Observing Student Confidence Levels in Undergradate Engineering Labs: When Student Confidence Does Not Match Student Knowledge

As students become introduced to material through new courses, their information and skills rapidly expand. Due to exposure effects, such as the Dunning-Kruger effect, if there is a discrepancy between their perceived mastery and their true knowledge, students can over-estimate their abilities and develop incorrect conclusions when solving problems. This study investigated how undergraduate students rate their perception of their own knowledge and mastery of advanced topics with their scores on conventional assessments of the same material. Data were collected over multiple semesters and during a curriculum re-design. Student assessments revealed that their knowledge increased throughout the course, as expected. Students who rated themselves at the higher levels of mastery were found to be more likely to guess and incorrectly answer questions on the subject material rather acknowledging their ignorance on a topic.