Knowledge Factor History
It may not be rocket science, but… … well, actually, maybe it is.
Confidence-Based Learning, the methodology behind Knowledge Factor’s approach, was actually founded on more than 70 years of research on the connection between confidence, correctness, retention and learning. Beginning in 1932, scientists began exploring the dual roles of confidence and knowledge in learning. Enter Dr. James Bruno, Professor of Education at University of California Los Angeles, who conducted years of studies measuring the correlation between knowledge and a person’s confidence in that knowledge.
If you’re wondering why confidence matters…
Bruno’s discoveries proved that the level of confidence with which information is held is directly tied to performance. Essentially, people who are both confident and correct will take action with productive outcomes. However, individuals who are confident but wrong tend to take action based upon that wrong information ending in negative and costly results. Dr. Bruno expanded on the work of previous colleagues in the field and ultimately developed a unique way to simultaneously measure knowledge and confidence and provide effective feedback. Bruno’s process was called Information Referenced Testing (IRT). Knowledge Factor acquired the Intellectual Property behind IRT and, working in conjunction with Bruno, further developed the process to include embedded learning objects within the assessment. Abracadabra! Confidence-based Learning was born.
Additional research that contributed to the development of Confidence-Based Learning includes:
- Kate Hevner Mueller wrote the first academic paper on this subject in 1932 called "A method for correcting guessing in true-false tests and empirical evidence in support of it" asserting that measuring confidence and knowledge was a better predictor of performance than just measuring knowledge alone, which can be prone to guesswork. (Indiana University)
- D. LeClerq worked on confidence and correctness and item bank testing, which was originally commissioned by NATO. (University of Belgium)
- Emir Shuford researched on the reliability of knowledge and the impact of guessing, which was developed in conjunction with a RAND Corporation program. (University of California at Los Angeles)
- Darwin Hunt researched the linkage between confidence and knowledge retention. (New Mexico State University)
Here’s where the rocket science comes in.
As you can see, we’ve got the science to back up our claims. But we’ve also got a rocket scientist. Because it was Pat Engstrom, a former rocket scientist with Ball Aerospace, who founded Knowledge Factor in 2001. So we could talk all day about the Confidence-Based-Learning theory. We could also talk about super novas and black holes. But maybe we should just focus on helping you understand how this scientifically-sound, rocket scientist-approved methodology can unveil your organization’s shades of knowledge.