Mankind in the XXI century is undergoing critical transformational changes, globally and on multiple levels, due to the rapid evolution of digital technologies and the challenges of today’s world. The use of modern technologies in education should play a key role in creating the necessary conditions for self-development, the activation of cognitive, metacognitive, and creative processes, and the formation and development of personalized e-learning skills. The global expansion of information and communication networks requires an upgrading of teaching content and quality, legitimizes the transformation of traditional educational models into integrative, dynamic, and technological approaches, and provides an outlet for the cognitive, metacognitive, and creative potential of students.

Studies in the international educational space demonstrate the spontaneous emergence and diffusion of digital narratives in social networks, the far-reaching expansion of biographical digital narratives in modern mass media, and the purposeful use of various types of narratives in the advertising industry. So far, there has been little discussion about the problem of improving the quality of teaching while implementing digital narratives, and their use in forming 21st-century competencies: the development of metacognitive, creative, communicative, and technological skills, and motivation for continuous self-development (van Aswegen et al., 2019; Mahdavi, 2014). Much uncertainty still surrounds the need to make the educational process personalized and attractive to students, and the insufficient use of digital biographical narratives as a means of increasing interest in learning and infusing learning with individual-oriented characteristics.

Philosophy interprets narrative as a way to achieve social goals and awareness of personal identity, as well as a means of self-identification (Currie, 1998). Narrative is a way of understanding the world through people’s stories. We perceive the events and situations that take place around us as stories, and perceive ourselves and other people as participants of these stories. American scientist and founder of narrative theory Jerome Bruner (2004) claims, “The meaning of human behaviour is expressed in the story, not in logical formulas and laws. A person achieves self-understanding through narrative, focusing on important moments of life” (Bruner, 2004, p. 23). We support this idea and consider narratives a powerful tool for the development of metacognitive skills.

We are inclined to believe that the purpose of narrative practices is to create space for the development of alternative desired stories so that students feel able to influence their own lives or construct the trajectory of their professional self-realization. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account the social, cultural, and historical context in which knowledge is generated. Everyone's life is polyhistorical. With this in mind, the teacher may not know what is the “right” development for a given person; we do not know which “example” leads the student to self-realization. Hence, the focus is on the student's personality, values, knowledge, experience, and skills reflected through narratives. From this perspective, we contemplate the formation of metacognitive skills through narratives as a way to organize and interpret the educational content of a discipline, taking into account students’ subjective positions, personal experience, professional needs, and life attitudes.

The study was designed to provide a tangible educational experience that will improve academic achievement and foster students’ employability skills. Therefore, the goal of the paper is to introduce a practical experience of metacognition enhancement. The objectives of the study are to explore 1) how digital narrative creation strengthens the formation of metacognitive skills, and 2) which teaching practices promote metacognitive awareness of learning that is strongly correlated with professional training at university.

Narratives have been recognized as a compelling tool to perceive people’s experiences (Clandinin & Caine, 2013). Since the objective of the study was to verify the impact of narrative creation on metacognition, when supported with appropriate teaching strategies, we employed a multiphase case study with a mixed-methods research framework. Our qualitative approach was chosen to extend awareness of the phenomena and provide a thorough comprehension of complex experiences and contexts. The quantitative approach supports our hypothesis with statistical data. The case study is a powerful tool set within a qualitative framework that enables development and analysis of the subject of our study, namely metacognitive strategies, in a real-life context (Brown McLean & Williamson, 2019). Moreover, in the case study, we are able to investigate the dynamics of the process impacted by the participants’ current and past experiences. The multiphase nature of the approach is explained by the stages of the study. In phase 1, we carried out a systematic review of the literature to construct a conceptual framework. Phase 2 involved the empirical study, in which the phenomena being researched were introduced. During phase 3 we analyzed the findings and offered an interpretation.

