Metacognitive analysis of mental categories. The implicit believes of the students of the Epistemology Course of the Master in Formation, Communication and digital citizenship

Abstract

The aim of this research is to understand the mental states of the students attending the Epistemology Course of the Master Formation, Communication and digital Citizenship (University of Ferrara), around the following thought categories that represent fundamental tools in order to start a metacognitive process (Annable, 2012): Knowledge; Rationality; Emotion; Freedom; Formation. At this end, a questionnaire was given and analyzed in the light of a qualitative methodologic orientation. Together with Margiotta (2015), we think that the convictions around the identified categories, influence students’ approach toward learning. Consequently, it is useful to know these kinds of representations in order to formulate a more efficient educational proposal, that is more aware about the receptive and elaborating features of our young interlocutors (Ryken & Salganik, 2007). It exists a correlation between cognition and implicit epistemology (Santoianni, 2019), this research wanted to make explicit some of its fundamental structures.

Keywords

• implicit epistemology
• knowledge
• formation
• metacognition
• learning