Enhancing mathematical reasoning in the classroom: The effects of cooperative learning and meta-cognitive training

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of four instructional methods
on students' mathematical reasoning and metacognitive knowledge. The
participants were 384 eighth-grade students. The instructional methods were
cooperative learning combined with metacognitive training (COOP+META),
individualized learning combined with metacognitive training (IND+META),
cooperative learning without metacognitive training (COOP), and individualized
learning without metacognitive training (IND). Results showed that the
COOP+META group significantly outperformed the IND +META group, which
in turn significantly outperformed the COOP and IND groups on graph interpretation
and various aspects of mathematical explanations. Furthermore, the
metacognitive groups (COOP+META and IND +META) outperformed their
counterparts (COOP and IND) on graph construction (transfer tasks) and
metacognitive knowledge. This article presents theoretical and practical implications
of the findings.