![]() This issue will be taken up again in the review of current research that follows this overview. ![]() I believe the source of the discord can be traced to the different ways in which self-assessment is carried out, such as whether it is summative and formative. ![]() Why Self-Assess?Ĭlarity about the purpose of self-assessment allows us to interpret what otherwise appear to be discordant findings from research, which has produced mixed results in terms of both the accuracy of students' self-assessments and their influence on learning and/or performance. This learning-oriented purpose of self-assessment implies that it should be formative: if there is no opportunity for adjustment and correction, self-assessment is almost pointless. Their authors might rightly point out that the purpose is implied, but a formal definition requires us to make it plain: Why do we ask students to self-assess? I have long held that self-assessment is feedback ( Andrade, 2010), and that the purpose of feedback is to inform adjustments to processes and products that deepen learning and enhance performance hence the purpose of self-assessment is to generate feedback that promotes learning and improvements in performance. What is missing from each of these definitions, however, is the purpose of the act of self-assessment. ![]() This very broad conception might seem unwieldy, but it works because each object of assessment-competence, process, and product-is subject to the influence of feedback from oneself. Taken together, these definitions include self-assessment of one's abilities, processes, and products-everything but the kitchen sink. Self-monitoring “refers to the ability to notice our own actions, curiosity to examine the effects of those actions, and willingness to use those observations to improve behavior and thinking in the future” (p. (2008) defined “concurrent self-assessment” as “ongoing moment-to-moment self-monitoring” (p. (2016a) defined it as a “wide variety of mechanisms and techniques through which students describe (i.e., assess) and possibly assign merit or worth to (i.e., evaluate) the qualities of their own learning processes and products” (p. What is Self-Assessment?īrown and Harris (2013) defined self-assessment in the K-16 context as a “descriptive and evaluative act carried out by the student concerning his or her own work and academic abilities” (p. I will draw those distinctions in terms of the purposes of self-assessment which, in turn, determine its features: a classic form-fits-function analysis. Each of those activities involves some kind of assessment of one's own functioning, but they are so different that distinctions among types of self-assessment are needed. Without exception, reviews of self-assessment ( Sargeant, 2008 Brown and Harris, 2013 Panadero et al., 2016a) call for clearer definitions: What is self-assessment, and what is not? This question is surprisingly difficult to answer, as the term self-assessment has been used to describe a diverse range of activities, such as assigning a happy or sad face to a story just told, estimating the number of correct answers on a math test, graphing scores for dart throwing, indicating understanding (or the lack thereof) of a science concept, using a rubric to identify strengths and weaknesses in one's persuasive essay, writing reflective journal entries, and so on. Defining and Operationalizing Student Self-Assessment My review of the growing body of empirical research offers a critical perspective, in the interest of provoking new investigations into neglected areas. The treatment of theory presented here involves articulating a refined definition and operationalization of self-assessment through a lens of feedback. A lot of research has been done on the subject since then, including at least two meta-analyses hence this expanded review, in which I provide an updated overview of theory and research. The timespan for the original review was January 2013 to October 2016. This review of research on student self-assessment expands on a review published as a chapter in the Cambridge Handbook of Instructional Feedback ( Andrade, 2018, reprinted with permission).
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