BASES PEDAGÒGIQUES

In the current study, we tested whether economically disadvantaged children could learn and apply MCII, a metacognitive strategy for converting positive thoughts and images about a desired future into self-regulated behavior change. MCII combines mental contrasting, a strategy for pursuing (i.e., committing to and striving for) goals, with the formation of implementation intentions, a strategy of planning out one’s goal pursuit. In a random-assignment, longitudinal intervention study at an urban middle school, we compared the effects of MCII vs. solely indulging in positive thoughts about the future on objective indicators of academic achievement. Our aims in this investigation were both practical and theoretical. From a practical perspective, we saw the unfulfilled promise of metacognitive strategies that could help disadvantaged children “learn better in formal educational settings” (Flavell, 1979, p. 910). From a theoretical perspective, we hoped to extend prior research on MCII by showing that school-age children taught MCII could flexibly adapt this metacognitive strategy to diverse personal wishes or concerns, demonstrating generalization beyond a very narrowly specified wish chosen by the child in the intervention session (e.g., studying for a particular quiz) and, ultimately, improvements on consequential, objectively measured (as opposed to subjectively reported) academic outcomes.