Investigation of Metacognitive, Motivational and Self-Efficacy Influences on the Performance of Undergraduate Introductory Non-Major Biological Sciences Students
Location
CSU Ballroom
Start Date
11-4-2017 10:00 AM
End Date
11-4-2017 11:30 AM
Student's Major
Biological Sciences
Student's College
Science, Engineering and Technology
Mentor's Name
Brittany Smith
Mentor's Department
Biological Sciences
Mentor's College
Science, Engineering and Technology
Description
It is a concern of both students and instructors that students are able to learn and perform well in an educational setting. Likewise, it is important that students feel confident in themselves and the information they know and are able to remember, as well as being motivated to learn. These occurrences have been named self-efficacy, metacognition, and motivation, respectively. Independently these facets of learning have been studied extensively. The hope of this study is to observe these phenomena happening simultaneously in an introductory undergraduate Biological Sciences course for non-Biological Sciences majors. This is done by comparing student's exam scores and their surveyed attitudes both before and after exams through the course of a semester. Attitudes were surveyed using a pre and posttest survey that involved both binary and Likert scale assessments of confidence, motivation, and metacognition. In this study, it was observed that there was a significant difference between the upper 50% scoring students and the lower 50% scoring students in their agreeance of feeling confident in their ability to learn across two exams. This finding was mirrored when comparing the top scoring students with the lower scoring students and their agreeance of their motivation to learn. However, when the magnitude of the difference between the actual and predicted exam scores of the top 50% was compared to that of the lower 50%, a difference was observed but it was not deemed significant. The findings of this study mirror that of other similar works in that top performing students are more motivated to learn and have higher levels of self-efficacy.
Investigation of Metacognitive, Motivational and Self-Efficacy Influences on the Performance of Undergraduate Introductory Non-Major Biological Sciences Students
CSU Ballroom
It is a concern of both students and instructors that students are able to learn and perform well in an educational setting. Likewise, it is important that students feel confident in themselves and the information they know and are able to remember, as well as being motivated to learn. These occurrences have been named self-efficacy, metacognition, and motivation, respectively. Independently these facets of learning have been studied extensively. The hope of this study is to observe these phenomena happening simultaneously in an introductory undergraduate Biological Sciences course for non-Biological Sciences majors. This is done by comparing student's exam scores and their surveyed attitudes both before and after exams through the course of a semester. Attitudes were surveyed using a pre and posttest survey that involved both binary and Likert scale assessments of confidence, motivation, and metacognition. In this study, it was observed that there was a significant difference between the upper 50% scoring students and the lower 50% scoring students in their agreeance of feeling confident in their ability to learn across two exams. This finding was mirrored when comparing the top scoring students with the lower scoring students and their agreeance of their motivation to learn. However, when the magnitude of the difference between the actual and predicted exam scores of the top 50% was compared to that of the lower 50%, a difference was observed but it was not deemed significant. The findings of this study mirror that of other similar works in that top performing students are more motivated to learn and have higher levels of self-efficacy.
Recommended Citation
Newinski, Rachel. "Investigation of Metacognitive, Motivational and Self-Efficacy Influences on the Performance of Undergraduate Introductory Non-Major Biological Sciences Students." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 11, 2017.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2017/poster-session-A/19
