Metacognition in mathematics education: From academic chronicle to future research scenario–A bibliometric analysis with the Scopus database

Abstract

Originally introduced by psychologists, metacognition has attracted considerable interest within academic spheres and has transformed into a significant research focal point in the field of mathematics education, commonly denoted as ‘mathematical metacognition.’ This investigation constitutes the primary endeavor to comprehensively examine all publications within the Scopus database related to metacognition in mathematics education (MiME). The data encompasses a total of 288 documents, authored by 653 individuals hailing from 58 different countries and territories and disseminated across 162 diverse sources. Notably, this examination delineates two distinct developmental phases, with a particularly pronounced surge in publications emerging from the year 2016 onward. Although Asia has two representatives in the top-10 in terms of number of publications (China and Indonesia), authors from developed countries have made significant contributions to research on MiME, especially the United States, Germany, Turkey, and Belgium. Among the 15 most influential academic journals, merely two pertain to the domain of mathematics education, whereas the majority belong to the disciplines of psychology and social sciences (educational science). The main research directions that have been pointed out are adults’ metacognitive abilities, considering gender differences and problem-solving abilities; metacognition and the ability to learn mathematical concepts (more recently arithmetic concepts); control metacognitive processes and students’ academic achievement. Early-career researchers as well as interested scholars can find important scholars, documents, and research directions on this topic to refer to for their research activities.