On the whole, the participants demonstrated positive dynamics and an increased level of metacognitive skills, as evidenced by MAI questionnaire statistical data. The questionnaire includes 52 statements for self-assessment and participants had to mark either true, for which they were assigned one point, or false, which was worth no points. The questionnaire is divided into two domains: knowledge about cognition and regulation of cognition. Each domain includes subcriteria. This tool was proposed to students at the pre- and post-experimental stages. The results are presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2

The chart demonstrates the average dynamics of transformations. In order to demonstrate inferential statistics to check for significance of results, we applied a paired t-test. Our null hypothesis H₀ was that there was no difference between indicators before and after the experiment. Our alternative hypothesis H₁ was that post-experimental results were greater than pre-experimental results. The t-value was calculated at t = (M - μ)/SM = (29.25 - 0)/5.73 = 5.11. This means that the value of t is 5.11. The value of p is .00139. The result is significant at p < .05. Our t-score lies in the critical region, so we reject H₀ and accept H₁.

To conduct the content analysis, we identified themes, categories, and codes (Table 2). Content analysis was performed on interview responses and group discussions. Codes for the content are not exact but demonstrate the main ideas and trends presented in participants’ responses. The categories and codes for content analysis are presented in Table 2.

Table 2

Theme	Category	Codes (key phrases)
Perception of metacognitive strategies and skills	Knowledge of personal strengths and weaknesses	Knowledge of self as a learner, phrases demonstrating the evaluation of personal abilities: to be good/bad at, find (something) difficult, learning needs
	Goal setting	Focus-oriented phrases: learning new content, improving skills, increasing awareness
	Academic course background assessment	Learning gaps, learning needs, misconceptions, knowledge from previous experiences
Knowledge about cognition	Declarative knowledge	Concept awareness, understanding of terminology, basic details of the discipline
	Procedural knowledge	Application of principles, resource implementation, discovery, evaluation or data collection methods, criteria and techniques, performance process
	Conceptual knowledge	Critical judgments, guidelines, research findings, construction of models and theories, deduction, prediction, critical thinking and problem solving
Monitoring of cognition	Comprehension monitoring	Applying strategies and previously solved problems, explaining, comparing, interpreting, clarifying, appraising, evaluating the reliability of information, self-paced learning, acknowledging mistakes
	Debugging	Commenting on a task, problem, strategy or instructions, describing, communicating, summarizing or reporting, reorientation of learning, adapting strategies
	Peer and self-assessment	Evaluating or assessing ideas or perspectives, developing criteria, reaching or forming a decision or consensus, sharing, describing
Regulation of cognition	Progress planning	Self-directed learning strategies, learning schedule, searching for resources, seeking information or solutions
	Information management and resource assessment	Searching for information, asking questions to clarify instructions, making judgments about the validity of content and digital resources
	Self-reflection	Reflection-in-action, learning experience and learning expectations

After interpreting the teacher interviews, analyzing observation rubrics, and conducting post-experimental discussions with students, we identified the most beneficial teaching practices from the point of view of both teachers and students (Figure 3).

Figure 3

Having analyzed teaching practices for metacognitive learning, we found that all teachers employed metacognitive learning strategies. But in practice, certain strategies were more prevalent. Among the most appropriate and widely-used strategies teachers mentioned were prior knowledge activation and reflective practices (n = 8), the metacognitive cycle (n = 8), discussions and debates (n = 8), wrappers (n = 7), mind mapping (n = 6), the student response system (n = 5), and peer assessment (n = 4). However, some strategies were more complicated and employed by teachers less frequently: tracing retrospective changes (n = 3) and self-assessment (n = 4). Students’ views differed from those of teachers but not significantly. During the post-experiment discussions, students mentioned that modeling metacognitive learning strategies (68%) and questioning students’ needs and challenges (47%) were most important, followed by self-assessment (42%), discussions (33%), and information assessment and management (30%) (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Strategies that students would like to expand include the principles of choosing reliable digital resources (43%) and selecting an appropriate learning strategy according to one’s needs and learning style (57%).

Together, these results provide important insights into the correlation between digital narratives and the development of metacognitive skills. The next section, therefore, moves on to discuss the nature and consequences of this correlation.

Narratives demonstrate the scope and relevance of students’ cognitive development and academic skills. Moreover, we consider narratives a tool for persistent self-reflection for the improvement of students’ learning. Digital narratives highlight creative thinking, reflection, purposeful information searching and technology selection, and the integration of planning and monitoring strategies. Therefore, narrative teaching provides crucial and lifelong educational experiences. The digitized approach to narrative development expands the range of disciplines across which narratives can be used.

