STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN
ASSESSMENT
L. Cameron 2001
Language Teaching
• .. we tend to underestimate the
potential for self regulation in our
students, seeing them too often as
blank sheets to be written on or empty
vessels to be filled…
…we need to support even our
youngest learners to develop awareness
of and mobilise their internal resources..
We need to let students into the
secret, allowing them to become
insiders in the assessment process.
We need to make provision for
them to become members of the
guild of people who can make
consistently sound judgments and
know why those judgments are
justifiable.
•
Royce Sadler (1998)
Discuss / feedback
Is this a reasonable expectation?
Consider and discuss how it might occur
in a stage 1… stage 3 classroom.
Where are we in making this happen?
WHAT?
• students monitor their own progress whilst
completing an activity, and then
evaluate their achievement on
completion
• peers are able to provide feedback to
other students at strategic points while
they are in the process of completing the
activity
• the teacher is able to provide feedback
which students can act on to improve
their performance whist completing and
after completing
Self assessment contributes to student motivation
and overall assessment as a learner.
WHAT
HOW
THE
STUDENT
KNOWS
Where they
are up to
WHY
What do students need to engage
with when assessing their own
learning?
• language in criteria and descriptions that they can
understand
• limited number so students are not overwhelmed
• focus on the learning and not on behaviour (eg
paying attention, contributing, meeting deadlines
etc.)
• be supported, where necessary, by examples or
work samples which make their meaning clear.
(This is probably particularly relevant in the case of
rubrics.)
• over time engage students in developing criteria,
standards, themselves.
Students and rubrics or criteria
• Supports ongoing monitoring and checking by
the students as they are completing the task
• At completion of task students
can gauge how well they have gone
Maths
• There is a framework for providing
checklists
and rubrics
feedback both during the task and
at the completion.
During task feedback allows for improvements
• Feedback can be from teacher/s peers and
parents
DEVELOPING AND ENCOURAGING STUDENT
AWARENESS OF THEIR OWN LEARNING –
METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES
• understanding and recognising their own
thinking processes
•
What thinking processes would students be using to find main
idea?
developing self-knowledge that leads to selfregulation
• planning how to proceed with an assessment
task
• monitoring own performance on an ongoing
basis
• evaluating learning and self as learner
•
Students with greater metacognitive
awareness understand the similarity
between the current learning task and
previous ones, know the strategies required
for successful learning, and anticipate
success as a result of knowing how to learn.
In order to continue to be successful with
tasks, students need to be aware of
the strategies that led to their
success and recognize the value
of using them again.
STUDENT SELF ASSESSMENT
MATRIX
• Consider the two examples . What do
they reveal about the students’
understanding of self assessment?
Making it happen (q)
• Students need to be taught strategies
for self monitoring and self assessment.
Teachers need to model the
techniques eg use of a checklist or
rubric, students then try the technique
themselves and finally they discuss
and review whether and how well the
technique worked and what to do
differently next time.
Students do not learn to assess their learning on their own;
they need to be taught strategies for self-monitoring and
self-assessment. An effective strategy might be to:
• Model using a checklist or rubric to assess a
piece of work using think-aloud strategies as
you look at each criteria
• Students try the technique themselves using
a common work sample.
• Students review each others’ work and self
assessment and make comments
• Students discuss whether and how well the
technique worked and what to do
differently next time
The setting of learning targets, or goalsetting, is an intrinsic part of self-assessment.
Student self-assessment begins with setting
learning targets, collaboratively proceeds
through the production of work that aims to
achieve those targets, to the assessment of
the work to see if it does in fact meet the
targets and then, finally, to the setting of
new targets or revising ones that were not
achieved.
Diagrammatically, the process looks like this:
Student learning goals
S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Achievable or Attainable
R = Relevant
T = Time-bound
Specific
The learning target must be specific rather than general: 'I will
include a topic sentence in each paragraph' rather than 'I will
improve my paragraphs.‘
Measurable
It must be possible to know whether the learning target has been
accomplished, so there needs to be some way of measuring this.
Achievable
The achievement of the learning target must be something the
student is capable of attaining. Where the prospect of achievement
seems daunting, the learning target can be broken down into a
series of steps. For example, instead of a learning target that states 'I
will use correct spelling', it is better to concentrate on the use of
individual spelling strategies.
Relevant
The learning target needs to be significant and relevant to the student's
present learning. If students are left to set learning targets without any
guidance, at least initially, there is a danger that such targets will be less
relevant.
Time-bound
Students should specify when they aim to achieve the target. Time-bound
learning targets are easier to evaluate and track than those which have no
particular time period attached to their achievement.
Time management
Students' ability to manage and organise their own time in order to
complete set tasks is a crucial aspect of self-assessment. Schools recognise
this when they institute a variety of structures to support students developing
independence in this area; the student diary is one example.
In the case of extended projects students can be assisted to manage their
time if teachers 'chunk' the work into discrete sub-tasks.
GENERAL STUDENT SELF
ASSESSMENT
universal criteria that apply to all of their thinking,
irrespective of the particular task. For example, they should
always be striving for clarity, accuracy, and significance.
