In the present meta-analysis, we systematically examined the association between students’ initial level of metacognition and their academic achievement at least three months later. Using multilevel meta-analysis as well as meta-analytic structural equation modelling, we analysed data from 71,171 students provided by 28 independent studies. The findings indicated a positive relationship between initial metacognition and subsequent academic achievement (r = .22, 95% CI = [0.18, 0.33], p < .001). Meanwhile, age, gender, time lag, educational stage, culture, and the composition and measurement of metacognition were considered as potential moderating variables. Moreover, while previous research has typically viewed high levels of academic achievement as a consequence of high levels of metacognition, the self-determination theory (SDT) suggests that high levels of academic achievement may also be an antecedent of high levels of metacognition. Therefore, we conducted cross-lagged panel analyses, and after accounting for autoregressive effects, the results showed that students’ initial academic achievement was also a significant positive predictor of subsequent metacognitive levels. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

在本荟萃分析中，我们系统地研究了学生的初始元认知水平与至少三个月后的学业成绩之间的关联。我们使用多层次荟萃分析以及荟萃分析结构方程模型，分析了 28 项独立研究提供的 71,171 名学生的数据。研究结果表明，初始元认知与随后的学业成绩之间存在正相关关系（ r = .22，95% CI = [0.18, 0.33]， p < .001）。同时，年龄、性别、时间差、教育阶段、文化以及元认知的构成和测量被认为是潜在的调节变量。此外，虽然以前的研究通常将高水平的学术成就视为高水平元认知的结果，但自我决定理论（SDT）表明，高水平的学术成就也可能是高水平元认知的先决条件。因此，我们进行了交叉滞后面板分析，在考虑了自回归效应后，结果表明，学生的初始学业成绩也是随后元认知水平的显着正向预测因子。最后，讨论了理论和实践意义。