Opportunities for Self-Evaluation Increase Student Calibration in an Introductory Biology Course.

Opportunities for Self-Evaluation Increase Student Calibration in an Introductory Biology Course. CBE Life Sci Educ. 2019 Jun;18(2):ar16 Authors: Osterhage JL, Usher EL, Douin TA, Bailey WM Abstract Accurate self-evaluation is critical for learning. Calibration describes the relationship between learners' perception of their performance and their actual performance on a task. Here, we describe two studies aimed at assessing and improving student calibration in a first-semester introductory biology course at a 4-year public institution. Study 1 investigated students' (n = 310) calibration (the difference between estimated and actual exam performance) across one semester. Students were significantly miscalibrated for the first exam: their predicted scores were, on average, significantly higher than their actual scores. The lowest-performing students had the most inaccurate estimates. Calibration improved with each exam. By the final exam, students underestimated their scores. We initiated a second study in the following semester to examine whether explicitly teaching students about self-evaluation strategies would improve their calibration and performance. Instruction in the experimental section (n = 290) focused on students' tendency to overestimate their abilities and provided retrieval-practice opportunities. Students in the experimental section showed better calibration and performance on the first exam compared with students in a ...
Source: CBE Life Sciences Education - Category: Cytology Authors: Tags: CBE Life Sci Educ Source Type: research