English Department Students’ Metacognition Awareness in Completing Mini -thesis

This paper investigated the metacognition of final semester students in completing their mini-thesis. The obstacles faced by English study program students in writing mini-thesis were assumed resulted from their lack of metacognition implementation. Metacognition is often described as knowledge and control over one’s cognitive processes. This research used mixed-method design. The instruments used were observation, interviews, and questionnaire. The subjects of this research consisted of 18 students of 8th, 9th as well as graduated students and 10 lecturers of English Study program of Universitas Muhammadiyah Tangerang. This study showed: firstly, students are quite hard to complete mini-thesis due to their strategy following the schedule is need to be pushed by their advisors. Secondly, most respondents have good metacognitive awareness, while few of eighth and ninth semester students need to improve planning, information management strategy and monitoring. Thirdly, metacognition can be the effective solution to encourage students in achieving their target.


Introduction,
Thesis is one of the requirements that must be met by every final semester student to be able to complete their education at the tertiary level.However, various obstacles and reasons always accompany the process of preparing thesis, especially for students of the English Education Study Program FKIP UMT who must write an English thesis, even though they have been provided with various subjects related to English thesis writing, such as academic writing, research methods, statistics, and others.In accomplishing this process, students not only need critical thinking students but also awareness of their target of learning (Arjulayana, 2023).This is also a challenge for English lecturers and study program to consistently Arjulayana, Lastari, Al-Manar English Department Students' Metacognition Awareness in Completing Mini-thesis encourage students to finish on time, because one of the goals of learning is to be able to do something better after previously not being able to do it (Ersoy & Güneyli, 2016).This is also related to the function of an education itself, namely planning in increasing the potential and abilities of students (Ates-Cobanoglu & Cobanoglu, 2021;Tessmer, 2005).Students not only need to have strategy to write the mini-thesis but also build synergy with the lecturers to achieve their expected goals, so metacognitive implementation is considered appropriate to these problems.
Generally, mini-thesis or a final project is an essential part of completing final semester undergraduate degree.The urgency of final semester students to complete mini-thesis depends on academic goals, the requirements of program and career goals.Completing mini-thesis could help them to build portfolio, improve chances of getting accepted into a graduate program, or increase chances of landing a job.However, completing thesis in English is difficult for some English as foreign language learners (Jahan & Jahan 2011).Good awareness in implementing metacognition will help final semester students to complete their thesis as a final requirement for students to graduate from English Education study program.Bürgler et al., (2022) said that metacognition awareness is one of the aspects that will make the students capable or not in compiling and completing their task, in this case is thesis as final assignment in the English Education study program FKIP UMT.
In Indonesia, English is a foreign language because most people do not use English as their daily language.Nevertheless, English as a foreign language in Indonesia has turned into a new paradigm for the younger generation, especially those who have extensive education and international relations.It can be said that English today is not only a communication tool for academics, but also an important factor for taking part in the international arena both from the economic, political, social, education and others (Arjulayana, 2018).Moreover, English is stated as the lingua franca, through which interdisciplinary and multi-social communication can be done in English (Mansfield & Poppi, 2012).Thus, it is appropriate for English education study program students to be able to communicate in English both orally and in writing so that they will be ready to take part in international arena.Moreover, the English study program graduates from Faculty of Teacher Training and Education at UMT are expected to be able to apply and teach English to students at school.In short, their ability to write a thesis in English is not only for their future provision but also one of the 21st century abilities (Cintang et al., 2018;Handayani, 2017) Arjulayana, Lastari, Al-Manar

