Personal learning environments: a theoretical model for metacognitive development

Abstract

The purpose of the research study was to propose personal learning environments to foster metacognitive development for sixth semester students of the Systems Engineering program at higher education institutions including Cecar, Corposucre and Unad, all of them based in the city of Sincelejo (Sucre-Colombia). To that end, a descriptive methodology, under a non-experimental, transversal and field design was proposed. The population was made up of 68 students. A survey was used as a data collection technique and a 24-question questionnaire was applied, with five alternative options included. It was validated by five experts and its reliability was determined through the application of the Cronbach’s alpha formula, which yielded a value of 0.87523 (highly reliable). The findings indicate that it is necessary to propose personal learning environments as a pedagogical option for the development of students' metacognitive skills. Accordingly, a personal learning environment was proposed for the development of metacognition including guidelines and action strategies that improve metacognitive skills, based on self-regulated and self-directed learning of systems engineering students.

Keywords

• learning
• metacognitive development
• personal learning environments
• ple
• teaching process
• ict