This research examined students’ experimental report strategy emphasizing reflective writing
in order to improve their metacognition. This research was conducted for one semester
employing 20 pre-service chemistry teachers who took the class, ‘Inquiry-based inorganic chemistry
laboratory’. After applying the report strategy emphasizing reflective writing for one semester,
the changes in student’s metacognition was checked through the MAI test and the type of
reflective thinking in the experimental report was also analyzed.
The results are as follows. First, based on the analysis of MAI test employing Wilcoxon
signed-rank tests, there was a statistically meaningful difference in the changes in metacognition
(p<.05). There were also statistical differences in both areas of the knowledge of cognition and
regulation of cognition consisting of metacognition (p<.05). According to the analysis of
detailed types of metacognition, there were statistical differences in the areas of declarative
knowledge, the conditional knowledge, and the monitoring (p<.05). Second, according to the
analysis of the reflective thinking types in experimental reports, the declarative knowledge in
knowledge of cognition area and the monitoring in regulation of cognition area recorded high
scores, while the planning and the information management in regulation of cognition area
recorded significantly low scores.