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Academic achievement represents performance outcomes that indicate the extent to which a person has accomplished specific goals that were the focus of activities in school, college, and university. The performance of a student is influenced by multitude of cognitive and non-cognitive factors. In the present article, the relation between cognitive factors (metacognition & executive functions) and academic achievement was studied. For this purpose a sample of 100 middle school students were selected. Metacognition (Meta-Cognition Awareness Inventory) and executive functions (Executive Function Index) of the students was assessed. Academic performance record (marks obtained in the preceding class) of the students was obtained from the school record. The obtained data was analysed by computing correlation and regression in order to examine the relation between the cognitive variables and academic performance and identify the significant predicators. Results indicated that a dimension of executive function, motivation, was the strongest predictor of academic performance. Two other dimensions, organization (executive functions) and information management (metacognition) also emerged as predictors.
Keywords: cognitive functions, executive function, motivation, academic performance, students
Academic achievement or performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution have achieved their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational degrees such as senior secondary school and bachelor's degrees along with the marks obtained represent academic achievement. Academic achievement has been defined as "the attainment or fulfilment in the area in which an individual gets some guidance or training" (Saxena & Dwivedi, 1979); "achievement which is associated to a great degree with the growth of knowledge, understanding and acquirement of skill" (Rao, 1980); or "possession or fulfilment of an individual in some special branch of knowledge after a fixed period of training" (Verma & Upadhyay, 1981). It is considered as the level of proficiency possessed in the academic domain or as formally gained knowledge in school subjects which is confirmed by grades or marks obtained by the pupils in the examination. It depicts the level of educational fulfilment in different subjects taught in the educational institution. It also discloses the amount and quality of learning received in a subject of study after a fixed duration of time. Along with being the criterion for up gradation to the next class, academic achievement is also an indicant of future...