English Department Students' Metacognition Awareness in Completing Mini-thesis
Mini-thesis is a scientific writing based on the results of field research or literature study which is compiled by students according to their field of study as the final project in their formal studies at tertiary institutions.Muslich & Maryaeni, (2013) defined thesis as a scientific paper compiled by students as one of the final requirements for graduating from a bachelor's degree education program.To complete their studies, students are required to complete a scientific work as the final part of their academic education to obtain a bachelor's degree.This is because the thesis is a final work which can be considered as student's master piece that can be the indicator of the level of understanding or achievement of the student's scientific discipline concerned.Jamil (2021) added that a thesis is a scientific work produced by undergraduate students who discuss the results of their research according to research principles and thesis report rules such as planning (proposals), writing and presentation of results.As for writing a thesis is the main requirement in completing undergraduate education, students are expected to be able to think logically in describing and solving a problem and to write down the results of their thoughts in the form of an organized and systematic report (Amirian & Baghiat, 2013).
Writing a good thesis must comply with the rules on each campus, because each campus, faculty and study program has different thesis writing rules.In addition, writing scientific papers like this also has a different level of difficulty than other writing (Farkhan, 2006).According Gunawan et al., (2021) some steps can be implemented to arrange Mini thesis, such as 1) problem definition, 2) formulating the hypothesis, 3) arranging operational definition of the research object or variable, 4) arranging research instruments, 5) data collection, 6) data analysis, 7) drawing the conclusion, and the last 8) writing all the report in detail.
Metacognition is one of the important things that a student must have, as it refers to a person's awareness and knowledge regarding his own strategies and understanding his own abilities and using them (Desmita, 2014).Metacognition is an ability possessed by every individual, in this case is a student, to measure his own cognitive ability (Chapman et al., 2020;Schraw & Dennison, 1994).In some research, metacognition has been interpreted as a person's strategy in managing, evaluating, and realizing his abilities and goals.It can be one of the determiners of a person's success in achieving the desired goals, both in terms of learning as well as in certain project targets because he will have good awareness and strategies to achieve Arjulayana, Lastari, Al-Manar English Department Students' Metacognition Awareness in Completing Mini-thesis these targets (Murni, 2019;Nirenburg et al., 2010).The importance of metacognition for students, apart from being self-aware, it also can increase their self-border as teenagers who live in the digital era with many temptations to relax (Hiemstra, 1994).
In addition, research conducted at the University of Colorado in the United States stated that metacognition and motivation are always related and both can help a person's success (Zarestky et al., 2022).
In understanding students and finding out what things affect their metacognition; it is necessary to know the strategies in metacognition itself.
Metacognition strategies which are usually based on the constructivism paradigm, and one's experiences in the field become very relevant when linked to student learning progress.This is because student learning requires experience and digestive experience from what he sees, feels and experiences (Bürgler et al., 2022;Desmita, 2014;Teng et al., 2022).To be able to measure a person's metacognition, clear indicators will be needed.These indicators include planning, monitoring, and evaluating (Zarestky et al., 2022).So, it can be concluded that these 3 aspects greatly determine a person's level of metacognition (Desmita, 2014) Based on those background and literature studies, this research is expected to provide students a good understanding so that they can hone their metacognition to the fullest and implement it properly to complete their final assignment.This research was proposed to present metacognition profile of final semester students of English Education study program, to describe the good implementation and the difficulties in implementing metacognition in the preparation of mini-thesis, and to prove that metacognition is very important for students to achieve their targets in completing a thesis as the final assignment of the English Education study program FKIP UMT.
Furthermore, this research intends to reveal the research questions: how were the profile of final semester students' metacognition?; what were final semester students' obstacles in completing their mini-thesis as the final requirement at English study Program?; and how to emphasize metacognition as the most fundamental aspect for students to complete mini-thesis as their final assignment.

Research Methodology
This study was conducted due to the phenomena of some students having difficulties in completing their thesis as their final assignment in the English language education study program at the University of Muhammadiyah Tangerang (UMT).The participants in this research involved students in completing their undergraduate studies at UMT.The sample consisted of 18 students from the 7th and 8th semesters, as well as graduates, and 10 lecturers who were being mini-hesis advisor at English education program study University of Muhammadiyah Tangerang.This research implemented mixed method design.A mixed methods research design is a procedure for collecting, analyzing, and mixing both quantitative and qualitative methods in a single study or a series of studies to provide a better understanding of the research problem (Creswell, 2012).The integration of quantitative and qualitative data is argued to provide a more comprehensive insight into the problem, forming the basis of the mixed methods research methodology, which aims to strengthen understanding by mining and integrating diverse data sources (Creswell (2013).The instruments used for this study consisted of a questionnaire to find out the metacognition profile of students, interviews, and document studies to strengthen the data.
In this study, researchers used questionnaire to find out whether the students had awareness to use their metacognitive in doing their mini-thesis.The questionnaire consisted of 20 (twenty questions) covering several indicators such as: planning, information management strategies; monitoring; debugging strategies and evaluating as referenced by Schraw and Dennison (1994).The respondents consisted of 18 students, 6 students were eighth semester students; 6 students were ninth semester students and 6 respondents were graduates.It used Likert model with the scales 1 to 4 (1= absolutely disagree; 2=disagree; 3=agree and 4= absolutely agree).The response from each group for each statement will be counted as index percentage by using the following formula: x= score/24 x 100%.

