Characterizing illusions of competence in introductory chemistry students
Pazicni, Samuel, and Christopher F. Bauer. "Characterizing illusions of competence in introductory chemistry students." Chemistry Education Research and Practice 15.1 (2014): 24-34.
I heard a radio program on the Dunning-Kruger effect a week or two ago. I'd forgotten just how well it explains some students (and colleagues, and administrators, and politicians). If you don't know what you don't know, but are generally confident that you can do anything. . .
ReplyDeleteI *am* grateful that the worse possible consequence to serious incompetence in my class is an honor council referral. The possibility for actual explosions would worry me (and I suppose the possibility for emotional explosions worries me a bit, too, but so far I've been lucky not to run into a student who was genuinely a danger to others).
I don't seem to have access to the article (just the abstract), so I have a few questions:
--I'm intrigued (though not surprised) by the mention of gender disparities. Did they test the gender of the instructor as well as the gender of the student as a variable?
--And do they have any suggestions for how to structure feedback so as to reach students afflicted by D-K? Somehow, I doubt that "Dude; trust me; you really, really don't understand this stuff" is going to work.