The current research aims to investigate the effectiveness of an educational program in developing metacomprehension and perceived control among preparatory school students. It also aims to construct scales for measuring the two variables and to determine the students’ levels of metacomprehension and perceived control. To achieve these objectives, the research adopted an experimental method using a four-group design comprising two experimental groups and two control groups. The study was conducted on a sample of 60 male and female students from the fourth scientific grade in Mosul, with 15 students assigned to each group, after establishing equivalence among the groups in terms of demographic characteristics, academic achievement, and intelligence. The research instruments consisted of a metacomprehension scale comprising 45 items, developed according to Brown’s theory (1978) [1], and a perceived control scale comprising 45 items, developed according to Conner and Armitage’s theory (1998) [2]. The validity, reliability, and other psychometric properties of both scales were verified. In addition, an educational program consisting of 8 sessions was developed and implemented. The data were statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and the t-test. The results showed that the participants in the final application sample exhibited levels below the hypothetical mean in both metacomprehension and perceived control. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were found at the 0.05 significance level between the experimental and control groups in the development of metacomprehension, including its dimensions, and perceived control, with the post-test results favoring the experimental groups. These findings confirm the effectiveness of the educational program. The research recommends integrating metacomprehension and perceived control skills into school curricula and designing educational content and activities that contribute to the development of these skills among students.
The current research aims to investigate the effectiveness of an educational program in developing metacomprehension and perceived control among preparatory school students. It also aims to construct scales for measuring the two variables and to determine the students’ levels of metacomprehension and perceived control. To achieve these objectives, the research adopted an experimental method using a four-group design comprising two experimental groups and two control groups. The study was conducted on a sample of 60 male and female students from the fourth scientific grade in Mosul, with 15 students assigned to each group, after establishing equivalence among the groups in terms of demographic characteristics, academic achievement, and intelligence. The research instruments consisted of a metacomprehension scale comprising 45 items, developed according to Brown’s theory (1978) [1], and a perceived control scale comprising 45 items, developed according to Conner and Armitage’s theory (1998) [2]. The validity, reliability, and other psychometric properties of both scales were verified. In addition, an educational program consisting of 8 sessions was developed and implemented. The data were statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and the t-test. The results showed that the participants in the final application sample exhibited levels below the hypothetical mean in both metacomprehension and perceived control. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were found at the 0.05 significance level between the experimental and control groups in the development of metacomprehension, including its dimensions, and perceived control, with the post-test results favoring the experimental groups. These findings confirm the effectiveness of the educational program. The research recommends integrating metacomprehension and perceived control skills into school curricula and designing educational content and activities that contribute to the development of these skills among students.