The findings of this study are in line with research by Azevedo (2009) showing that metacognitive strategies are highly interdependent and require special attention from teachers. These study results also support the idea that digital narratives are an efficient educational tool for metacognition development, reflecting work by Skouge and Rao (2009) who also found that digital storytelling fosters the development of metacognitive ability due to the involvement of media and students’ active participation. In a study investigating metacognition formation, Dewi et al. (2018) reported that metacognitive skills can be developed by utilizing “dramatic” questions which provoke critical thinking, information processing, and reflection. Exact awareness of the process of thinking and information identification comprises the first level of metacognition that can be developed by digital narratives (Dewi et al., 2018). It means that “dramatic” questions make up the basis for the digital story when students plan the content of narratives. We also suggested these questions to students and noticed that they were a “backbone” for stories.

There are well-known metacognitive strategies: planning, self-regulating, and evaluating. Researchers van Aswegen et al. (2019) outline an additional six strategies that foster metacomprehension: “… previewing; predicting and verifying; self-questioning; drawing on prior knowledge; purpose setting; summarizing and drawing on mental images; and applying fix-up strategies” (van Aswegen et al., 2019, p. 2). In our study, we observed that students applied these strategies for digital storytelling, which demonstrates the efficiency of digital narratives for fostering metacognitive abilities.

Today, adoption of digital educational resources has increased and become an important part of teaching and learning. Digital resources offer a lot of benefits over traditional tools: interactivity, multimodality, accessibility, immediate feedback, etc. Digital storytelling online attracts more people, engaging them in discussion and enabling feedback on the ideas expressed. This option creates an environment of social cognition and contributes to the development of students’ mediation and collaboration skills. In preparing digital narratives, students have to consider the audience they are appealing to. Another benefit of digital narratives is their multimodality, making it possible to express ideas through texts, videos, pictures, sounds, and colors. This makes the creation process more exciting for students and enhances their creativity.

The results of the MAI questionnaire show that before the experiment, students demonstrated some metacognitive skills and strategies, such as declarative knowledge to some extent (“I know my strengths and weaknesses,” “I am good at remembering and understanding information”), planning skills (“I set goals,” “I read instructions,” “I can manage my time”), information management (“I define important information,” “I create visuals for better understanding,” “I break down information into pieces”), and debugging (“I ask for help,” “I stop and reread,” “I change strategies”). After the experimental study, we witnessed improvement in all criteria, but some changed significantly. For instance, obvious changes occurred in the domain of knowledge about cognition (Figure 2). Students received information on how to learn and what strategies are best depending on conditions, needs, and resources. This was achieved due to the implementation of discovery learning and simulations.

Additional improvement was observed in the areas of comprehension monitoring and evaluation, as these criteria are related and similar in meaning. Previously, students considered monitoring as a strategy to revise knowledge before an exam or test, and evaluation was simply the role of teachers. We wish to stress that these skills are about self-assessment and self-reflection, skills that teachers often underestimate because of a dominant teacher-centered approach. In order to teach students these skills, it is necessary to create a trustful learning environment, acknowledge students’ needs and challenges, and be prepared to accept mistakes as not only a grading or leveraging tool but a powerful and engaging learning tool as well. Self-reflection and self-evaluation were highlighted during the discussions on narratives as strategies to achieve success.

During observations of classes, we found that one of students’ key problems was an inability to choose a learning strategy or digital resource and correlate it with learning needs, because students could not objectively identify their needs and develop a personalized learning trajectory. For example, some of the students refused to create narratives as they did not know language rules or could not find appropriate information sources. But tests or individual consultations demonstrated the opposite. As a matter of fact, after self-reflection and peer assessment, students realized that the problem lay in the change of learning context; they could pass a test but could not apply knowledge to another context, such as narrative creation, or they became lost in a wide range of information sources they had not encountered before. When teachers assisted students with metacognitive regulation (needs assessment, goal setting, planning, and information management), students were able to cope with new learning contexts and improved their procedural and conditional knowledge. However, we agree with the ideas of Mohammadi et al. (2017) and have to admit that processes of metacognitive regulation are more often acquired from previous cognitive or metacognitive experience from school or personalized autonomous learning.

