Self-validation by virtual learning means

Abstract

This report contains the results of a doctoral research on self-validation processes whose objective is to characterize the incidences of two didactic strategies with which engineering students carry out for self-learning on basic probability issues. With a mixed methodology, two exploratory phases were planned to analyze the interactions of the students on the reflective understanding of their own responses to problems that, unknowingly, were linked to fallacies of probability. Through a virtual environment, twenty types of tests were applied to 631 students from two Colombian public universities to analyze their trajectories in terms of the quality of the selected response and how to use the metacognitive concept query tool for recognition and judgment of that answer. The analysis of the results led to these two conclusions: 1) there were more rejections of inappropriate answers if the questions were tricky and supported by conceptual maps, and 2) there was a higher frequency of mistakes in self-validation processes for persisting in inappropriate responses. to transparent questions if they were based on consulting the text. In summary, the strategy of the trick question provoking doubt about a given answer, and the metacognitive tool of the conceptual map to encourage self-correction, were key in these self-validation processes.