The effectiveness of teaching cognitive and metacognitive strategies on problem solving skills and self-esteem of 11th grade students in Meshginshahr

The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of cognitive and metacognitive strategies on problem solving skills and self-esteem of 11th grade students in Meshginshahr. The research method was experimental with pre-test and post-test design with control group. The population of the study consisted of all second grade male students of secondary schools of Meshginshahr in the academic year of 2016-2017. Among them, 80 male students with low self-esteem and problem-solving skills in physics were selected and randomly assigned into three groups: a control group and two experimental groups (20 people in each group). The participants of the experimental group were trained in cognitive and metacognitive strategies. To collect the data, the problem solving questionnaire by Cassidy and Lang and the self-esteem of Coppersmiths were used. The data were analyzed by multivariate covariance. The results showed that the mean post-test scores of the students in the experimental groups were significantly higher than the students in the control group in problem solving skills and self-esteem. Therefore, it can be concluded that teaching cognitive and metacognitive strategies is effective in increasing students' problem solving skills and self-esteem.