Self Efficacy as a Learning Tool in General Education Introductory Geology

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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 gkysar_at_gmu.edu Erin E. Peters College
of Education and Human Development Epeters1_at_gmu.ed
u
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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

• Peoples belief about their ability to be
  successful in their display of knowledge or
  skills (Bandura, 1994)
• Self-efficacy is always domain related
• It doesnt 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
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Comparison of Differences of Means
Significant differences between means
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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
  gkysar_at_gmu.edu, epeters1_at_gmu.edu