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Kate Talsma

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Kate Talsma

Lecturer

Room 116 , Social Sciences Building

03 6226 6200 (phone)

Kate.Talsma@utas.edu.au

Dr Kate Talsma is a Lecturer in the Division of Psychology, School of Medicine.

Kate teaches in the areas of introductory psychology, human resilience and well-being.

Kate’s research interests centre around educational and health psychology.

Kate is currently exploring some of the complexities in the relationship between self-beliefs and educational outcomes in higher education. She is interested in students' beliefs about themselves as learners: What do they believe, and where do these beliefs come from? How accurate/biased are these beliefs, and how do they influence learning behaviours and educational outcomes? Do beliefs differ between face-to-face and online learners, and how does this affect engagement and performance?

Kate is also exploring the constructs of mindfulness and self-compassion, and their relationships with resilience, self-efficacy and well-being.

Biography

Kate joined the University of Tasmania as an Associate Lecturer in 2017, after completing her PhD with the Division of Psychology. During her Honours and PhD studies, Kate was a tutor and research assistant for the Division.

Prior to joining the University of Tasmania, Kate was an ESL teacher/coordinator at Navitas in Sydney, Australia. She was previously a sub-editor for the RELX Group (formerly Reed Elsevier) in the Netherlands, and a policy officer in the Tasmanian Government.

Career summary

Qualifications

  • PhD, University of Tasmania, Australia, 2017. Towards a deeper understanding of believing and achieving in educational settings: Reciprocity and calibration of self-efficacy and academic performance.
  • BSc (1st Class Hons), University of Tasmania, Australia, 2013. Locus of control and psychological wellbeing: Reassessing the “good-guy, bad-guy” dichotomy.
  • Master of Education, University of Tasmania, Australia, 2011.
  • BA (1st Class Hons), University of Tasmania, Australia, 2001.

Memberships

Professional practice

Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Teaching

Teaching expertise

  • Online unit design and delivery
  • First-year undergraduate psychology

View more on Dr Kate Talsma in WARP

Research Themes

Kate’s research aligns with the University’s research themes of Better Health and Creativity, Culture and Society, and the School of Medicine’s research theme of Brain Science, Behaviour and Neurodegenerative Disease.

Kate’s research interests centre around educational and health psychology.

Kate is currently exploring some of the complexities in the relationship between self-beliefs and educational outcomes in higher education. She is interested in students' beliefs about themselves as learners: What do they believe, and where do these beliefs come from? How accurate/biased are these beliefs, and how do they influence learning behaviours and educational outcomes? Do beliefs differ between face-to-face and online learners, and how does this affect engagement and performance?

Kate is also exploring the constructs of mindfulness and self-compassion, and their relationships with resilience, self-efficacy and subjective/psychological well-being.

Current projects

  1. What do students base their academic self-efficacy beliefs on? Are certain sources of self-efficacy beliefs associated with overconfidence?
  2. Which characteristics underlie miscalibration of academic self-efficacy and performance?
  3. Is academic self-efficacy confounded with motivation? Do students say they “can do” academic things simply because they “want to do” them?
  4. Do overconfident students engage in more behavioural and retroactive self-handicapping than well-calibrated students?
  5. Do overconfident students allocate less resources to their studies than well-calibrated students?

Fields of Research

  • Educational psychology (520102)
  • Health psychology (520304)
  • Higher education (390303)

Research Objectives

  • Expanding knowledge in education (280109)
  • Behaviour and health (200401)
  • Expanding knowledge in psychology (280121)

Publications

Total publications

7

Journal Article

(4 outputs)
YearCitationAltmetrics
2021Talsma K, Robertson K, Thomas CL, Norris K, 'COVID-19 beliefs, self-efficacy and academic performance in first-year university students: Cohort comparison and mediation analysis', Frontiers in Psychology, 12 pp. 1-10. ISSN 1664-1078 (2021) [Refereed Article]

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643408 [eCite] [Details]

Citations: Scopus - 25Web of Science - 21

Co-authors: Robertson K; Thomas CL; Norris K

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2020Talsma K, Norris K, Schuz B, 'First-year students' academic self-efficacy calibration: differences by task type, domain specificity, student achievement level, and over time', Student Success, 11, (2) pp. 109-121. ISSN 2205-0795 (2020) [Refereed Article]

DOI: 10.5204/ssj.1677 [eCite] [Details]

Citations: Scopus - 3Web of Science - 2

Co-authors: Norris K

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2019Talsma K, Schuz B, Norris K, 'Miscalibration of self-efficacy and academic performance: self-efficacy ≠ self-fulfilling prophecy', Learning and Individual Differences, 69 pp. 182-195. ISSN 1041-6080 (2019) [Refereed Article]

DOI: 10.1016/j.lindif.2018.11.002 [eCite] [Details]

Citations: Scopus - 34Web of Science - 29

Co-authors: Norris K

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2018Talsma K, Schuz B, Schwarzer R, Norris K, 'I believe, therefore I achieve (and vice versa): a meta-analytic cross-lagged panel analysis of self-efficacy and academic performance', Learning and Individual Differences, 61 pp. 136-150. ISSN 1041-6080 (2018) [Refereed Article]

DOI: 10.1016/j.lindif.2017.11.015 [eCite] [Details]

Citations: Scopus - 146Web of Science - 133

Co-authors: Schuz B; Norris K

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Conference Publication

(3 outputs)
YearCitationAltmetrics
2019Talsma K, Norris K, Schuz B, 'Self-efficacy and academic performance: a chicken-and-egg conundrum', STARS Conference Proceedings, 7-10 July 2019, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 1-10. (2019) [Refereed Conference Paper]

[eCite] [Details]

Co-authors: Norris K; Schuz B

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2016Talsma KL, Schuz B, Schwarzer R, Norris K, 'What is students' academic self-efficacy based on? Stability of academic confidence in the face of contrary performance outcomes', APS Congress 2016, 13 - 16 September 2016, Melbourne, Australia (2016) [Conference Extract]

[eCite] [Details]

Co-authors: Norris K

2015Talsma K, Schuz B, Schwarzer R, Norris K, 'I believe, therefore I achieve (or vice versa, or both?): The reciprocal relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance', APS Congress 2016, 13-16 September 2016, 13-16 September 2016 (2015) [Conference Extract]

[eCite] [Details]

Co-authors: Norris K

Research Supervision

Current

1

Current

DegreeTitleCommenced
PhDPersonality meta-traits2024