Page 62 - International Journal of Process Educaiton (Special Issue)

Self-assessment
…improves performance
…is focused on process
…uses and builds critical thinking
…increases metacognitive awareness
…should be part of the educational environment
In 1995 Hanson and Apple synthesized existing
scholarship focused on self-assessment and shared a
stronger formulation, adding the idea of using a target or
model performance to compare with their own (“If we
are trying to improve process skills, we must ask students
to examine and compare how others perform and to
examine their own performance”). By comparing one’s
performance against a model one benefits from the utility
of performance descriptions or criteria, without explicitly
using them. This is the beginning of an appreciation of
levels of performance, rubrics, and how much more fully
they can support self-assessment.
Hanson and Apple also clarified the parallel nature of
self-assessment and critical thinking. “Individuals need to
recognize what they know, need to know, how well they
can do something, and what they need to do to improve”
(1995). We’re still focused on strengths and areas for
improvement, but instead of being focused only on
performance, there is a dual focus that includes knowledge
as well (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 Self-Assessment Step in the Learning Process
Methodology
Critical Thinking (Level of Learning)
Focused on: Knowledge
Strengths: What is known
Areas for What should be known
Improvement:
Strategies: How to gain the knowledge
Self-Assessment (Growth in Learner Performance)
Focused on: Performance
Strengths: How well one can do something
Areas for What must be done to improve
Improvement:
Strategies: How to make the improvements
The authors continue: “Such assessment can be
implemented very simply by asking students to identify
strategies, strengths, and improvements at various stages
of an activity” (Hanson & Apple, 1995). This addition of
60 International Journal of Process Education (February 2016, Volume 8 Issue 1)
strategies (see Figure 1) to the previous formulation or
structure is the nascent form for action plans that will later
be subsumed under the Areas for Improvement.
The final aspect of the synthesis of self-assessment offered
by Hanson & Apple is that of the relationship of self-
assessment not only to lifelong learning but to growth:
“Self-assessment is one step in accepting responsibility for
one's own learning and is essential for lifelong learning
and growth.”
In Taking the Helm: Targeting Student Learning (1996),
Klopp speaks directly to all of these aspects of self-
assessment:
Student empowerment, however, requires the
ability of the student to self-monitor, to be able
to look at oneself with as little distortion as
possible. Once students have integrated the skills
necessary to active learning and assessment they
can move to the independent level of planning
their own strategies for learning based on their
self-identified preferences and goals. The more
involved the learner is mentally, the more internal
dialogue occurs in the student's personal reflection
time. The more students examine their own
learning, the more likely they are to take control
of that learning. Opportunities for self-reflection
and self-assessment must be provided within the
class itself so that students may be habituated to
self-reflection outside of class.
Each of these pieces is still present in the current
performance definition for self-assessors, with the roles
of expectations, criteria, action plans, insights, and growth
now explicitly acknowledged:
Self-Assessors know performance expectations
and set criteria, perform critical self-examination,
and then analyze their data to understand
the strengths of their performances, develop
transformational action plans, and articulate new
discoveries and insights. They can step back and
reflect critically on where they are now and where
they want to be, and constantly update their goals
relating to self-growth in order to become that
person (Pacific Crest, 2013).
Self-Assessment and Reflection
From the beginning, the process of reflection has been
used in conjunction with self-assessment. According to
Desjarlais and Smith (2011), self-assessment and reflection
are similar processes that have much in common. Both are:
 Structured
 Sequential