Calibration and Academic Performance in Students of Health Sciences

Accurate metacognitive control is an essential component of effective clinical reasoning, as the inability to accurately pass judgment over knowledge has been associated with greater diagnostic error than lack of knowledge or poor memory. As such, it is necessary for educators of students in health sciences to assess metacognition in addition to academic performance. Calibration is a quantitative measurement used to operationalize metacognitive control, as it indicates the relationship between perceived and actual performance. This study explored the relationship between local-level calibration and academic performance in 34 students of health sciences in an authentic, classroom setting. The class was designed to have five quizzes across the 15-week semester. Performance on each of the five quizzes was used to track academic performance of each student over time. Statistically significant correlations are reported between local-level calibration and performance on five quizzes. Local-level calibration scores accounted for 51-81% of the variance in quiz scores throughout the 15-week semester course. This study was able to generalize the previously reported relationship between calibration and academic performance as found in laboratory settings and educational psychology courses to students of the health sciences. These findings translate metacognitive research into the health sciences to further the theoretical framework for research in the area of clinical reasoning.