Assessment of Student’s Confidence of Learned Knowledge

Kyle B. Reed

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Understanding Our Students I
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods
Page Count: 12
Page Numbers: 25.232.1 - 25.232.12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--20992
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/20992
Download Count: 496

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Kyle B. Reed University of South Florida

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Kyle Reed is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Florida. He performs research on human-robot interaction, rehabilitation robotics, haptics, medical robotics, and engineering education. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2001, his master's (2004) and Ph.D. (2007), both in mechanical engineering, from Northwestern University and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University. More information on his research can be found at his research lab website: http://reedlab.eng.usf.edu/.

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Abstract

Assessment of Student’s Confidence of Learned KnowledgeAn important skill for students is to recognize how well they actually know the answers to real-world questions. Students may get the right answers on quiz questions, but may not be sure oftheir answers and may get similar questions wrong. Confidence in one’s answer or design is nottypically important during undergraduate schooling, but is vital in a job and in graduateeducation where the confidence students have in their solutions is nearly as important as thesolutions themselves. The method described here helps students learn by making them assess theconfidence they have in their answer and also serves as a metric by which the instructor canevaluate the possibility of students applying the material to similar questions.Students in an undergraduate senior level Mechanical Engineering semester-long course wereinstructed to indicate their confidence level on each answer on each of six quizzes. The grade foreach question was based on both their confidence level and whether it was right or wrong. Theattached table shows the credit for each of the four possible combinations of answers/confidence.The worst case is to be confident of an incorrect answer and the best case is to have the rightanswer and be confident in it. Having a correct answer, but lacking confidence, is beneficial, butnot perfectly so. This answer is similar to asking a colleague to double check the work, whichwould hopefully increase the confidence in that work, but still requires the use of someone else’stime. Having an incorrect and not confident answer is similar to simply stating: “I do not know”or asking for help, which is the perfect answer when a person truly does not know; making up ananswer is a very bad habit that is encouraged under typical grading schemes. For this answer, thestudent gets some credit for knowing that they do not know and that they should ask for help.The analysis of the student confidence method is based on evaluating the student’s ability tocorrectly assess their level of confidence. Over three separate semesters, a total of 157 studentswere evaluated. The student’s inherent objective is to maximize the points awarded, thus theirability to maximize their points is the metric. This metric is compared to their overall grade inthe class and is used to identify the students that benefit most from this method. The data showsthat students are generally aware of their abilities and the anecdotal responses from students havebeen very positive. The data also benefits the instructor by indicating where the students arestruggling, even if the students are getting the correct answers. Questions with correct and notconfident answers typically go unnoticed, but under this grading scheme, a quick review of thespecific points where they are lacking confidence can solidify the student’s uncertain knowledge. Table: Points awarded for each combination of correctness and confidence confident not confident correct 5 4 incorrect 0 2

Citation
Format

Reed, K. B. (2012, June), Assessment of Student’s Confidence of Learned Knowledge Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--20992

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -              Assessment of Student’s Confidence of Learned KnowledgeAn important skill for students is to recognize how well they actually know the answers to real-world questions. Students may get the right answers on quiz questions, but may not be sure oftheir answers and may get similar questions wrong. Confidence in one’s answer or design is nottypically important during undergraduate schooling, but is vital in a job and in graduateeducation where the confidence students have in their solutions is nearly as important as thesolutions themselves. The method described here helps students learn by making them assess theconfidence they have in their answer and also serves as a metric by which the instructor canevaluate the possibility of students applying the material to similar questions.Students in an undergraduate senior level Mechanical Engineering semester-long course wereinstructed to indicate their confidence level on each answer on each of six quizzes. The grade foreach question was based on both their confidence level and whether it was right or wrong. Theattached table shows the credit for each of the four possible combinations of answers/confidence.The worst case is to be confident of an incorrect answer and the best case is to have the rightanswer and be confident in it. Having a correct answer, but lacking confidence, is beneficial, butnot perfectly so. This answer is similar to asking a colleague to double check the work, whichwould hopefully increase the confidence in that work, but still requires the use of someone else’stime. Having an incorrect and not confident answer is similar to simply stating: “I do not know”or asking for help, which is the perfect answer when a person truly does not know; making up ananswer is a very bad habit that is encouraged under typical grading schemes. For this answer, thestudent gets some credit for knowing that they do not know and that they should ask for help.The analysis of the student confidence method is based on evaluating the student’s ability tocorrectly assess their level of confidence. Over three separate semesters, a total of 157 studentswere evaluated. The student’s inherent objective is to maximize the points awarded, thus theirability to maximize their points is the metric. This metric is compared to their overall grade inthe class and is used to identify the students that benefit most from this method. The data showsthat students are generally aware of their abilities and the anecdotal responses from students havebeen very positive. The data also benefits the instructor by indicating where the students arestruggling, even if the students are getting the correct answers. Questions with correct and notconfident answers typically go unnoticed, but under this grading scheme, a quick review of thespecific points where they are lacking confidence can solidify the student’s uncertain knowledge.                           Table: Points awarded for each combination                                  of correctness and confidence                                            confident not confident                              correct           5              4                             incorrect          0              2
AU  - Kyle B. Reed
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Assessment of Student’s Confidence of Learned Knowledge
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/20992
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--20992
ER  -