Self-Assessment Activities
Self-assessment has been defined as "the involvement of students in identifying standards and/or criteria to apply to their work and making judgments about the extent to which they have met these criteria and standards" (Marcy, p. 4). Self-assessment can be implemented in the classroom in a number of different ways. For instance, students' self-assessments might figure into the final grades for a learning activity, or instead simply may be graded as learning activities themselves. Instructors who wish to take the first route will be interested in meta-analyses of studies that compare student self-ratings with those given by teachers (e.g., Boud, Chapter 12).
Self-assessment is practiced at the institutional level at Alverno College (http://depts.alverno.edu/saal/selfassess.html), where faculty members believe that self-assessment can help students to:
- become self-directed learners, and thereby become responsible for their own education;
- engage in metacognition, because self-assessment requires internalizing criteria of quality for a given ability;
- become lifelong learners, because self-assessment gives them the ability to determine where they stand in relation to criteria of quality.
Furthermore, self-assessment has the potential to empower students by changing the usual power dynamics in the classroom. Students learn that it is not them as people being assessed, but particular performances in particular contexts. This reduces pressure related to the assessment, since any given performance might be atypical and might be improved upon.
Seminar
Please join us at the next TEL seminar:
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November 1, 2004
12:00-1:30 p.m.
402 Walter Library
The moderator and TEL grant winners below will discuss how they are using technology to enable students to assess their own knowledge and expertise.
Moderator:
Kristin Janke
College of Pharmacy, Twin Cities campus
Panelists:
Simon Hooper
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Twin Cities campus
Vickie Mikelonis
Department of Rhetoric, Twin Cities campus
Ben Munson
Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Twin Cities campus
Susan Rose
Department of Educational Psychology, Twin Cities campus
Campus Projects
Moderator's Project Proposal
Kristin Janke developed self-assessment activities as part of a project funded by a 2001-02 TEL grant:
Janke, Kristin. 2001. "Fostering Peer Review, Self Assessment and Improved Patient Care Through Streaming Media Performance with Developing Professionals Site" 2001-02 Technology-Enhanced Learning Small Grant Program proposal. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. http://dmc.umn.edu/small-grants/2001/janke.shtml.
Panelists' Project Proposals
The panelists will describe self-assessment activities they are developing and/or teaching with as part of the following TEL Grant Program projects:
Hooper, Simon, and Susan Rose. 2004. "Extending an ASL Assessment Network" 2004 Technology-Enhanced Learning Grant Program proposal. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. http://dmc.umn.edu/grants/2004/hooper.pdf.
Mikelonis, Victoria, and Laura Gurak. 2004. "Online Tutorials for Grammar, Usage and Punctuation" 2004 Technology-Enhanced Learning Grant Program proposal. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. http://dmc.umn.edu/grants/2004/mikelonis.pdf.
Munson, Benjamin. 2004. "Enhancing Phonetics Instruction with Computer-Based Speech-Perception Training" 2004 Technology-Enhanced Learning Grant Program proposal. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. http://dmc.umn.edu/grants/2004/munson.pdf.
Exemplary Project Case Studies
Case studies of the projects two of the panelists are extending are available in the Exemplary Projects section of our site: Rose and Hooper's "Evaluating American Sign Language Performance Case Study" and Mikelonis' "Online Primer on Grammar, Punctuation and Usage Case Study".
Preliminary Readings
Boud, David. 1995. Enhancing Learning through Self-Assessment. London: Kogan Page.
This thorough and useful book provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of student self-assessment. Boud begins by clarifying the concept of self-assessment and proceeds to connect self-assessment with established principles of educational theory as well as with educational practice. He addresses the issue of the accuracy of students' self-assessments and provides examples of the implementation of self-assessment in a variety of academic disciplines.
Lowe, John P. 1994. "Assessment That Promotes Learning." Pennsylvania State University, Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. http://www.psu.edu/celt/Lowe.html.
This practical essay is concerned with students' self-assessment of the learning process. It describes a number of very useful ways to encourage students to engage in metacognition. These include:
- a day 1 questionnaire that encourages students to think about goals of the course, study expectations, their own preparation, etc;
- a self-analysis of performance on the first exam encourages students to analyze why they failed certain items and to make a plan for improving; and
- a second exam followup that requires students to analyze the effectiveness of the first exam analysis and to compare how they prepared for both exams.
Marcy, Tom. 2003. "Self Assessment (as Practiced by Alverno College Students, with Faculty Direction)." Lakeland College. http://www.lakeland.edu/Assessment/pdfs/SelfAssessment25Aug03.pdf.
This brief article provides an overview of self-assessment practices at Alverno College. Marcy distinguishes self-assessment from related concepts; describes several of the assumptions that underlie the use of self-assessment; and addresses issues of student motivation and attitude. Quotations from Alverno students illustrate the effects of self-assessment on students' learning experiences.