Findings
The following table 1 illustrates students' metacognitive awareness related to planning.It shows that 12 respondents agreed to statement 1 "I ask myself questions about the material before I begin".Meanwhile, 5 respondents said absolutely agree Arjulayana, Lastari, Al-Manar English Department Students' Metacognition Awareness in Completing Mini-thesis 20 and another one disagreed.Next, we can see that 16 respondents agreed and 2 others stated absolutely agree to the statement "I think of several ways to solve a problem and choose the best one ".It also shows that 12 respondents agreed to the statement "I organize my time to best accomplish my goals "; while 4 respondents said absolutely agree; and 2 others disagreed.Table 3 shows that 12 respondents agreed to statement 10 "I ask myself periodically if I am meeting my goals"; while 5 respondents said absolutely agree; and 1 respondent disagreed.Next, there were 14 respondents agreed to statement 11"I ask myself if I have considered all options when solving a problem"; while 2 respondents said absolutely agreed; and 2 others disagreed.disagreed.Table 3 also shows that 12 respondents agreed to statement 13 "I find myself regularly pausing to check my comprehension"; while 3 respondents said absolutely agree and 3 others disagreed.Meanwhile, there were 15 respondents agreed to statement 14 "I ask myself questions about how well I am doing while I am learning something new"; and 3 respondents said absolutely agree.absolutely agree; and one respondent said absolutely disagree.
Next, researchers conducted interview to students.In analyzing their answers, the researchers performed data reduction to make it easier to classify and present the data in a logical order based on 4 categories: strategies in completing research on time; strategies to communicate and approach the advisor, incubation process as the stage to find solutions for difficult problems; and illumination process as the implementation of the solution to complete the mini-thesis.Graduated students can communicate well using polite language and meet the advisor after their class.Students in their seventh semester can effectively guide by taking notes when doing in-person guidance.Students in their final year have very little time, so communication patterns are rare, and they have difficulty with guidance and consultation Table 10 shows the data was collected by interviewing to 10 lecturers who are thesis advisors about the advisor's strategies in advising or motivating their students.The researchers found out that 90% of lecturers assisted their students by having both online and offline supervision.Furthermore, 100% of lecturer is doing their supervision based on their appointment among students.
The detailed illustration of lecturers' responses can be seen on the table 10.
The findings of this questionnaire shows that 70% of the respondents were struggling to motivate and doing evaluation well to their students' work.Through the varieties students' characters, lecturers can supervise their student in many formats of approach.

Final semester student's metacognition profile
Metacognition refers to someone's ability to evaluate his or her own capability which is an important component to achieve individual goals as the result of self-awareness (Chapman et al., 2020;Teng et al., 2022a).Metacognition is very important for students, as it is about self-awareness related to someone's strategy and understanding towards his or her ability and how to utilize it to reach the target (Desmita, 2014).Metacognition indicators consist of planning, monitoring, and evaluating (Zarestky et al., 2022).
This study used questionnaire covering several indicators such as: planning, information management strategies; monitoring; debugging strategies and evaluating as referenced by (Schraw & Dennison, 1994)).The respondents consisted of 18 students, 6 students were eighth semester students; 6 students were ninth semester students and 6 respondents were graduates.
The result shown in table 1 implies that most respondents had good awareness for planning.They admitted that they asked themselves questions about the material before they begin; several ways to solve a problem and choose the best one, and organize their time to best accomplish their goals.It was found that the graduate students had the highest metacognitive awareness of planning with the average index percentage 79%.Meanwhile, the average index percentage for awareness of planning achieved by ninth semester students is 76%.And then the lowest index was achieved by the eighth semester students, 72%.It seems that student's awareness have a good improvement since in the beginning of their early semester, and it means that metacognition awareness on planning also can enhance students' motivation (Gusmuliana et al., 2021a) .

