Metacognition in Educational Research: Origins, Theoretical Traditions, and Current Challenges

Metacognition, broadly defined as the human capacity to monitor and regulate one’s own cognitive processes, has become a central construct in educational and cognitive psychology. Yet its historical development has produced a plurality of definitions, models, and methods that continue to generate conceptual and methodological tensions. This article offers a narrative, integrative review of the field, tracing how metacognition emerged from memory research, developmental studies of self-regulated learning, and educational practice, and how these traditions shaped the main theoretical frameworks that followed. The review then examines three categories of challenges that stem from this pluralism: conceptual challenges arising from definitional ambiguity and blurred construct boundaries; methodological challenges linked to the proliferation of partly incompatible operationalisations and measures; and applied challenges involved in designing, implementing, and evaluating metacognitive interventions in educational settings. A recurring theme is that different research traditions have focused on different components of metacognition, often treating a single facet as representative of the construct as a whole, which helps to explain why empirical findings and practical recommendations sometimes diverge. The article closes by discussing how greater conceptual clarity, the combined use of multiple instruments and levels of analysis, and a closer alignment between theoretical claims, measurement choices, and educational applications could help to address these challenges.