Metacognitive awareness in music education: an empirical investigation of personal, educational, and practice-related correlates

Background Metacognitive awareness, comprising knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition, is theorized to be central to self-regulated learning and performance, yet evidence on how it is distributed across personal, educational, and practice-related characteristics in music education, and whether it predicts self-reported achievement, remains scarce. Aim This descriptive-correlational study examined the metacognitive awareness profile of students receiving music education and tested whether gender, age, school type, duration of music education, instrument type, and daily practice duration were statistically associated with metacognitive awareness, and whether its two dimensions independently predicted self-reported music course achievement. Methods Participants were 1,000 students, predominantly aged 10 to 20, receiving music education, predominantly through compulsory school curricula, in central Mersin, Türkiye, as a convenience sample. Data were collected with the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory and a demographic/practice-history form. Independent-samples t -tests, one- and two-way ANOVAs (including a gender-by-age-band model), the Kruskal-Wallis H test, correlations, and hierarchical regression were used, with effect sizes reported throughout. Results Students reported moderately high metacognitive awareness overall. Female students scored significantly higher than male students on regulation of cognition and total awareness, with small, age-invariant effect sizes. Age and school type each showed a non-monotonic, U-shaped pattern, with the middle category of each (ages 15–18; Middle School) scoring lowest. Duration of music education was not significantly associated with metacognitive awareness, although students receiving private instruction scored significantly higher than those in state-curriculum classes; instrument type and daily practice duration each showed small, significant effects on overall awareness. Knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition were moderately correlated. In hierarchical regression, only knowledge of cognition remained a significant predictor of self-reported music course achievement after controlling for age, education duration, and practice duration. Conclusion Metacognitive awareness in music education appears shaped primarily by gender, age, and practice-related factors rather than cumulative training duration, and its knowledge dimension carries independent, if modest, predictive value for achievement, suggesting declarative/conditional self-knowledge as a pedagogical focus warranting further validation rather than a strong instructional target. Findings are correlational, based on a convenience sample and self-report measures, and should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating rather than confirmatory.