Abstract:

What can impact students’ own perception of their learning? How can we know if perception of learning translates into actual learning as measured by exam results? How do we know if student engagement with preparation will have an impact on their perceived learning?

This presentation will discuss the results of an extensive study in a large first year finance course. 180 individual students were studied over six separate workshops as well as analysing final exam scores for the students taking part in the study.

The study investigated different levels of students own perception of the learning achieved during the workshops. The workshops had both qualitative and quantitative questions to be answered.

The presentation will discuss how students’ perception of learning depends not just on actual engagement (how many questions they attempted to answer) but also how there can be a difference in perception of learning depending on type of questions answered.

The presentation will also discuss how students perception of learning is related to how many questions they answered correctly or incorrectly. We will discuss the outcomes depending on also the type of questions the students got right. This leads to a discussion on how can we support students more effectively by engaging students with a certain type of workshop questions?

The presentation will also discuss how different levels of preparation for a workshop can possibly impact students own perception of learning. The presentation will discuss the conflicting considerations: does a high level of preparation result in a high perception of learning or does it generate a lower perception of learning?

The presentation will also discuss how different levels of student’s perception of learning impact final exam results. Is there a link between students perception of how much or how little they have learnt in workshops and how they perform in a final exam?

The audience will take away reflections on how student engagement can impact students own perception of learning and then followed by actual learning. The presentation will give the audience guidance on what types of questions to include for engagement as well as what level of engagement is required for increased perceived learning. This can give the educator a real opportunity to carefully think of the type of engagement activities/questions educators choose for their workshops/seminars to enhance perception and possibly authentic learning for students.

Keywords:

Perception, engagement, preparation, learning, assessment, active learning.