Positive Academic Emotions and Academic Self-Efficacy as Mediator Variables in the Relationship Between Metacognitive Awareness and Deep Learning Among University Students

The research aimed to explore the relationship between deep learning and positive academic emotions, academic self-efficacy, and metacognitive awareness; additionally, it examined potential gender differences. It also sought to investigate the mediating role of positive academic emotions and academic self-efficacy in the relationship between metacognitive awareness and deep learning among 430 students (both male and female) at Kafrelsheikh University, with an average age of 22.55 and a standard deviation of 3.48. Valid and reliable scales were used to measure key variables, and data analysis included calculating means, standard deviations, Pearson’s correlation, t-tests, and using the macro-Process v4.2 by Andrew Hayes in SPSS.
The results revealed a positive relationship between deep learning and each of the three variables: positive academic emotions (r =.851, p < 0.01), academic self-efficacy (r =.750, p < 0.01), and metacognitive awareness (r =.818, p < 0.01). No significant gender differences were found. A strong linear relationship was identified between metacognitive awareness and positive academic emotions (R² = 0.643) and academic self-efficacy (R² = 0.666), showing that metacognitive awareness explains 64.35% and 66.60% of the variance in these two variables, respectively, with strong statistical significance (p = 0.000).
Metacognitive awareness (coefficient = 0.396, p = 0.000) significantly affected deep learning, with positive academic emotions (coefficient = 0.726, p = 0.000) having a greater effect. Academic self-efficacy (coefficient = 0.255, p = 0.000) also contributed positively. These results confirm the mediating role of positive academic emotions and academic self-efficacy in the relationship between metacognitive awareness and deep learning.