Toward the development of a metacognition construct for communities of inquiry

• This paper validates a shared metacognition construct in terms of self and co-regulation.
• This paper explores the development of a shared metacognition quantitative questionnaire.
• This paper discusses the potential of the CoI framework to further study self and co-regulation.
• The results of this research provide an understanding of shared metacognition in a collaborative learning environment.
• The results of this research will enable developing and testing strategies to measure and enhance self and co-regulation of learning.

Metacognition is a required cognitive ability to achieve deep and meaningful learning that must be viewed from both an individual and social perspective. Recently, the transition from the earliest individualistic models to an acknowledgement of metacognition as socially situated and socially constructed has precipitated the study of metacognition in collaborative learning environments. This study presents the results of research to develop and validate a metacognitive construct for use in collaborative learning environments. The metacognitive construct was developed using the Community of Inquiry framework as a theoretical guide and tested applying qualitative research techniques in previous research and has been tested in this research by way of developing a metacognition questionnaire. The results indicate that in order to better understand the structure and dynamics of metacognition in emerging collaborative learning environments, we must go beyond individual approaches to learning and consider metacognition in terms of complementary self and co-regulation that integrates individual and shared regulation.