Metacognition and Lexical Complexity in Sketch Mapping – A Secondary Analysis of Think-Aloud Protocols and Sketch Maps

Metacognition, encompassing students’ awareness of their knowledge, regulation of actions, and experiences, is fundamental to both geography education and lifelong learning. Language is key to externalizing internal processes and enabling interaction within a geography classroom. However, there remains a distinct gap in research specifically focusing on students’ abilities in metacognition and language while solving geographical tasks. Therefore, the present study aims to address this gap by researching the role of metacognition and its alignment with lexical complexity and geographical performance in sketch mapping. To achieve this, a qualitative research design was developed. Ten upper secondary students participated in think-aloud protocols while sketching maps of a predefined route within the school area. This methodological approach allowed for an in-depth exploration of how upper secondary students employed metacognitive strategies and exhibited lexical complexity during sketch mapping. The results show a high degree of heterogeneity in metacognitive use, lexical complexity, and sketch map proficiency among participants. Findings indicate that participants’ use of metacognition is significantly aligned with lexical complexity in think-aloud protocols, as well as their performance on sketch maps. Implications for geography education practice are provided at the end of the paper. Highlights: • Conceptualization of metacognition and lexical complexity in the context of geography education related to sketch mapping. • Highlighting alignments of metacognition, lexical complexity, and map skills through participants’ quoted statements and their sketch maps. • Deriving implications of results in the context of language-aware geography education through macro-scaffolding.