Building Adaptive Expertise Skills for Pharmacy Students and Their Impact on Self-Efficacy and Course Performance

This exploratory study aimed to analyze the impact of three complementary adaptive expertise strategies—productive failure, instructor-driven concept maps, and what-if Excel simulations—on students’ self-efficacy beliefs and performance. The quantitative research for the fully implemented strategies (productive failure and structural concept mapping) indicated students’ perceived impacts on their own learning were significant predictors of self-efficacy. The initial introduction of what-if simulations showed a significant path to performance but not self-efficacy. Additionally, self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between the perceived usefulness of concept maps and performance. The analysis also suggested the potential for self-efficacy to mediate the impact of what-if simulations, as supported by students’ feedback on the perceived benefits of these simulations. Future research will explore the full integration of what-if simulations and potentially transfer of these adaptive expertise skills into therapeutic courses.