The Effect of Teaching Metacognitive Strategies on Improving Academic Achievement and Reducing Test Anxiety in Nursing Students

Introduction: Students from any country are considered to be intellectual and Spiritual assets of that country. The effectiveness of each educational system is the degree to which students learn their academic achievement, test anxiety negatively affects academic achievement. Since metacognitive strategies are considered as the main and important aspects of learning strategies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of teaching metacognitive strategies on improving academic achievement and reducing test anxiety in nursing students. Methods: This research was applied to the target and based on the method of a semi-experimental that was used for the pre-test and post-test design with the control group. The research population consisted of undergraduate students studying semester 2017-18 in the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. 40 patients (20 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group) were selected by systematic random sampling. In this study, the test anxiety scale was used by Abolghasemi et al. To determine academic achievement, mean of the end of the two consecutive semesters was used. In order to remark ethical considerations, the sample group was assured that their information would remain confidential, also before submitting the questionnaires, by providing clear explanations, the information about the research was communicated to the students, and the researcher told the subjects that they could withdraw from the research at any time. Descriptive indices and covariance analysis were used to analyze the data. Result: The total number of samples in this study was 40, of which 64% were women and 36% were male. In terms of age, 89% of the sample group were 19-21 years old with an average age of 19/54 years, and 68% native, and 32% were non-natives and residents of the dormitory. 85% were single and 15% were married. The results of covariance analysis showed that the training of metacognitive strategies significantly increased the academic achievement of students (F = 7.54 and p>0.001) and also reduced students' test anxiety (F = 10.12, p>0.001). Conclusion: Using metacognitive strategies by students can have an effect on the reduction of test anxiety and in many cases it prevents test anxiety and also improves academic achievement. Keywords: Metacognitive Strategies, Academic Achievement, Test Anxiety, Nursing Students     &nbsp