Can Students Assess Their Own Skill Levels? Student Self Confidence Scores in Experimental Methods

As students develop throughout their academic careers, they are routinely introduced to new topic areas and have to expand their knowledge into new disciplines that most have not been exposed to previously.As a student grows into a new field, they grow more confident.As educators, it is the hope that our student's growth in their knowledge and confidence progress at relatively the same level, but as shown through various exposure effects, such as the Dunning-Kruger Effect, students' confidence can outpace their knowledge, causing students to overestimate their abilities.In an undergraduate composite materials course, students are introduced to industrial experimental methods and testing.This study shows the growth of this skill over the semester, as new topics are introduced and students gain practical experience in the course, as well as showing the growth of their self-assessed skill level during this period.