February 24, 2017
Every year the University of Bergen (UiB) invites teachers to a day of reflection and learning about pedagogy – “Fagleg Pedagogisk Dag”. Researchers from across the university present their latest research results relating to learning and teaching. Nearly 1000 teachers participate.
Marina Hirnstein, who was one of this year’s lecturers. She spoke about how a learner’s self-knowledge affects their motivation and learning, which was part of the “Students and Learning” theme. Whether a student over- or under-estimates their competency in a given task is often related to how well they know the subject area involved. Both over- and under-estimating can negatively affect learning. Hirnstein’s presentation explored this concept and provided teachers with some concrete approaches for helping students to avoid falling into this trap, thus helping them to better control and regulate their own learning.
Hirnstein reviewed ideas of student self-esteem, and self-efficacy. She considered a number of aspects relating to student engagement including behaviour, cognition and motivation. She demonstrated how these concepts were inter-related and how they could lead to success in learning.
She reminded teachers that they should remember to reflect on themselves as learners and consider their student feedback processes from the perspective of student self-efficacy. Hirnstein also provided some recommended readings for teachers wishing to learn more:
