Students’ and teachers’ perceptions of students’ self assessment ability

Wong, H. M. (2014). I can assess myself: Singaporean primary students' and teachers' perceptions of students' self-assessment ability. Education 3-13, 1-16.

Background

The author highlighted research that showed mixed results concerning students’ ability to self-assess, with students overestimating as well as underestimating their self-assessment scores.

Aims

This study investigated the perceptions of students and teachers towards the students’ self-assessment ability. Sample The sample comprised 75 Primary 4 students in two Singapore primary schools. They were taught to self-assess their work. Eighteen students’ self-assessments were randomly selected and compared with an independent panel of teachers’ assessment. The 18 students were also interviewed.

Method

A set of student self-assessment strategy worksheets that included a checklist, a learning log, and rubrics was created for the intervention. The self-assessment used the following criteria: (1) Deep understanding – the students’ understanding of the problem or task, (2) Strategies and reasoning – the students’ ability to solve the problem or task through strategies and reasoning, (3) Clarity – the clarity of their solution, (4) Written communication – how they conveyed their solutions, and (5) Effort – the extent of effort they put into their work.

Findings

The results indicated that there were significant differences between the teachers’ and students’ scores in understanding, reasoning, communication, and clarity in the high ability and medium-ability students although the students’ scores for understanding were closer to the teachers’ scores than for the other three domains. For the low-ability students, there were significant differences between the teachers’ and students’ scores in reasoning, communication, and clarity but not in understanding. Overall, the teachers scored the students’ work more positively than the students themselves. This suggested that students might need more practice in self-assessment in order to have a more accurate picture of their work and knowledge. Students’ self-report and interview responses showed that the majority of them thought that they should take part in assessing their own work. Although many felt that they had assessed themselves fairly, they also believed that they needed more practice to be confident in their own self-assessment. The teachers’ interviews showed that the teachers were confident that their students were capable of assessing themselves but the students needed guidance and training in the use of self-assessment.

Implications

The results implied that the accuracy of the students’ self-assessment would be affected by their lack of confidence, and the lack of practice and training in the use of self-assessment. The students’ self-awareness of their needing more practice also implied their receptiveness to using self-assessment.

Original article retrieved from Taylor & Francis online.