Introduction: Procrastination is not only observed in individuals but is one of the tendencies of the human beings influenced by culture. Academic procrastination is considered as the most common form of the condition. Among the factors affecting learning are meta-cognitive styles that include beliefs and behavioral preferences. Academic procrastination is a voluntarily postponing the completion of activities and assignments affecting aspects of personal and academic life negatively. The current inspection dealt with the effectiveness of metacognitive skills on goal orientation and academic procrastination of students within the age range of 9-12 years old with specific learning disabilities.
Materials and Methods: The statistical population of the study consisted of 150 students within the age range of
9-12 years old with specific learning disabilities in Qom city. Through random sampling, thirty students with learning disabilities were selected as the main sample of the study. Moreover, two scaling measures along with two questionnaires as the goal orientation and academic procrastination (each having particular scales) were used in order to collect the required data. Finally, multivariate analysis of covariance was applied to analyze the collected data.
Results: The findings of this quasi-experimental research revealed that metacognitive skills had a significant effect on improvement of students with disabilities in Qom (P <0.0001). Furthermore, it was found that metacognitive skills also influenced the academic procrastination and goal orientation of Qom students for the experimental group with special disabilities (P <0.0001).
Conclusion: Metacognitive skills, aspect of affecting academic progress, helps the students with special learning disabilities in goal orientation and academic procrastination. They influence the students' academic progress in a positive manner through controlling thoughts, feelings, and performance. Furthermore, metacognitive skills culminate in progress motivation, verbal comprehension, language learning, perception, attention, memory, problem solving, social cognition, and more.
