AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFICACY OF METACOGNITION FOR LIFELONG LEARNING IN NIGERIA COLLEGES OF EDUCATION

Metacognition is a major lifelong skill which is essential for competence stability. The absence of metacognition in the teaching/learning process has been identified as a major cause of teachers’ difficulty in recognizing when they have failed to adequately meet learning goals or complete tasks. A majority of teacher-trainees do not exhibit ability to adapt to unfamiliar context while practising. The researcher observed that students who had CGPA performances of upper credit and distinction were still found to have shortcomings while practicing, which tend towards the absence of metacognitive skills. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the use of metacognition as a teaching/learning strategy on students’ acquisition of lifelong learning skills in colleges of education. This is a quasi-experimental study which also made use of exploratory-sequential research design. The sample size for this study was 80 NCE students from the department of English language education. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 80 NCE students in the 2020/2021 session while the use of fish bowl method was used to assign the participants into experimental and control groups. Data was collected using the College Applied English Language Achievement Test (CAELAT) was Teacher Skill Assessment Observation Rubric (TSAOR). The descriptive statistics comprising mean and standard deviation was used to analyse data. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was also computed on the pretest-posttest values for the experimental and control groups to determine the effects of metacognition on students’ acquisition of lifelong learning skills by comparing the experimental group with the control group based on the variables under study. Variables were tested at 0.05 level of significance. One hypothesis was tested; the effect of metacognition on students’ acquisition of lifelong learning skills in the experimental and control group was significant with F-ratio (2, 78) = 235.7, P<0.05 was significant. Lecturers in colleges of education need to teach to impart metacognitive skills in their students. Also, in colleges of education, lecturers should have the ability to observe that teacher-trainees have good metacognitive skills before they graduate from training so as to ensure competence-stability in their profession. It was found that by applying metacognition to the teaching/learning process lecturers can equip teacher- trainees with critical thinking, self-awareness abilities, and the capacity to adapt to any learning environment while meeting the needs of every learner in their care. It was also found that Metacognition sustains teacher competence-on- the- job and lifelong learning through self- directed assessments.