Directing the students’ mind games : A game theoretical view of the learning process

Experimental data consistently shows that the students’ beliefs about their own academic ability have a significant effect on their performance and their level of engagement. The aim of this paper is to offer an original game-theoretical model that supports and explains such empirical data: the student is modelled as being engaged in a game, in which his/her decisions on how much to study are affected by his/her self-efficacy beliefs or self-confidence. It is argued that if game theory is used to analyse such games, it is possible to gain insights that might otherwise be missed. One of the implications for practice is that the tutor is in a position to intervene in the interaction involving the student and the student’s own beliefs. Attempting to enhance the student’s self-confidence levels through feedback is likely to result in greater engagement and better performance, even in cases where the student’s current performance does not inspire very encouraging feed-back