English Department Students' Metacognition Awareness in Completing Mini-thesis
The finding shown in able 2 illustrates respondents' awareness for information management strategy.Most of them admitted that they consciously focus their attention on important information.focus on the meaning and significances of new information, create their own examples to make information more meaningful, try to translate new information into their own words, ask themselves if what they are learning is related to what they already know and they try to break tasks down into smaller steps.It was also found that the graduate students show very good metacognitive awareness of information management strategy, with the average index percentage 83%.Meanwhile, the average index percentage for awareness of information management strategy achieved by the eighth semester students is 76%.
And then the lowest index is achieved by the ninth semester students, 71%.
Next, table 3 shows that most respondents have awareness for monitoring, they admitted that they ask themselves questions about the material before they begin; think of several ways to solve a problem and choose the best one and organize their time to best accomplish their goals.Furthermore, the graduate students have the highest metacognitive awareness of monitoring with the average index percentage 81%.Meanwhile, the eighth semester students achieved 77% and the ninth semester students achieved 74%.
The results shown in table 4 imply that most students who had completed their mini-thesis have metacognition awareness related to debugging strategy as they stated that they reevaluate their assumptions when they get confused; change strategies when they fail to understand and ask others for help when they don't understand something.Few of eighth and ninth semester students admitted to have debugging strategy.It also can be assumed that the graduate students have very good metacognitive awareness of debugging strategy with the index percentage 86%.Meanwhile, the ninth semester students achieved 78% and the ninth semester students achieved 75%.Over all, the responses from the questionnaires imply that the students are aware with their metacognition, as the results from the questionnaire responses indicate that students can plan, have information management strategy, monitor, debug strategy and evaluate the process to compose their mini thesis.The results also indicate that the students who have completed their mini-thesis get the highest score for metacognition awareness

The obstacles in completing mini-thesis
The procedure for completing students' final assignments that impact their ontime graduation is closely related to the metacognition of each individual student.
Metacognition provides the ability to think about achievements and target that can help students to reflect on their learning process, monitor their progress, and evaluate their work critically (Murni, 2019;Shea, 2020).
The interview data from student respondents contains elements of the complexity of each student's metacognitive ability.The initial analysis of the data above shows that students who have graduated on time have good metacognitive abilities in discipline, awareness of final assignment responsibilities, and creativity in solving problems they face as it is also stated (Heyes et al., 2020).In the guidance process by the advisors, students who have good self-discipline, responsibility, and creativity can complete final assignments well and graduate on time.
The results from the respondents indicate that students' metacognition can be triggered when students' awareness of self-discipline and good communication patterns with advisors are established and it also mentioned that self-discipline related to metacognition (Chapman et al., 2020).Meanwhile, students with low metacognition awareness have problem in monitoring their learning progress.In addition, student with metacognition abilities have better social interaction to solve problem.Students with poor metacognition cannot identify difficulties in their learning process.In addition, students who are unable to complete their final assignments to graduate on time tend to avoid challenges in completing more difficult tasks.This happens when students must allocate their time to reflect on the progress of the final assignment they are working on.By having reflection on the progress of the mini-thesis, students can improve the effectiveness of completing tasks more quickly and on time (Bub, 2008;Van der Loo et al., 2019).
In conclusion, the use of various techniques and methods can make students have alternatives when they encounter difficulties in the final assignment completion process.There are four points to improve students' metacognition so that they can complete their studies on time.First, they shall establish and determine strategies in completing tasks.Second, they shall monitor the timeline so that difficulties in the final assignment (thesis) completion process can be identified.Third, they can collaborate with peers so that they have the motivation to complete tasks together and help each other.Fourth, they also can use technological devices such as final assignment support applications.Therefore, strong metacognitive skills have the power to impact student learning and performance (Stanton et al., 2021)

