Who makes more accurate judgments of comprehension: students or their teachers? A comparison study of students’ and teachers’ judgment accuracy and their accompanying use of cues

Abstract

The importance of accurate judgments of comprehension for both students and their teachers is well-acknowledged throughout the literature. However, there has not been comparative research about which actor is more skilled in making accurate judgments. Especially in view of the current developments in educational practices, which place greater emphasis on metacognitive skills of students, this comparison is of great importance. This explorative study, based on the cueutilization framework, is the first to examine the comparison between teachers’ and students’ judgments accuracy and their accompanying use of cues. To this end, secondary school students read several texts, completed causal diagrams, and were tested for comprehension of the causal relations from those texts. Both students themselves and their teachers judged the students’ extent of comprehension. A key finding of this study is that, overall, teachers make significantly more accurate judgments of students’ comprehension than students themselves, although the effect was small. This difference in judgment accuracy between teachers and students could partly be explained by significant differences in cue-utilization. Practical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.