Institute for Research in Social Communication SAS
Topic
Metacognitive Strategy Instruction for Fostering Complex Problem-Solving
PhD. program
Health psychology
Year of admission
2025
Name of the supervisor
doc. Mgr. Kamila Urban, PhD.
Contact:
Receiving school
Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences
Annotation
This PhD project investigates how metacognitive strategy instruction can enhance children’s abilities to solve complex, ill-defined problems related to health. Students in grades 3 to 5 encounter various health-related challenges—such as choosing balanced meals, navigating social-emotional well-being, and managing stress. These tasks can be surprisingly intricate at a young age, requiring the weighing of multiple factors. Metacognition—the awareness and regulation of one’s own cognitive processes—plays a pivotal role in helping children plan, monitor, and adjust their strategies for tackling these real-world health dilemmas. By explicitly teaching metacognitive strategies, educators can guide students to reflect on their decision-making, evaluate the outcomes of different choices, and transfer these skills to various contexts. This research aims to (1) design and implement a metacognitive strategy curriculum tailored to elementary learners grappling with health psychology–oriented problems, (2) examine how developing metacognitive competencies influences children’s problem-solving success and health behaviors. Ultimately, this project seeks to empower children with self-regulatory tools needed to make informed, adaptive decisions about their health.