Blissful Ignorance: The Problem of Unrecognized Incompetence and Academic Performance

Abstract

The skills that develop competence in a particular area are often the same skills needed to evaluate competence in that area. When people are unable to judge their own achievement, they are in a double bind; they have neither a particular skill nor the cognitive ability to realize their own level of incompetence. If students are unaware of their poor performance on tests, they are unlikely to realize their limitations. Correspondingly, the high performers may not recognize their ability to be successful. This study tests students’ self-recognized competence by having them estimate the grade they expected to receive on a test immediately following its completion. Poorer students significantly overestimated their performance; better students underestimated their performance. Poorer students became better estimators over time, while there was no similar improvement in better students’ self-assessments.

Random Number Simulations Reveal How Random Noise Affects the Measurements and Graphical Portrayals of Self-Assessed Competency

“…This sorting is necessary for tabulating the same participants' self-assessments and performance measures as thirds (Bell and Volckmann 2011) or quartiles (Kruger and Dunning 1999;Kennedy et al 2002;Ehrlinger et al 2008;Pazicni and Bauer, 2013). The computational algorithm we used to construct our Kruger-Dunning graphs is as follows:…”

Are Students Telling Us the Truth? A Critical Look at the Student Evaluation of Teaching

“…Poorer students don't know what they don't know and consequently overestimate their knowledge of tested material, while better students know what they don't know and underestimate their knowledge (Grimes 2002;Kennedy, Lawton, and Plumlee 2002;Moreland, Miller, and Laucka 1981). A more recent finding indicates that this interpretation may need to be modified.…”

What does ratemyprofessors.com actually rate?

“…Delucchi and Pelowski (2000) found a strong relationship between how much students liked their instructor and the overall evaluation, but no association between liking and the students' perception of learning. In addition, students' perception of their grades is highly related to their evaluations (Clayson, Frost, and Sheffet 2006;Goldberg and Callahan 1991), but students are not good at estimating their actual grades (Kennedy, Lawton, and Plumlee 2002).…”