The Dunning–Kruger Effect: A Comparative Analysis of Perceived and Actual Performance among Rubric-Trained and Untrained University Students

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how training students on using rubrics (i.e., assessment criteria which they helped create) in self-assessment activities influences the Dunning-Kruger effect. The proposition was that getting students involved in rubric creation and training in rubric use for self-assessment would improve their awareness of their actual performance and reduce the Dunning–Kruger effect. This study was conducted with 98 senior business English students and revealed that high-performing rubric-based-trained students were more aware of their actual performance than their peers, and that the Dunning-Kruger effect was reduced in this group. In contrast, the Dunning-Kruger effect appeared with different magnitudes across other student groups, being very clear among low-performing trained and untrained students and somewhat clear among high-performing untrained students. Therefore, these results recommend that rubric-based training improves metacognitive calibration and reinforces more accurate self-evaluation in academic assessment contexts, and it also sheds light on the pedagogical value of rubric-based training in higher education.