Digital technologies and their impact on metacognitive aspects in learning recovery in scientific and humanistic subjects

Digital technologies can support studying and learning different disciplines. For students with difficulties in their educational path, these technologies can aid in learning recovery from a metacognitive point of view. In this research study, we investigated the use of interactive materials and automatic formative assessment activities in supporting lower secondary school students in Italy (grades 6 to 8) in learning and studying scientific and humanistic subjects in relation to metacognitive aspects, such as confidence, self-esteem, motivation, and independence. The analyses were conducted within the edition 2022/2023 of the project “compiti@casa: curing educational fragility”, organised by the University of Turin and by the De Agostini Foundation. Participants involved in the project were tutored by university students in weekly synchronous online meetings to facilitate their learning recovery. Tutoring activities are implemented within a Digital Learning Environment that allows the use of interactive materials and activities. Through the 555 responses to the final questionnaire submitted to the tutors, we analysed the variation of metacognitive aspects that they observed in the students they tutored, and we investigated their relationship with the use of interactive materials and automatic formative assessment activities. It turned out that their use can effectively support learning recovery across scientific and humanistic subjects in lower secondary school students from the perspective of metacognition.