ILLUSION OF COMPETENCE

(The article has been published in the April issue of Pallikkutam magazine visit: https://www.pallikkutam.com/uploads/emagazine/2018/April_2018/index.html#Pallikkutam%20April%202018/page/10-11)

It seems competence in any field is so ephemeral. One's competence in any area of expertise keeps fluctuating. A star performer will not be at his peak all time. Many eminent musicians, sportsmen, orators etc say that quality of their performance varies with their physical, mental conditions. Even fluctuations in weather can cause subtle changes in their levels of motivation. So competence is a thing which has to be weighed and polished intermittently for its maintenance.

The concept of competence in learning has not undergone exploration for its illusory nature. There are students who believe that they are competent while in reality, they are not. Student standards of competence in learning are often vague and they do not always match with the standards of examination. Barbara Oakley the author of the bestseller "a Mind for Numbers" advises to the students who learn math and science that 

"Whenever possible, you should blink, shift your attention, and then double-check your answers using a big picture perspective, asking yourself, "does this make sense?"". 

See the typical case of a math student named Amy.

Amy was a hard-working student. Still, she couldn't come up with the expectations of her parents and teachers. One day I called Amy and asked her to solve a problem in calculus which I had taught in the previous class. Amy read the question and very enthusiastically started writing the steps toward the solution of the problem. After two or three steps she began to struggle. She couldn't move forward. She said she had gone through the problem last night. But simply couldn't retrieve the logical sequence from memory.

 "Yes mam I study regularly," she said, "but I always have a poor memory, I cant perform well in the examinations, and my scores are low, always. I feel disappointed"

"Do you self-test?" I asked her.

"No mam"

"Then, how you came to know that you have mastered the problems in mathematics?. Dear Amy, you have illusion of competence". I said.

On saying this Amy looked into my eyes curiously. That was new to her "illusion of competence". She wanted to know more about it.

Revisit your standards

Most students believe that re-reading a material three or four times will help them to answer all the questions related to the content. But few realize that mathematics is a subject that can be mastered only by working out as many problems as possible.

When we spend a great deal of time over a material to be learned and toil a lot for the acquisition of a particular skill we feel that we have clinched it and we are becoming competent. Yes competence in learning is a feeling of efficacy similar to this by which we assure ourselves that we can perform a task or confront a question whenever asked. But this feeling of efficacy or assumption that we can perform as required retains its validity if we are able to prove it to some authorized external examiner.

In other words, competence is different from confidence. Confidence is a certificate that we give to ourselves with regard to our ability to perform some task. Competence is a title-or rather a milestone- that we achieve when we prove our efficacy to the world outside, to some external examinee.

Each aspiring student will have certain standards to convince himself that he has mastered a particular material. These standards, which they might have developed from their past experiences, need not be flawless. Those standards need not be compatible with standards of testing.

The system of examination (or testing) a student has to face, have certain inherent standards to determine whether the student has acquired enough mastery over the content or a subject matter.

When there exists a discrepancy between student's standards of mastery and that of test maker, the student who says "I have mastered the material" is under the influence of an illusion about his competence and he is likely to flop. Educationists say such students have a "foresight" bias regarding their performance in examination or testing. Such bias usually stems from the inability of the learner to adopt examinee's perspective and to incorporate it into his personal criteria of mastery.

How to beat illusion?

An illusion is a state resulting from wrong conclusions about a course of action and its outcomes. Frequent brushes with reality peel off the layers of one's illusion one after the other. Proper monitoring of one's own knowledge can ward off the illusion of competence in learning. Regular monitoring of one’s own learning is a necessary habit each student must acquire.

For this, a student must indulge in retrieval practice and self-testing on a daily basis. These are the only means to escape from the invisible clutches of illusion of competence. Repeated retrieval practices and self-testing takes the learner through a process of mindful evaluation of one's own competence. How much one falls short of some external criteria for competence—knowing this must be the ultimate aim of all retrieval practices and self-testing.

Ability to retrieve the learned material can be improved for its accuracy if the learner is willing to refer to the expectations of examinee (or test maker) while recalling or answering a particular question. Clarity regarding the expectations of examinee prepares the learner to face the examination with much confidence. Such, a contemplative exploration into one's own assumptions of competence in each step helps the student to push hard and persist in the task despite the possible setbacks.

Constant practice in retrieving the learned matter from memory is far more effective than re-reading the matter. Studies show that retrieval practice ensures effective retention of the learned matter in the brain of the learner for a longer time span. According to Barbara Oakely, 

"By ensuring that we step back and take a fresh perspective on our work, by testing ourselves through recall, and by allowing our friends to question us, we can better catch our illusions of competence in learning"

Who falls prey to the illusion of competence?

1. The student who has no clarity regarding the standards of testing falls prey to illusion of competence. As he will not have any clear notion of what is expected of him by learning a subject matter. He will be lacking adequate awareness about the ways/methods in which a particular matter assigned for learning will be tested and evaluated.
2.   The student who hasn't proper knowledge about effective ways of practicing retrieval and self-testing is highly likely to fall prey to the illusion of competence
3. The student who fails to beat the tendency to procrastinate and fail to develop healthy disciplined learning habits will easily fall prey to illusions about his own competence.
4. The student who focuses exclusively on the performance in the examination at the cost of the joy of learning will not develop in creative aspects of learning which is equally important for the acquisition of competence. 

What can teachers do?

•  Train the minds to engage in a mindful self-inquiry regarding one's own learning and competence.
• Create as many testing situations as possible inside the classroom.
•  Help students in retrieval practice.
• Providing feedback to tests must prompt the students to engage in self-inquiry about their learning habits and styles.
•  Never blame poor performance and accuse students of laziness, but jointly articulate methods to overcome wrong habits.
• Try to ensure parental involvement in student learning by asking parents to monitor students' homework and in building habits of retrieval and self-testing practices.