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.