Do the Type of Learning Material and Prior Knowledge Impact Students’ Success in Learning and Their Epistemic Emotions?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test the impact of the type of learning material and the level of prior knowledge on students’ success in learning and their epistemic emotions. We have conducted two online experimental studies in which half of the participants, university students, were randomly assigned either a video or a textual material condition. In Study 1 (N = 165) all the materials were in  Croatian; in Study 2 (N = 107) they were in English. Croatian was the mother tongue of all participants, and English was the foreign language. The participants were queried about their prior knowledge of the topic they were assigned and their epistemic emotions and were asked to fill out a knowledge exam. The results showed that in both studies students who learned from text and with higher level of prior knowledge scored better at the exam, while interaction effect was not significant. Regarding epistemic emotions, in both studies the type of learning material and the interaction effect were not significant. Only in Study 1, prior knowledge significantly affected epistemic emotions, i.e., students with higher prior knowledge reported higher intensity of enjoyment and curiosity, and lower intensity of negative epistemic emotions. The research gives important insights in the role of the learning material on students’ academic outcomes, especially epistemic emotions.