Towards a Metacognitive Accuracy Training in Military Education

Abstract

Over- and under-confidence in uncertain and volatile conditions often encountered by military personnel may lead to suboptimal high impact decitions. We investigated the relation between the metacognition accuracy of cadets‘ performance in a technical IT subject and their observed and measured behaviour characteristics: learning outcomes, knowledge of meta-cognitive strategies, emotional states, time spent for studies, and overall satisfaction with the course and their own efforts. Growth of IT knowledge of a group of 19 cadets who received metacognition training during a three-week long IT course significantly exceeded the results of a control group. Their metacognitive accuracy changed from over-confidence to a moderate under-confidence towards the end of the course, although the relation between the accuracy and the final grade did not differ significantly from random data.