Self
Assessment. What is it exactly and why is it important for a classroom setting.
As a prospective teacher and a current student, self assessment and reflection
has actually become a pivotal part of my education journey, and something that
I know I would like to incorporate into my future classroom. Self assessment
actually goes hand in hand to a term that I had recently learned in one of my
education courses, assessment as learning (AaL). This means that there is an
emphasis “on developing self-assessment and metacognition….the goal is for
students to monitor their own learning” (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014, p.
17). This means that students are able to critically think about what they are
doing and to better understand what worked and maybe did not work in their learning.
In
my educational journey, a lot of the time self assessment is used to help me
reflect on my work, and as a result, has helped me self identify with what
areas I need to improve upon; along with helping me to celebrate my own academic
accomplishments.
The one technique that I have found to be a great way to
implement and get students talking about their work is “Two Stars and a Wish”.
This technique is one of my favourites and has been used in a few of my
courses. The premise of this technique is that students are able to comment on
two aspects of their work that they liked and one aspect of their work that
they think they need to improve. What makes this technique work so well is that
it encourages students to think critically about their work and to develop the
skills needed to provide constructive criticism. Below is an example of how to
format the “Two Stars and a Wish” concept:
Image from http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/Thinking.htm
So what exactly are the benefits of self assessment?
According to the University College Dublin, one benefit of self assessment provides
students with a chance to reflect on the work that they are doing in a way that
helps them enter a deeper level of learning. This is created by having students
reflect on their learning experiences, which allows for them to become more
comfortable and confident in their academic abilities (Hernandez, 2010, p. 2).
One way that we can help guide students to reflect and
self assess their work is by creating success criteria. By definition, success
criteria is an “outline for the ‘look fors’ to achieve the learning goal”
(Drake et al., 2014, p. 76). In one fo my education courses, one of our
assignments was actually to create our own success criteria for ourselves to
use as a guide to help us set our learning goals for the course. While having
your students create their own learning goal and success criteria may be a bit
too much for them, at first, creating one as a class might work better.
Patrick Johnson created a wonderful slide show of what
learning goals and success criteria are and how they fit together. In addition, this clip from YouTube really ties in the ideas of self assessment and how it can be used in the classroom:
Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkFWbC91PXQ
What I know is that as a prospective teacher, I have a
long way to go in understanding and developing my skills in self assessment,
learning goals and success criteria. I hope that this post helps give you some
ideas on how you have implemented this in your classroom.
Till next time,
Miss Chong
References
Communication 4 All (n.d) Developing thinking. Retrieved from http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/Thinking.htm
Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Canada: Oxford University Press.
Hernandez, R. (2010, January 20) Assessment: Benefits and challenges of using self and peer assessment. Retrieved from http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDTLA0033.pdf
Jobs for the Future (2013, August 22). Self-assessment: Reflection from students and teachers [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkFWbC91PXQ
Johnson, P. (2010, October 24). learning+goals+and+success+criteria. Retrieved fromhttp://www.slideshare.net/mrjohnsonsclass/learninggoalsandsuccesscriteria
Miss Chong,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog as it evoked thoughts that I never would have thought of before. Watching the YouTube video that you have linked in your blog post was very informative for me. I never used to see self-assessment as something super important, however, after hearing in the video that research shows, individuals who practice self-assessment receive better grades, learn more and receive higher test scores, put into perspective the importance of self-assessment for myself as a future educator. How do you think you could improve your self-assessment and your practice of self-assessment as a prospective teacher? Do you think that the two stars and one wish assessment would work in all levels of education? I look forward to seeing your other posts!
Emily
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHello Miss Chong,
ReplyDeleteStaring of your blog post with a question really gets the mind thinking about your topic of self-assessment. As well it helped to demonstrate the importance of thinking and questioning how assessment is connected to the self and our learning. By exploring this topic as an educational journey by providing your own experiences with assessment, I was able to relate with you on how learning about assessment, has helped me to identify my own areas of success and failure. I found that with the inclusion of exploring the prospective teacher and the techniques that can be used to help with self-assessment really had shown your knowledge of the material. By showing that prospective teachers have a desire to understand and develop their skills by setting learning goals and success criteria to better their student’s development. I enjoyed your use of adding a slide show and video to help further give information and student perspectives on the need to self-assessment. Based on the video, do you believe that self-assessment while become a daily aspect of student life in the classroom? Also at what grade level should self-assessment be brought into the classroom?
- Nicola
ReplyDeleteMiss Chong,
I absolutely agree with, and love the topic of your blog post! Self-assessment and reflection is so important, and I have to say myself that I had never truly understood or appreciated its significance until our various education classes discussed the process and the benefits it provides (I also studied this in my front-matter assignment- it is something that provincial curriculums value highly and want to promote in their education programs)!
I think the importance of this process extends far past a student’s educational experience in school: self-assessment and meta-cognition can help a student in various aspects of self-development. What other ways could you think of in which a student can use these techniques for self-improvement?
Your example of “two stars and a wish” is fantastic. I am wondering- how should self-evaluation change as children grow? And in terms of creating success criteria, how much agency do you think should be given to the students? Should it be a collaborative style process? That’s what I think would work best.
Finally, I like your humble acknowledgement of “I have a long way to go in understanding and developing my skills…” Don’t we all! However, in the same breath, I love how you said “helping me celebrate my own academic accomplishments”- I find that this is something we often forget to do- we are so hard on ourselves as students! Good for you for remembering to congratulate yourself on a job well done and deserved.
Looking forward to reading more from you.
- Miss Colella