Of course, they also need to adjust their thinking to the
precise demands of the question or task before them.
Does this task require the student to analyse or synthesise
One simple structure to use in attending to this dual need is
to provide students a set of performance criteria that apply
to all of their work, criteria that they will be using over and
over. Then, make specific provision for encouraging
students to think in a focused way about the particular
demands of any given task or question before them.
think in ways that are imaginative, creative,
interpretive and critical
gain independence from thinking
imaginatively, interpretively and critically
•
Critical and creative thinking [CCT]
• Students develop critical and creative thinking as they
learn to generate and evaluate knowledge, ideas and
possibilities, and employ these skills when seeking new
pathways or solutions. …..provide students with
opportunities to think in ways that are critical and
creative using information and ideas and arguments
……….evaluate their own work and the work of others,
and plan for future learning. These skills are integral to
activities that require reason, logic, imagination and
innovation. In learning to think broadly and deeply
students use reason and imagination to direct their
thinking for different purposes.
Metacognition is “thinking about thinking”
(Rolheiser, Bower, & Stevahn, 2000, p. 32).
• Developing reflective processes can lead to
improved metacognition. Rolheiser and
colleagues note that when students develop their
capacity to understand their own thinking
processes, they are better equipped to employ the
necessary cognitive skills to complete a task or
achieve a goal.
They also note that “students who have acquired
metacognitive skills are better able to compensate
for both low ability and insufficient information” (p.
34).
• Developing reflective processes can lead to
improved metacognition
In a nutshell….
• WHAT I HAVE LEARNT?
HOW WELL?
WHAT THINKING DID I USE?
• WHAT IS STILL DIFFICULT OR CONFUSING?
WHERE TO NEXT?
To help students determine what they need
to do to get there, teachers can ...
• collaboratively identify strengths and
gaps in student learning through the
analysis of a variety of data
• help students to develop realistic action
plans that are practical and directly
linked to the goals that have been
selected…. Young students very small
• monitor students’ progress as they
implement action plans
• ask students to review their work to
determine what they have learned,
how they have learned, and what
areas of confusion still exist. Through
these forms students assess their
progress in knowledge, skills, strategies,
processes, and attitudes.
• Students can assess their efforts , their
participation in a group, their thinking
processes, their written assignments
and presentations, and their
demonstration of skills .
• An effective way to foster student selfassessment is to ask the students to
develop the criteria for the
assessments themselves. To do this,
students must analyse each aspect of
their learning processes and products,
thereby leading to a much deeper
understanding.
• 20 seconds per day per student
• Expect improvement!
To help students determine where they intend
to go, teachers can ...
• develop with students clearly articulated
learning targets and provide concrete exemplars
of student work; students need to understand
what they’re “aiming for”
• define good work using language that is
meaningful for the learners; ideally, involve
students in determining the language that is used
• establish what language or symbols will be used
for the purposes of reflection and self-assessment,
depending on age level and development
• model goal-setting for students
• monitor the goals that students set for
themselves (i.e., that they are meaningful and
manageable)
• ensure that goals are recorded for future
reference
• STUDENT SELF ASSESSMENT
How do teachers ensure that students who perceive
themselves as unsuccessful do not
assess themselves harshly and inaccurately?
When students self-assess positively, they set higher goals
for themselves and commit more personal resources or
effort to them (Rolheiser, 1996).
Students may self-judge and self-react to achievement
results regardless of teacher input. “A stream of negative
self assessments can lead students to select personal
goals that are unrealistic, adopt learning strategies which
are ineffective, exert low effort and make excuses for
performance”
(Stipek, Recchia, & McClintic, 1992, cited in Ross, 2006, p. 7).
Actions teachers can take ...
• identify a focus and/or next steps based on
identified and understood areas of need in
student knowledge/ understanding
• encourage students to focus on concrete
information rather than past performances or
patterns of achievement; self-assessing
analytically versus holistically may assist with
this process
• when responding to students’ self-assessments,
give feedback that motivates students to
continue their learning; ask them what they
think, what helped them, and how they deal
with challenges; focus on the positive
(Rolheiser et al.,2000, p. 65)
Students who
can self assess
accurately
and
successfully
against the
criteria and
know their next
steps in
learning
Students who
can peer
assess
accurately and
successfully
and give
feedback
against the
criteria
Teacher Reflection
Activity
Start small and manageable
REFLECTIVE
QUESTIONS
Do your pictures
add meaning to the
text?
Do you think you
collected
enough
information?
Were you
happy with your
final
presentation?
MOSTLY
SOMEWHAT NEED TO
IMPROVE
• They will always rate themselves highly
… especially the trouble makers!
• Kids don’t know how to do this!
Teacher demonstrates engaging students in monitoring their
own learning
Self assessment growth
continuum
PEER FEEDBACK
• Student to student discussion and
advice around a task
• Criteria form the focus of the discussion
• what still needs to be done in order to
achieve the success criteria
• advice on how to achieve any
recommended improvements