Date Available
4-29-2016
Year of Publication
2016
Degree Name
Master of Science in Education (MSEd)
Document Type
Master's Thesis
College
Education
Department/School/Program
Educational and Counseling Psych
First Advisor
Dr. Ellen Usher
Abstract
Students who are self-regulated are more likely to succeed academically, whereas students who have deficiencies in their learning have been recognized as having a lack of metacognitive awareness (Valdez, 2013; Zimmerman, 2002). If students are metacognitively unaware in large introductory courses, they may have difficulty knowing when to self-regulate and modify their learning (Lin & Zabrucky, 1998; Stone, 2000). One manner in which researchers have assessed students’ metacognitive awareness is by asking students to estimate how they think they will do on tasks compared to their actual performance, known as calibration. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ calibration and study habits. Participants were undergraduates (N = 384) in an introductory biology course at a southeastern U.S. university. Students completed four surveys that assessed their exam score expectations and the study habits they used prior to each exam. Results showed that students’ estimates are most discrepant from their actual performance early in the semester and become more accurate at the end of the semester. A closer look at students’ study habits revealed that the inaccuracy of students’ exam judgments showed little connection to the study strategies that students used. Findings from this study are important for biology instructors.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2016.138
Recommended Citation
Turner, Trisha A., "Am I Able to Predict How I Will Do? Examining Calibration in an Undergraduate Biology Course" (2016). Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology. 47.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edp_etds/47
