Helping Students Know What They Know and Do Not Know

• Published in: College teaching 2011-07, Vol.59 (3), p.123-123
• Main Authors: Zabrucky, Karen M., Bays, Rebecca B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Ability; College Curriculum; College Faculty; Evaluation; Higher Education; Metacognition; Prediction; Scores
• ISSN: 8756-7555; 1930-8299
• DOI: 10.1080/87567555.2010.511314

A critical concern for college teachers is that their students understand the material covered in class. Students need to be aware of what they know and what they do not know. This awareness is actually one component of metacognition and specifically involves being able to accurately assess one's own level of understanding of material. Some researchers have argued that students' ability to evaluate their own understanding may be the most fundamental metacognitive skill. For without evaluation of understanding, students will make few, if any, attempts to use effective study or help-seeking strategies to better understand or remember information. One way to make students more aware of their skills at evaluating their understanding is to ask them to make predictions of an exam score right before taking an exam and postdictions right after taking an exam. Students can then compare their predictions and postdictions of performance with their actual performance once scores are returned. The authors have found that providing students with prediction and postdiction opportunities is a good way to raise awareness of overestimation and underestimation as real world phenomena.