QUICK RESOURCE SHEET #31
Self-assessment
“Self-assessment is not an alien concept to human behavior. All human beings are involved, either consciously or subconsciously, in an on-going process of self-evaluation. Until recently, however, the value of this human process was largely ignored in pedagogy. Learners were rarely asked to assess their performance, much less have a say in the construction of evaluation instruments. Pedagogically, the term self-assessment was rendered all but oxymoronic.
In the last decade, with the increased attention to learner-centered curricula, needs analysis, and learner autonomy, the topic of self-assessment has become of particular interest in testing and evaluation. It is now being recognized that learners do have the ability to provide meaningful input into the assessment of their performance, and that this assessment can be valid. In fact, with regard to second and foreign language, research reveals an emerging pattern of consistent, overall high correlations between self-assessment results and ratings based on a variety of external criteria.”
---from an article by Christine Coombe on self-assessment in language teaching
http://www.finchpark.com/arts/reflective.htm
“…assessment has taken on new affective goals in which the personal growth of the learner is becoming increasingly important. In this context, the role of evaluation is to inform learners about their learning achievements, so that they can make informed plans for future study. This paper offers suggestions on how the concept of self/peer-assessment might be introduced into the Korean EFL classroom via a number of investigative and reflective instruments.”
http://www.cete.org/acve/docgen.asp?tbl=tia&ID=162
“Metacognition refers to the ability of learners to be aware of and monitor their learning processes (Peters 2000). Metacognitive skills are generally divided into two types: self-assessment (the ability to assess one's own cognition) and self-management (the ability to manage one's further cognitive development) (Rivers 2001). Successful adult learners employ a range of metacognitive skills and effective teachers of adults attend to the development of these skills. This article describes some of the trends related to metacognitive skills for adult learners and provides a list of resources for further information.“
http://www.philseflsupport.com/self-assessmentechniques.htm Christine Coombe and Christine Canning detail seven tried and tested methods of self-assessment to use with your students in this short, practical article. http://www.pearsoned.ca/sightlines/gr_8/common/assessment_masters/gam6.pdf http://www.pearsoned.ca/sightlines/gr_8/common/assessment_masters/gam7.pdf http://www.pearsoned.ca/sightlines/gr_8/common/assessment_masters/gam20.pdf More samples of student self-assessment tools, which should be used as a guide, but not merely copied directly, as they are not intended to suit every teaching context (not to mention that they are copyright protected).