Bridging the Achievement Gap: A Metacognitive Intervention to Enhance Analytical Reasoning and Reduce Cognitive Bias in High- and Low-Achieving Students

This study tested a targeted metacognitive intervention designed to enhance analytical reasoning, reduce cognitive bias, and subsequently narrow the cognitive achievement gap. A quasi-experimental, pre-test-post-test-follow-up design was employed with 120 Kuwaiti undergraduate students, who were stratified by prior academic performance (high-achieving, n = 60; low-achieving, n = 60) and then randomly assigned to an eight-week intervention or a control group. Analytical reasoning and susceptibility to cognitive bias were measured at three time points. A mixed-model ANOVA revealed a significant three-way interaction (p < .001), indicating the intervention’s effects were moderated by achievement level. While all students in the intervention group demonstrated significant gains, improvements were most pronounced for the low-achieving students, whose post-intervention scores in both domains converged significantly with those of their high-achieving peers. These notable gains were marked by very large effect sizes for the low-achieving group (d = 2.45 for analytical reasoning; d = -3.27 for cognitive bias) and were successfully retained at a six-week follow-up. Findings provide compelling evidence that metacognitive training is a promising and durable tool for fostering cognitive equity. This research offers a scalable, evidence-based model for supporting struggling learners and cultivating more robust, less-biased reasoning across the student population.