Assessment of Learner Metacognition in a Professional Pharmacy Elective Course

Abstract

Objective. To investigate the effect of strategic feedback and metacognitive processes on learners' ability to predict performance and improve self-awareness. Methods. Strategic faculty and peer feedback, as well as self-assessments, were implemented in a professional pharmacy elective course throughout the semester, focused on three case-based oral presentations. After each presentation, students utilized an objective rubric to determine self-predicted and peer-predicted scores. Actual scores from faculty were compared to students' predicted scores. Results. Students' ability to predict presentation scores did not improve over time; however, students were able to accurately estimate performance in certain rubric sections on individual presentations (depth of problem, presentation). Students were generally overconfident in predicting their performance. When broken down into tertiles, top performing students were more accurate in their self-assessments compared to bottom performing students. Bottom performing students were highly overconfident in their assessment. Conclusion. Self-awareness is essential for professionals, though difficult to cultivate and improve in one semester. Incorporating longitudinal, continuous feedback and metacognitive skills may help learners become more aware of their own performance and devise a plan for enhancement.