Examining meta cognitive awareness of academic directors working in vocational high schools: The case of Kocaeli University

Abstract

Today, the world is changing rapidly and people should acces knowledge for reaching global age. In parallel with this, knowledge is increasing rapidly and existing knowledge becomes old. In recent times, rapid changes and developments in the world, the concept of educated person becomes popular again. In the past, knowledgeable person was the person who knows everything or the person who stores the knowledge produced by others in his brain. For this reason, the existing knowledge was seen as the knowledge which is conveyed to future generations. Today, knowledgeable person is accepted as the person who is aware of the knowledge, learns the ways to reach this knowledge, learns to give meaning to this knowledge and produce new knowledge from the things he learned and use them for solving problems. In global age, it is expected from the directors of the knowledge to have the ability to use their cognitive awareness strategically (strategic arrangement). The individuals who control their knowledge and thoughts cognitively (the person who has the ability to read his own mental state) are the people who have cognitive awareness abilities. The concept of gaining and managing knowledge covers assumption, analysis, definition and organization. In this research, it is aimed to examine the cognitive awareness state of the administrators in the Vocational High School and compare their awareness levels according to gender, title, educational background, expertise and job definition. For this aim, MAI(Metacognitive Awareness Inventory) is implemented to 76 directors who work in 7 Vocational High Schools in Kocaeli University. When the data collected at the end of implementation are analyzed, it was observed that they have high level of meta cognitive awareness. On the other hand, it was seen that the scores of meta cognitive awareness, gaining and managing knowledge was not changed according to job definition, gender, expertise area and educational background.