Perception of Learning Versus Performance as Outcome Measures of Educational Research

Objective. To determine whether perception of student learning equates to learning gains. Methods. Two-hundred seventy-seven college-aged students and student pharmacists participated in the study. Participants were assessed before and after completing a reading intervention and reported their perceptions of learning by responding to various Likert-scale questions. Relationships between perception and performance were assessed by correlation analysis, trend analysis, and using measures of metacognitive accuracy. Results. There was a lack of correlation between measures of the perception of learning and actual gains in knowledge. There were weak correlations between the perception of learning and post-reading scores. Comparing student-pharmacists to college-aged individuals, both had similar metacognitive accuracy and there were little differences after the intervention. Conclusion. Perceptions of learning may not reflect knowledge gains, and perception data should be used cautiously as a surrogate for evidence of actual learning.