Metacognition as the fundamental aspect to achieve the target
Writing mini-thesis for final semester student is one of the requirements to get bachelor degree at University of Muhammadiyah Tangerang.As the consequence, all final semester students need to arrange and able to do their research on time.
Therefore, it is important for students to prioritize metacognition as a fundamental aspect of their approach to completing their mini-thesis.Metacognition is the process of thinking about one's own thinking, and it is a fundamental aspect of learning and academic success.Student's metacognition is strongly required to be able to finish their Mini thesis on time, due to the strategy of getting target must be involved (Zarestky et al., 2022).
In the context of arranging mini-thesis, metacognition can help in several ways (Teng, 2021).Firstly, it can help students to reflect on their own learning and

Conclusion and Suggestion
This study was conducted to investigate English education department students' metacognition in completing their mini-thesis.There were five indicators used in order to find out their metacognition profile, namely: planning, information management strategy, debugging strategy and evaluating.The highest metacognitive awareness was achieved by students who have completed and graduated on time.These students have very good metacognition awareness of information management strategy, debugging strategy, monitoring and evaluating.
Meanwhile, the students of eighth and ninth semester still have problems with monitoring their learning progress; identify difficulties and allocating their time to reflect on the progress of the final assignment they are working on.They need to improve their metacognition of organizing time, information management strategy, debugging strategy and monitoring.As a critical aspect for students completing their mini-thesis, metacognition should be drilled by all learners and educators, including the final semester students and their thesis advisors.Through metacognition, students can optimize their efforts and produce high-quality work that meets the requirements of their mini-thesis.
In completing a mini-thesis, students must be aware of metacognition as a fundamental aspect that can enhance their learning experience and use it effectively.By taking the time to reflect on their own thinking and approach to research, students can improve their ability to identify areas of weakness, set goals, and evaluate their own work.Through metacognition, they can ensure making highest possible quality of their time and effort in pursuing their target.In turn, it can increase student-graduates ratio English study program of University of Muhammadiyah and a greater sense of students' accomplishment in completing the mini-thesis.
research process.By thinking about how students are approaching their work, what methods are applied, and what strategies are effective, metacognition can be used as the basis and it can be adjusted when needed.Secondly, metacognition can help students to monitor their progress and identify areas where it needs improvement.Thirdly, metacognition can help students to evaluate their own work critically and effectively.All in all, metacognition is a powerful tool to become a more effective learner and researcher.By taking the time to reflect on their own thinking and strategy toArjulayana, Lastari, Al-Manar   English Department Students' Metacognition   Awareness in Completing Mini-thesis achieve the target, optimize the efforts, monitor the progress, and produce higherquality work.

Table 1 :
Metacognitive awareness of planning

Table 2
shows the response related to the information management strategy, 10 respondents agreed to the statement "I focus on the meaning and significances of new information"; while 4 respondents said absolutely agree; and 3 others disagreed.Next, we can see that 12 respondents agreed to statement 5 "I consciously focus my attention on important information"; while 5 respondents said absolutely agree; and another one disagreed.It is also reported that 11 respondents Next, it is shown that 11 respondents agreed to statement 8 "I ask myself if what I'm learning is related to what I already know"; 4 respondents said absolutely agree and "I try to break tasks down into smaller steps"; 3 respondents said absolutely agree; one respondent disagreed and another one said absolutely disagree.

Table 2 :
Metacognitive awareness of Information Management Strategy

Table 3 :
Metacognitive awareness of Monitoring

Table 4
English Department Students' MetacognitionAwareness in Completing Mini-thesis to the statement "I ask others for help when I don't understand something"; while one respondent said absolutely agree; and another one disagreed.
another one disagreed.Next, we can see that 13 respondents agreed and 3 respondents stated absolutely agree to the statement "I change strategies when I fail to understand"; while 3 others disagree.It also shows that 10 respondents agreedArjulayana, Lastari, Al-Manar

Table 4 :
Metacognitive awareness of Debugging Strategy

Table 5 :
Metacognitive awareness of evaluating Table5shows that 14 respondents agreed to statement 18 "I ask myself if there was an easier way to do things after I finish a task "; 2 respondents were absolutely agreed and 2 others disagreed.Next, we can see that 13 respondents agreed; 4

Table 6 :
Strategies in completing research on time

Table 7 :
Students' strategies to build communication and approach with the advisor

Table 8 :
Incubation, facing difficulties in the thesis writing process

Table 9 :
Illumination, problem-solving in the thesis guidance process