Transcript Self-Efficacy as a Learning Tool in General

Self Efficacy as a Learning Tool in
General Education Introductory Geology
A large historical geology class (134 students)
An active learning exercise
Preliminary results
Giuseppina A. Kysar Mattietti
Center for Teaching Excellence - College of Science
[email protected]
Erin E. Peters
College of Education and Human Development
[email protected]
Think. Learn. Succeed.
Rationale
Two goals:
• to provide students with an active and
reflective approach to learning / exam
preparation
• to give the instructor a view of the
cognitive level achieved by the class as a
whole and of misconceptions developing
on the topics of the exercise.
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The Reflective approach:
Self-efficacy
People’s belief about their ability to be successful in
their display of knowledge or skills (Bandura, 1994)
• Self-efficacy is always domain related
• It doesn’t necessarily align with reality
• It drives future behavior in the disciplines
– Increases motivation to learn
– Motivates to further studies in the discipline
– It promotes taking challenges doing research
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The mini-self assessment exercise
Super-Short Written Answers
to these questions:
 Which layers are the same?
 Why do you say so?
 What do the fossils in these
rocks indicate about the geologic
time when these rocks formed?
 What is the correct sequence of rock layer
from oldest to youngest?
 Mark the Unconformity with an arrow
 Why did you place the arrow there?
 What does the unconformity indicate
about the geologic history represented
by these two stratigraphic columns?
 Can these rocks give you information on
the absolute age of their formation?
 Why yes or why not?
Confidence level:
3 = absolutely sure
2 = I think so
1 = I am guessing
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Research Questions
• How proficient are undergraduate students in
applying their understanding of correlation and
geologic time?
• How confident are undergraduate students in
applying their understanding of correlation and
geologic time?
• Are there any patterns linking levels of
cognition and confidence levels?
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Means
* Significant differences between means
Question
Mean for Correct
Answer (range 0-3)
Mean for Self-Efficacy
(range 1-3)
Which layers are
same?
2.75
2.68
*Why are layers the same?
2.43
2.63
*Faunal succession/
correlation/ Geologic
Time
1.35
2.37
*Sequence of events
2.72
2.31
*Label Unconformity
2.80
2.54
*WhyUnconformity?
1.98
2.37
*Geologic History
1.17
2.10
*Absolute Age
1.04
2.48
*Why Absolute Age?
.64
2.34
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Comparison of Differences of Means
* Significant differences between means
Question
Which layers are same?
Why are layers the same?
Faunal succession/
correlation/ Geologic Time
Sequence
Label Unconformity
Why Unconformity?
Geologic History
Absolute Age
Why Absolute Age?
t-value
Significance
-.91
2.19
10.31
.37
.03*
.00*
-4.08
-2.42
2.71
.00*
.02*
.01*
9.04
9.10
16.15
.00*
.00*
.00*
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Confidence and Performance
•
Higher confidence in divergent
answers regardless of knowledge
–Satisfied as long as they had one portion
of the answer
•
Low confidence in convergent answers
regardless of knowledge
–Translating knowledge into conventional
science symbols-language is more
challenging.
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Implications for teaching and learning
• More practice in elaborating and synthesizing
knowledge for deep learning
• Need to engage large lecture classes in active
learning
• Identify and treat misconceptions
• Show that science is more than “One-answer”
• Build more self-reflection practice
• Know when the large class is ready to push
forward or slow the pace
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Thank you!
We welcome your questions and comments: [email protected],
[email protected]
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