Better your calibration
Now that you have an idea of what we mean when we speak about what metacognition and calibration are, you may be wondering, why should I care? If you ever have issues with not understanding why you are performing poorly in a subject or on a particular task, imagine if you could analyze your thinking in a way to help identify your shortcomings to then focus specifically on rectifying those shortcomings to eventually succeed. This can be possible through improving your metacognitive abilities. First, lets look at some research that has been done in this field that gives us promise towards this dream of making you a better learner:
Example 1: Metacognitive abilities are malleable
...and improving them can compensate for low ability - An analysis of important resarch surrounding metacognition surveyed a number of factors and interventions that can promote and improve a learner's metacognition abilities. It suggested that metacognitive abilities can potentially be improved through the utilization of strategies that highlight and model specific metacognitive activities and that make the learner aware of their own thinking.
A prior study that supports this claim in elementary-age children saw 5th and 6th grade students split into three treatment groups while solving problems provided by a computer game. The groups were either given instruction that focused upon problem-solving, problem-solving and monitoring of their thinking, or no specific training. Which group do you think could eventually solve more complex problems in a shorter amount of time? (Answer for yourself and hover below to see if you are correct)
Full reference:
Delclos, V. R., & Harrington, C. (1991). Effects of strategy monitoring and proactive instruction on children’s problem-solving performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(1), 35–
42. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.83.1.35
Schraw, G. (1998). Promoting general metacognitive awareness. Instructional Science, 26(1), 113–125. doi:10.1023/A:1003044231033
Example 2: Monitoring accuracy is not guaranteed
...in fact it is sometimes faulty and has been shown to be independent from general ability - A study that contained two experiments that had undergraduate students in a psychology course read a passage of information and answer questions about the passage found that even students with a high ability in reading/verbal skills were often overconfident regarding their answers or unaware that they were not correctly comprehending the passage. This study thus shows us that even if you maintain a high ability that does not guarantee that you are accurate in every situation where that ability is being applied. This highlights the importance for calibration training for all students. Even the "good" ones. There is one good thing about being "good", however...
Full reference:
Pressley, M., Ghatala, E. S., Woloshyn, V., & Pirie, J. (1990). Sometimes adults miss the main ideas and do not realize it: Confidence in responses to short-answer and multiple-choice comprehen- sion questions. Reading Research Quarterly, 25, 233–249.
Example 3: High-performers are generally more calibrated
...and low performers drastically overestimate their ability - As you can see in the graph to the right, high-performers often slightly understimate their performance with as the researchers call it "undue modesty." The experiment, which was conducted on sophmore-level psychology class, had 141 students predict their test score immediately after completing the test. In addition, the researchers asked the participants to report their perceived level of master of the material on the exam. The results are at right. The lowest performers are subject to what the researchers call a "double curse" that the same skills it takes to identify a correct answer are the ones that will help you accurately monitor your confidence. Potentially, with one, comes the other. If you could improve your calibration ability, could you improve your preparation and performance on exams? How?
Full reference:
Dunning, David, Kerri Johnson, Joyce Ehrlinger, and Justin Kruger. 2003. “Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 12 (3): 83–87.
(Adopted from Dunning et al., 2003)
Example 4: Monitoring accuracy can be improved
...through sustained, delibrate practice and feedback - During a study that looked at two groups of upper-level undergraduate students in aneducational psychology course that had the students make confidence judgements for a number of tests throughout the semester, the treatment group was given a number of monitoring exercises with which they could practice making these metacognitive judgements. They were then given feedback regarding their accuracy and told to refer back to each exercise throughout the semester. Upon analysis of their exam scores, the students in the treatment group saw improvements in their calibration ability. Given your knowledge of the relationship between calibration and performance, how do you think this affected students in the treatment group's performance on exams? (Answer for yourself and hover below to see if you are correct)
Full reference:
Nietfeld, J. L., Cao, L., & Osborne, J. W. (2006). The effect of distributed monitoring exercises and feedback on performance, monitoring accuracy, and self-efficacy. Metacognition and Learning, 1(2), 159–179. doi:10.1007/s10409-006-9595-6
Sound convincing yet? I should hope so! This is the theoretical and research basis that we are working to achieve through this tutorial. Through your distributed practice in the form of the GeoScience Videos and quiz forms (containing feedback regarding your calibration performance), we hope to not only augment your knowledge of geoscience concepts through the focused learning of important learning objectives in an introductory geology course, but to improve your sense of metacognitive awareness in general. If you would like to read more about the research behind calibration or have questions, email the author.
Think you have the important concepts of this tutorial down? How confident would you be to complete a review quiz on them? Continue to the next section of the tutorial by clicking "Review Tutorial" or, as always, move to the next button in the navigation menu at the top of the page!