Using Self-Assessment to Improve Student Learning

Lois Ruth Harris, Gavin T.L. Brown

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351036962
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Éducation
• Categoría: Éducation générale

Using Self-Assessment to Improve Student Learning synthesizes research on self-assessment and translates it into actionable guidelines and principles for pre-service and in-service teachers and for school leaders, teacher educators, and researchers. Situated beyond the simple how-to frameworks currently available for teachers and graduate students, this volume illuminates self-assessment's complexities and substantial promise to strategically move students toward self-regulated learning and internalized goals. Addressing theory, empirical evidence, and common implementation issues, the book's developmental approach to quality self-assessment practices will help teachers, leaders, and scholars maximize their impact on student self-regulation and learning.

1
Introduction

Why Use Self-Assessment in the Classroom?

Research makes it abundantly clear that although people conduct automatic self-evaluations, it is very difficult for them to realistically self-assess their competence, especially while they are still learning complex skills (e.g., composition, mathematical analysis) (Brown & Harris, 2013; Dunning, Heath, & Suls, 2004). Additionally, within school contexts, there are often quite specific criteria and standards around what constitutes a quality or competent performance. These tend to be determined by external authorities (e.g., departments or ministries of education). Students have to understand these external criteria if they are to demonstrate their learning in the ways valued by the education system, school, and/or classroom teacher.

It is not just novices and the less competent who easily misjudge the quality of their own work. Very good students may often unrealistically underestimate their capabilities (Brown & Harris, 2013), and an inaccurate negative self-assessment can be the basis for detrimental decisions (e.g., giving up on learning a difficult skill, even though appropriate progress is being made, because the learner is dissatisfied with how long it is taking to develop the skill) (Butler, 2011).

Conversely, many people have strong tendencies to unrealistically overestimate how good their work is (Dunning et al., 2004). It is hard to discern and admit that one’s work is below average or substandard. Additionally, it is difficult to accept and understand external or socially mandated criteria. It is much easier to use personal criteria (e.g., I tried hard, so it must be good), but these are seldom well aligned with externally accepted standards. Thus, without constructive feedback and effective instruction, students are likely to misjudge the quality of their own work in the classroom, particularly if they are less-proficient or novice learners. Learning to self-assess realistically is a competence that students have to acquire, in addition to the skills, abilities, or knowledge intended by the curriculum (Brown & Harris, 2014).

Getting students to effectively self-assess within the classroom is more than just helping them form opinions about their own work. It is about

1. guiding students to a deep understanding of appropriate standards for judging the quality of work;
2. helping them understand how to evaluate their performance against those standards;
3. assisting them to arrive at a realistic understanding of their performance or work; and
4. teaching them to interpret and use these data in ways that will benefit their learning.

This means that teachers must help students overcome any natural ego-protective or self-deprecating tendencies they may have so that they can realistically identify what they need to work on to improve.

Although classroom self-assessment participation is normally low-stakes (i.e., no or weak consequences), it is important to understand that even under these conditions, self-assessment can have potentially serious consequences for students. Inaccurate perceptions of their work and abilities can lead students to make decisions that limit their options (e.g., avoiding certain subjects despite having capability) or undermine their achievement (e.g., not studying enough because they falsely believe they are competent) (Dunlosky & Rawson, 2012; Ramdass & Zimmerman, 2008). Students, especially those with perfectionist mind-sets, may not want to identify and acknowledge potential shortcomings in their work. In a classroom situation where self-assessments are shared with teachers or even peers, participation in self-assessment can place students in situations where they feel uncomfortable, as they may fear the judgment or negative evaluations of their teacher or peers (Harris & Brown, 2013; Raider-Roth, 2005).

Why Self-Assessment Is Vital Within the Classroom

The power of self-assessment is that it is a process that occurs internally within the student (Brookhart, 2016), as the student knows most about what was intended. It is highly likely that coming to conclusions for and by oneself about the quality of one’s own work will have a strong positive effect on learning progress. Feedback the student generates is going to be understood and is likely to be acted on by that person. Furthermore, the self is always available to an individual, so “dollops of feedback,” as Hattie (1999) put it, are continually accessible. If student self-assessment can be aligned with curricular criteria and standards, then it not only gives students more agency and independence within the learning environment but also can potentially allow them to accelerate their progress, as they no longer will have to wait for feedback from the teacher to devise their next learning steps. Despite the potential risks and challenges associated with self-assessment, discussed extensively in Chapter 3, there are two fundamental reasons why teachers ought to actively promote and structure self-assessment within classrooms. First, it is an integral part of self-regulated learning. Second, without the proper guidance and training, students’ evaluations are highly varied and may align poorly with the external standards of the curriculum.

Although there are multiple models of self-regulation (Panadero, 2017), all models draw attention to the importance of the individual’s conscious, motivated, and aware engagement in learning strategies (e.g., memorization, mind mapping), environmental control (e.g., planned study times without distractions), and cognitive control (e.g., monitoring strategic effectiveness, maintaining positive motivation) (Dinsmore & Wilson, 2016). Self-regulation of learning requires students to be consciously aware of what they are doing and whether the work meets personal and environmental expectations. Students must have a realistic appreciation of their own strengths (so they can be built on) and weaknesses (so they can be worked on) (Boekaerts, 1997; Pintrich, 1995; Zimmerman, 2008). Self-assessment is clearly a vital part of self-regulation, as it allows the student to draw on important metacognitive competencies (e.g., self-observation, self-judgment, self-reaction, task analysis, self-motivation, and self-control) (Zimmerman, 2002). Thus, as Brookhart (2016) explains,

One of the main functions of self-assessment is to engage students at a deep level with their learning goals and the criteria for success, a foundational principle in formative assessment. That is, what is effective about self-assessment is that it fosters student engagement with the formative assessment cycle (i.e., Where am I going? Where am I now? Where to next?), giving students a tool for self-regulation of learning (setting goals, monitoring, adjusting, and reflecting).

