- Title: The “curse of knowledge” when predicting others’ knowledge
- Authors: Tullis and Feder
- Access the original paper here
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Paper summary
This research article investigates the “curse of knowledge,” the tendency for individuals to overestimate others’ knowledge based on their own understanding. Across four experiments, researchers examined how learning impacts the accuracy of knowledge estimations, focusing on both calibration (overall accuracy) and resolution (ability to distinguish between easy and difficult questions). Results showed that increased knowledge impaired both calibration and resolution, particularly when participants answered questions before estimating others’ knowledge. The study suggests that this inaccuracy stems not from over-reliance on personal experience, but rather from a lack of sufficient cues about others’ knowledge.
What are the key implications for teachers in the classroom?
The sources discuss how people’s knowledge can bias their estimates of what others know, a phenomenon referred to as the “curse of knowledge”. This has significant implications for teachers in the classroom because they must accurately assess student knowledge to plan lessons and communicate effectively. Here’s a breakdown of key implications for teachers based on the information in the sources:
- Overestimation of student knowledge: Teachers may overestimate what their students know, due to the “curse of knowledge” or “expertise bias”. This bias can lead to teachers overestimating student knowledge across various age levels and subjects. Teachers who struggle to take the perspective of novices may not communicate effectively. Teachers may overestimate students’ knowledge because they cannot inhibit their own knowledge when estimating what others know.
- Impact on instruction: Inaccurate predictions about student knowledge can hinder a teacher’s ability to tailor their teaching to support student learning. If teachers cannot accurately distinguish between easy and difficult concepts for their students, they may not organize their instructional time and activities effectively. Teachers need to know which topics are easy and which are difficult for their students to plan lessons and communicate effectively.
- Importance of both calibration and resolution: Teachers need to be both well-calibrated and have good resolution when judging student knowledge. Calibration is the degree to which a person’s average predicted performance corresponds to actual average performance. Resolution is the ability to distinguish between easy and difficult items. Both are important because they are based on different factors.
- Learning can worsen accuracy: As teachers gain more knowledge of a subject, they may become less accurate at judging what their students know. This is because their personal experiences become less reflective of novices’ knowledge.
- Reduced validity of cues: As teachers become more knowledgeable, metacognitive cues, like their own ability to answer a question or the time it takes them to answer, become less tied to the normative difficulty of that question for students.
- Decreased utilization of cues: Teachers may reduce their utilization of metacognitive cues related to their own knowledge when estimating what others know. This may introduce greater noise into their estimates.
- Need for valid cues about students’ knowledge: The lack of valid cues about students’ knowledge, rather than relying too heavily on their own knowledge, may cause inaccuracies when teachers are judging student knowledge.
- Reducing salience of teacher’s own knowledge: When teachers are not required to answer a question themselves before estimating how many students will know the answer, it reduces the salience and reliance on their own experiences, potentially diminishing the impact of their own knowledge on the estimates of student knowledge. However, reducing reliance on their own knowledge does not improve the accuracy of the judgments of others’ knowledge because they may not have diagnostic cues about others to replace their own cues.
- Potential for improvement: Teachers’ judgments of student learning may become more accurate through professional development. Teachers’ knowledge of their students and the use of formative assessments may also improve accuracy when teachers are estimating student knowledge.
In conclusion, the “curse of knowledge” can significantly affect teachers’ ability to accurately assess student knowledge, highlighting the importance of being aware of this bias and finding strategies to mitigate its effects.
Quote
Inaccuracies in judgments about others and the “curse of knowledge” may result from a lack of valid cues about others, rather than tying estimates too strongly to one’s own experiences or misinterpreting fluency with answers
