organization; knowledge of its structure, size, hierarchy, resources, information ties, motivational system and mission), monitoring of the thinking process (which includes the images of the organization’s current and desired states) and regulation of their own behavior in the organization on this basis. It should be noted that research on metacognition in education is being done relatively often; for instance, there is a differentiation of metacognitive skills and metacognitive knowledge. G. Schraw, K. J. Crippen, K. Hartley (2006) write that knowledge is the complex of a student’s views on the relations between their own personality traits and a problem’s properties and possible solutions – as part of an academic situation for a student and as part of a specific organization for its member. Metacognitive skills provide regulation and control of learning activities [Schneider, Lockl, 2002], in the case of the authors’ research – control of a higher school graduate’s activity in an organization. For example, the results by S. Gómez-Haro, J. Aragón-Correa, E. Cordón-Pozo (2011) show that organization members react to the perception of context rather than to the organization’s objective characteristics. It should be noted that the authors did not find a research dedicated to the specifics of metacognition formation in higher school graduate students as members of organizations, even though such information would make it easier for them to start a professional experience and build a career in an organization. Thus, the problems raised by this research dedicated to the study of metacognition formation sources in organization members appear to be relevant and in high demand in the context of application in higher schools. The authors take into account the institutional approach in the implementation of this study, referring to the interaction of specific aspects of an organization (structure, size, hierarchy, resources, information ties, motivational system and mission) and its members’ characteristics (position etc.) in the formation of metacognition. The institutional approach is considered by the authors to have a top priority in the interaction of organization leaders with higher school graduates. In addition, it is also the basis for the work of higher school educators on securing the graduates’ entrance into the professional sphere. The authors’ research uses the theory of strategic choice for the analysis of metacognition (in their regulative aspect) and characteristics of organizations that hire higher school graduates.