With the reform of various online teaching modes and the multi-spatial changes in the student learning environment, the nursing field has placed growing emphasis on the necessity for nursing students to employ metacognitive awareness in developing their professional knowledge and practical skills[1]. Recent research indicates that heightened metacognitive awareness is associated with improved patient care[2], clinical reasoning[3], clinical decision-making[4], and the promotion of continuous lifelong learning[5]. These aspects are vital to cultivate in nursing practice. Metacognitive awareness is considered the core component of thinking activities[6] and is also a crucial element contributing to students’ academic success[7].
Metacognitive awareness encompasses knowledge of cognition and the regulation of cognition, defined as the ability to reflect upon, understand, and control one’s thinking[8]. Knowledge of cognition involves the extent of awareness about mental capacities, the employed mental strategies, and how to apply these strategies in different contexts. Regulation of cognition pertains to how frequently various types of mental strategies are implemented to recognize and control thinking[8, 9]. Metacognitive awareness draws from Zimmerman’s three-stage cycle theory and Bandura’s self-regulation theory[10, 11]. These theories underscore that metacognitive awareness is constructed through an interactive process involving a learner's individual abilities, behavior, and the environment, as depicted in Fig. 1[11]. Previous studies have indicated a positive relationship between individual abilities such as learning motivation and emotional intelligence with metacognitive awareness [12, 13]. Additionally, self-directed learning ability has been shown to enhance metacognitive awareness[14]. However, the innovative development of digital education has diversified the needs of nursing students' educational environment, prompting attention to the mechanisms influencing students' metacognitive awareness[15]. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the complex influencing mechanisms of individual factors (learning motivation, emotional intelligence), environmental factors (educational environment), and behavioral factors (self-directed learning ability) in nursing students' metacognitive awareness.
Educational environment refers to subjective and objective factors that are directly or indirectly related to “teaching” and “learning” [16]. The nursing educational environment includes both subjective and objective factors directly or indirectly related to learning, teachers, academics, the environment, and social interaction in school or practice settings[17]. A positive subjective experience with the educational environment enhances students' intrinsic interest in learning and boosts their motivation. Conversely, low satisfaction diminishes enthusiasm, resulting in decreased learning effectiveness[18]. The educational environment significantly influences the development of metacognitive knowledge in medical students, indirectly shaping metacognitive consciousness, and playing a crucial role in enhancing various student abilities[19]. It promotes the improvement of students' self-directed learning ability and positively contributes to the construction of emotional intelligence [20, 21].However, the relationship between nursing student's educational environment, emotional intelligence, self-directed learning ability, and metacognitive awareness remains unexplored.
Learning motivation represents students' dynamic inclination to initiate and sustain learning behavior to achieve specific academic goals [22]. Intrinsic motivation stems from internal needs, such as a student's internal drive, curiosity, interest, and the desire to enhance their abilities, which encourage active studying[23, 24]. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation results from external incentives, such as students seeking difficult-to-obtain rewards or avoiding punishment from teachers or parents[25].A previous study demonstrated the significant impact of learning motivation on learning behavior, indicating that internal motivation can enhance self-directed learning ability[26]. External learning motivation influences the development of students' knowledge about cognition and the regulation of cognition[27]. Motivation is a profound mental phenomenon defined as the force guiding individuals' actions and propelling them toward goal-directed behavior[28]. Thus, understanding the relationship between learning motivation, self-directed learning ability, and metacognitive awareness is crucial.
Emotional intelligence, also referred to as emotional-social intelligence, is defined as a combination "of interrelated emotional and social competencies, skills, and facilitators that determine how effectively we understand and express ourselves, understand others and relate to them, and cope with daily demands”[29]. This attribute plays a crucial role in healthcare and healthcare education, particularly in the context of hospital nursing training[30]. Nurses with high emotional intelligence can navigate social interactions through emotional regulation, directly influencing their personal self-expression and work behavior[22]. A prior study discovered a positive correlation between students’ emotional intelligence, learning motivation, and its positive impact on reading comprehension and language learning strategies [31]. Emotional intelligence is significantly and positively correlated with self-directed learning ability[32]. Within emotional intelligence, metacognitive learning strategies are employed, generated by deep, flexible, and complex self-regulation to enhance individual learning [33]. Therefore, emotional intelligence is closely linked to students’ self-directed learning ability and metacognitive awareness. Despite this, there is a gap in research concerning the relationship between nursing students’ emotional intelligence, self-directed learning ability, and metacognitive awareness.
Self-directed learning ability (SDLA) is defined as learners' capacity to independently assess their learning needs, set learning goals, identify human and material resources, choose and implement appropriate learning strategies, and evaluate outcomes, either with or without external assistance [34]. SDLA plays a pivotal role in nurturing collaborative skills essential for multidisciplinary practice in contemporary healthcare settings [35]. Utilizing SDLA contributes to the development of metacognitive insights and enhances the application of metacognition in clinical reasoning contexts [36].Previous reports have indicated that the decision-making and control processes inherent in SDLA are linked to cognitive improvement following self-directed coding, the learner's current learning state, environmental information acquisition, and internal learner needs[37]. However, the specific mechanism and action pathway of these relationships are yet to be thoroughly explored.
Building on our literature review and theoretical framework, this study aimed to: (i) explore statistical differences in nursing students’ metacognitive awareness, educational environment, learning motivation, emotional intelligence, and self-directed learning ability based on age, year level, and gender; (ii) investigate the impact of individual factors (learning motivation, emotional intelligence) and environmental factors (educational environment), as well as behavioral factors (self-directed learning ability), on metacognitive awareness using structural equation modeling.
Our exploration of the relational mechanism is guided by the following research hypotheses: (i) Educational environment, learning motivation, and emotional intelligence are positively correlated with self-directed learning ability. (ii) Self-directed learning ability and metacognitive awareness are positively correlated. (iii) Self-directed learning ability indirectly influences the associations of educational environment, learning motivation, and emotional intelligence with metacognitive awareness.