We must now offer a discussion of the teaching practices employed to enhance metacognitive learning. Our crucial strategy was to foster students’ awareness of their learning style, strengths and weaknesses with the following selection of learning strategies. In creating digital narratives, students were required to engage a lot of skills and knowledge. Skills identified by students as weaknesses included a lack of knowledge about evaluating information and digital resources, differentiating primary and secondary information, presentation skills, time management, and autonomous independent learning without detailed instructions. In Table 2 we presented the most frequently used practices aimed at minimizing these weaknesses; however, not all of these practices are feasible or simple to implement. Practices dealing with the activation of prior knowledge and experience, the so-called anticipation stage, focus on stimulating curiosity and motivation. Moreover, students must identify their learning gap to transform it later into the learning goal. Also, it is important to inform students about the aim of the class and follow the plan to accomplish this aim, notifying students about the steps they are performing in making progress toward the objectives (metacognitive cycle). A lot of time was devoted to teaching reflective skills and peer assessment. In cooperation with students, teachers created rubrics for assessment, successful digital narrative checklists, and models, and explained the criteria to fulfill teachers’ and students’ educational expectations (Lavrysh, 2016). Using the student response system and retrospective reflective practices, teachers demonstrated monitoring, assessment and mistake management strategies. The assessment wrapper was new to teachers (Gezer-Templeton et al., 2017), although some elements of the activity had been applied before. We used assessment wrappers as reflection and feedback worksheets that students completed before and after creating the narratives.

Strategies that were less popular, or not always appropriately used, included self-assessment strategies that help students identify themselves as learners. Teachers considered this practice unreliable but creating rubrics and a trustful learning environment improved the situation. Another problem was verbalizing the thinking process (thinking aloud). This problem was overcome through the content of narratives and success stories, as students explained how people behaved, how they studied, what metacognitive strategies were applied, and what steps they took to achieve their expectations. In doing so, they verbalized the process of thinking. Digital resources used to create and present narratives also contributed to the development of “thinking language.” Students listened to people’s interviews or watched videos, and using patterns from the Thinking Language Matrix (Hill & Miller, 2013), analyzed the experience of their “heroes.” Stories told about a famous person in a narrative helped differentiate a person’s attitude to his or her experience from the opinion of the author of the narrative.

Analyzing the students’ evaluation of strategies allowed us to identify which strategies students appreciated most: modeling, when a teacher demonstrates how to approach complicated passages; making sense of specific terminology; managing information; and verbalizing the thinking process. Also, students found that activities that focused on identifying students’ challenges, needs, and learning gaps were most helpful. This was determined through individual consultations, questionnaires, discussions or even through academic tests, with the key idea of managing mistakes rather than just controlling academic achievements.

With this in mind, we developed the following approach to design digital narratives and develop metacognitive skills and proposed it to students:

Search for the information source, pay attention to its validity and reliability, authorship, quality of illustrations, etc.;

As a result, when choosing a strategy, a student organizes activities, which, in turn, help to create the educational conditions to develop cognitive and metacognitive independence.

During the creation of digital narratives, we paid most attention to the development of the desire for self-development and self-determination, productive reflection, tolerance of uncertainty, acceptance of mistakes as a tool for improvement, and the reframing of individual experience as self-realization. Our recommendations on efficient teaching of metacognitive skills are to ask students to reflect on their challenges and achievements during the process of creating narratives, foster self-questioning in relation to successfully completing a specific task, provide students with the opportunity for autonomous personalized learning to make the learning process relevant to their needs and objectives, allow students to choose and make mistakes without academic consequences and with a follow-up reflection on the causes of mistakes, and apply peer and self-assessment strategies.

Summarizing the above, we believe that metacognitive abilities are a systemic multilevel pattern that is subject to numerous meaningful transformations during life. However, the core components of metacognition are relatively stable integral personal attributes that can be developed or upgraded. Metacognitive strategies enhance students’ awareness of how to become productive learners and strengthen their perception of knowledge. Our experience proves that metacognitive teaching practices can be incorporated into case studies, e-learning courses, narrative design, and informal learning. Statistical testing supports our hypothesis that digital narratives foster the development of metacognition due to their interactive and multimodal nature. The most significant results include positive changes in declarative knowledge, conditional knowledge, debugging, and evaluation. The development of metacognition promotes the development of a personalized learning style and prevents repetition of unproductive and irrational models of learning activities on the journey to personal self-realization and self-improvement.