(p. 361)

Brookhart (2016) and other researchers (e.g., Andrade & Brookhart, 2016; Andrade & Heritage, 2018) have noted the strong similarities between formative assessment’s goals and processes and those that are thought to underpin self-regulated learning. These help explain why self-assessment is considered a key strategy within both formative assessment and self-regulated learning. Participating in classroom self-assessment has been shown to help develop self-regulation skills (i.e., set targets, evaluate progress relative to target criteria, and improve the quality of their learning outcomes) (Andrade, Du, & Wang, 2008; Andrade, Du, & Mycek, 2010; Brookhart, Andolina, Zuza, & Furman, 2004; Fletcher, 2016). Additionally, it is associated with improved motivation, engagement, and efficacy (Fletcher, 2016; Griffiths & Davies, 1993; Klenowski, 1995; Munns & Woodward, 2006; Panadero, Jonsson, & Botella, 2017; Schunk, 1996), reducing dependence on the teacher (Sadler, 1989).

However, student involvement in assessment is not consistently connected to greater self-regulation (Dinsmore & Wilson, 2016). Unguided evaluations of the self’s actions or work are often highly personal and variable, so it is logical that within the classroom they would only sometimes be consistent with the curriculum standards and expectations meant to guide learning. Students within the classroom will often have vastly different ideas about what should count (e.g., accuracy, creativity, effort) and what an acceptable standard of work may look like. As Eva and Regehr (2011) note, “Increasingly it is being recognized that self-assessment as a process of personal reflection based on an unguided review of practice and experience … is inherently flawed” (p. 312).

The challenge is that within a school context, the criteria and standards for successful academic performance are external to the student, embedded in each society’s curriculum documents and teaching practices. Students have to learn to evaluate their performance against the objectives or standards specified within each curriculum area rather than against their own intuitive notions as to what is acceptable or good. Learners often need help to develop realistic self-awareness and to engage with the quality characteristics of work within the domains they are studying. Although what students value in their own work does matter (e.g., it is important to know if they think their work is good because they worked hard on it), students must also be taught the rules and standards by which their work will be evaluated by others. Hence, teachers need to teach not only the curriculum but also the skill of assessing work against relevant external standards (Brown & Harris, 2014).

In conclusion, the challenge with self-assessment in schools occurs not because learners are unable to self-assess but because they need specific scaffolding and support from their teacher to use this process effectively in relation to societal expectations embedded in the curriculum. However self-assessment is understood (and it can be defined in multiple ways; Panadero, Brown, & Strijbos, 2016), its most powerful promise is the expectation that engaging in the process will raise student academic performance. This happens because self-assessment requires pupils to self-regulate and consequently improve their learning relative to the goals and standards of schooling (Andrade, 2010; Black & Wiliam, 1998a; Butler & Winne, 1995; Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Ramdass & Zimmerman, 2008).

The goal of the rest of this book is to lay out theories, strategies, and methods of self-assessment that are likely to contribute to greater self-regulation of learning as well as greater learning itself. We hope to provide a framework that teachers, school leaders, and teacher educators can use to ensure students learn to judge their work realistically in relation to curriculum-based standards. This book will assist you in supporting your students to effectively self-assess by helping them develop skills in making realistic judgments about the strengths and weaknesses of their own work. The long-term goal is that even after their time at school is over, students will continue to engage in thoughtful assessment and evaluation of their work as an essential competence of successful adult life. Additionally, because school self-assessment takes place within the social and psychological complexity of the classroom environment, this book will alert you to common problems that threaten the validity and utility of self-assessment.

Defining Self-Assessment Within Educational Settings

Many diverse terms, including self-assessment, self-evaluation, self-reflection, self-monitoring, and more generally, reflection, are used to describe the process of students assessing and providing feedback on their own work. Within academic settings, such processes as self-grading, self-testing, and self-rating also require students to assess their own performance. Hence, “self-assessment is a descriptive and evaluative act carried out by the student concerning his or her own work and academic abilities” (Brown & Harris, 2013, p. 368).

Under this broad definition, diverse practices can be considered as self-assessment (although all are not equally valuable in relation to learning, something discussed in more detail in Chapter 4 when particular practices are explored). We must point out, though, that this definition is not uncontested; there are many experts who argue that the term self-assessment should be used only when qualitative judgments are made in relation to criteria and standards as opposed to the simpler act of scoring or marking one’s own work (e.g., Andrade, 2010, in press; Andrade & Valtcheva, 2009; Panadero, 2011). These researchers argue that quantitative self-evaluations of performance (e.g., students’ predictions of how many questions they will answer correctly or marking their own test papers) do not require students to undertake much, if any, reflection about the quality of their work. Additionally, such exercises do not necessarily lead students to generate feedback, which Andrade (in press) argues is the ultimate point of self-assessment.

Although we agree that such qualitative self-assessment practices are more powerful for learning (Brown & Harris, 2013), we take the stance that initially students may not have sufficient content expertise to engage in more complex and rewarding forms of self-assessment. We have argued that a curriculum is needed to support students to become proficient at realistic self-assessment of their work while progressively developing their ability to make more sophisticated judgments about work quality (Brown & Harris, 2014). Hence, despite their simplicity, self-rating and self-scoring practices may be a useful starting point for children who are just beginning to evaluate their own work relative to external standards and who need to learn to judge their work in a manner similar to t...