University students perspective in nanotechnology learning: Assessing the relationship between concept mapping and metacognition

Nanotechnology, novel and multidisciplinary knowledge has emerged in the engineering education of universities and has increased the students' difficulties in understanding and learning it. Concept mapping as a metacognitive tool may be appropriate for students to learn nanotechnology because previous research has confirmed that this tool helps students learn disciplines like chemistry, physics, biology and materials science. The current study used both quantitative and qualitative survey data to examine whether concept mapping as a metacognitive tool helps students learn nanotechnology, and to investigate the correlation between the students' perceptions of concept mapping and their metacognition ability. The quantitative data consisted of 42 five-point Likert scale questions measuring students' perceptions of concept mapping and metacognition abilities with high reliability of the measurement. The qualitative data involved in-depth and semi-structured interviews to explore more detailed students' experiences and perceptions in terms of how and why. The findings show that there is a significant positive relationship between students' positive evaluation of concept mapping and their metacognition. Students agreed that concept mapping was helpful in generating and clarifying the key concepts of nanotechnology, beneficial to guide the topic concept, and forming a more systematic knowledge structure through integrating prior knowledge and new knowledge. During the learning process of concept mapping, learners adopted a great quantity of metacognition behavior to examine and reflect the self-developed knowledge structure. The study concluded that concept mapping as a metacognitive tool was able to facilitate students to achieve high-level performance in the learning of nanometer knowledge. Future studies should further explore the interrelationships among concept mapping, metacognitive and knowledge transfer.