The effect of content-related cues of calibration in FeedbackFruits’ Interactive Documents on students’ learning outcomes and learning approach

Teachers at Tilburg University observe that students adopt a rather passive consumer attitude towards learning: they take a back seat and seem to expect the teacher to “spoon-feed” them. Learning, however, requires an active process of creating one’s own knowledge, thoughts, opinions, and skills (Dehaene, 2021; Ryan, 2019; Vygotsky, 1978; Zimmerman et al., 2015; Zimmerman & Schunk, 2001). Therefore, we want students to be active learners who take control of their learning by actively engaging with the learning material. In scholarship, definitions of active learning often focus on the teacher’s perspective, emphasising expected outcomes (e.g., promoting critical thinking and deeper learning) and/or instructional strategies (Doolittle et al., 2023). In this research project, we are not only interested in how teachers can elicit active engagement with the learning materials, but also in how students approach the learning experience. To address the student perspective, we will use the ‘Student Approach to Learning (SAL)’ (Biggs, 1987; Biggs et al., 2001; Entwistle, 1987; Entwistle et al. 2013; Marton & Säljö, 1976). SAL comprises students’ learning intentions and the strategies they use to complete the learning task. SAL distinguishes three approaches to learning: deep, surface, and strategic. In the deep approach, students search for meaning and understanding. Strategies these students might use are rephrasing key concepts or theories in their own words, searching for new examples, reworking exercises, and testing themselves before a test or exam. In the surface approach, students rely on rote learning and memorisation of isolated elements. Strategies these students might use are only highlighting key words in a text, writing down the exact words of a teacher, looking at examples or exercises discussed in class, and simply rereading notes before a test or exam. In the strategic approach, students focus on maximising their grades by using either a deep or a surface approach, depending on which approach most efficiently helps them achieve high grades. To limit the scope of this research, we focus on students’ at-home preparation assignments. Before class, students are expected to read sections of the textbook or a paper. Students, however, do not always prepare thoroughly enough. They, for instance, simply read the text or highlight key words without further processing of its content, expecting the teacher to address and/or repeat the important stuff in class. To promote active engagement with the readings at home, some teachers already add quizzes that students can use to check their understanding after reading. To guide the learning process more closely, the digital tool Interactive Documents in the FeedbackFruits suite (adopted by Tilburg University) enables adding content-related questions directly into the running text. These questions embedded at well-chosen points in the text can serve as prompts to foster students’ active engagement with the learning material and help them monitor their own learning as they progress through the pre-reading. As such, these embedded questions serve as so-called cues for calibration (Van Laer & Elen, 2019; Zimmerman et al., 2015), that is, “hints aiming to induce the comparison of learners’ own perception of competence with their true competence and so to support learners’ calibration attempts and evoke monitoring” (Van Laer & Elen, 2019, p. 32). The goal of this research project is to test whether content-related cues for calibration embedded in FeedbackFruits’ Interactive Documents influence learning outcomes and the students’ approach to learning. This goal is operationalised into the following research question: ‘Do content-related cues for calibration embedded in FeedbackFruits’ Interactive Documents affect student learning outcomes and their approach to learning, compared to only reading the learning material or taking quizzes after reading?’ This research project will be conducted in cooperation with teachers from different faculties of Tilburg University. An experimental design will be used, and students in a course will be randomly distributed over three conditions: (1) only reading the text, (2) reading the text and afterwards taking a quiz, and (3) an Interactive Document. After completing the assignment, students are asked to make a judgment of their learning (JOL) by estimating their performance on the upcoming self-test. Next, students take the self-test to measure the direct learning outcomes. To measure the effect on SAL, students fill in a short survey before and after the assignment. The expected outcomes of this research are twofold. Firstly, an Interactive Document will enhance direct learning outcomes by fostering more active engagement with the learning material through the locally embedded questions. Secondly, the Interactive Document will foster the adoption of a deep learning approach, especially among those students who previously adopted a more surface approach. As such, an Interactive Document might be an effective tool for teachers to help their students adopt a deep approach when they prepare for the course.