Exploring University Students’ Justifications for Making Metacognitive Judgments of Learning

Abstract

The accuracy of students’ judgments has important implications for their learning and performance in educational settings. However, little is known about how students make these judgments. This study explored university students’ justifications for making their judgments of learning in a developmental psychology course. Two independent samples were involved, including a total number of 115 senior sport students. Participants responded to a knowledge test and provided their judgments at the local (Sample 1) or at the global level (Sample 2) and then provided their justifications for making these judgments. Students’ justifications for making their judgments were classified in ten categories, including the study of the learning materials, the confidence for answering (or not) correctly, the memory, the general knowledge, the knowledge of the answer and a general reference to common sense, experience, lectures, and judgment. Variations in the frequency of these justifications were found across the local and the global level, low and high accurate students, and low and high performers. These results are discussed regarding their theoretical and practical implications for undergraduate students’ learning.

Keywords

• calibration accuracy
• local judgments
• global judgments
• undergraduate students
• metacognition