Unskilled and Unaware? Examining the Metacognitive Awareness of Low-Performing Students

• In Event: Metacognition and Motivation in Learning and Instruction

Abstract

Low-performing students are less accurate metacognitive monitors than high-performing students. However, the degree to which low-performing students are aware of their metacognitive inaccuracy is unknown. This study investigates the extent to which ability affects metacognitive awareness by examining monitoring accuracy before and after taking exams across a semester. The results indicate that low-performing students were more overconfident across all exams when predicting their exam grades than high-performing students even after adjusting for uncertainty in ability estimation for the tests. In addition, low-performing students made correct metacognitive adjustments as frequently as high-performing students across all exams. However, these adjustments were not efficient, as low-performing students did not adjust their monitoring judgements enough to compensate for the initial anchoring using unrealistic predictions.

Author

• Jason W Morphew, Purdue University