From Preparation to Reflection: Metacognitive Strategies Used in Students Presentations

This study investigates the metacognitive strategies employed by engineering students in planning, monitoring, and evaluating their presentations. Adopting a quantitative research design, data were collected from 82 students of Diploma in Chemical Engineering at a Malaysian public university using a questionnaire adapted from Danuwong’s (2006) metacognitive strategies framework. The findings reveal that students demonstrated moderate to high engagement in metacognitive strategies across all three phases of presentation tasks. In the planning phase, the strongest emphasis was placed on content preparation, such as identifying relevant information and activating prior knowledge, while strategies related to self-regulation, such as managing distractions, were less practiced. During monitoring, students frequently engaged in reflective questioning and attentiveness to content but showed weaker integration of prior knowledge and progress tracking. In the evaluation phase, learners focused on reflecting and transferring strategies to future tasks but demonstrated limited critical appraisal of strategy suitability and adjustment based on new knowledge. Overall, the study highlights an imbalance between strong content-focused strategies and weaker self-regulatory practices, underscoring the need for targeted pedagogical interventions to enhance adaptive evaluation and self-regulation. Strengthening these areas will not only improve presentation performance but also contribute to the development of lifelong learning skills.