Student self assessment refers to the assessment made by students regarding individual school activity. Through this process, students become part of their own training, which they notice, study and adapt to their progress and to the problems they have to overcome.
Self assessment is very important because it is based on involvement in judgments about individual achievements and the results of one’s own learning.
Self assessment is a very important method for motivating learning and is at the same time a valuable skill that students need in their professional development and, in the long run, in lifelong learning.
Closely related to self assessment is self-assessment, which is a way of numerically quantifying self assessment efforts. Through it, students can discover gaps and where they need to focus on learning, thus improving their results.
The self assessment exercise on learning is a positive one. Students encouraged to self-assess have better school results than students who are assessed only by teachers. However, notable results are obtained by instructing students on self-assessment. Thus, it is necessary to introduce the self assessment strategy gradually and progressively, and to observe the effects constantly.
A fundamental condition for the success of self assessment is the creation of a trusting environment, a “learning community” in which all actors are involved in the learning process and in the process of self-rating its results.
In the process of self-reflection, students must be encouraged to want to change, to assert themselves. When using self assessment methods, they should be aware that they have a key role to play in their own training and that they are responsible for this, because no one can learn in their place. After analyzing the results obtained and comparing them with the objectives, students will follow a process of correcting or supplementing previous knowledge and assimilating new knowledge.
In many cases, there are differences in grading between self assessment and peer or teacher assessment. These differences may be caused by the students ‘inability to meet the established assessment criteria, personal interests or the teacher’s or colleagues’ lack of correct knowledge of certain less visible aspects of the task (student effort, time spent).
Barriers or problems that may arise regarding self assessment include: distrust of some students in their own assessment skills, lack of confidence in the ability to judge one’s own effort, the fact that some students may consider it more correct to be evaluated by experts, respectively by teachers, the fact that some students may be afraid of making mistakes or being too severe with themselves, as it is difficult for them to take on this responsibility, the fact that students may not see the benefits of this approach, the fact that it encourages the internalization of accountability and can be linked to the idea of social supervision and control.
Self assessment in the online environment can be implemented with tools specific to this type of environment: online tests in Google Forms, WhatsApp applications, Skype, various platforms.
Offline self assessment is performed when the assessed person and the assessor are in different places and are not permanently connected to the Internet via smart electronic devices. The transmission of work tasks from teacher to students is done in various ways: smartphone, e-mail, instant messaging applications WhatsApp, Skype, through learning platforms or video conferencing: Adservio, Classroom, Teams, Zoom.
Solving these tasks and transmitting them is done asynchronously, in the same or other ways of communication. There is also a handwritten or printed format that can be transmitted via WhatApp, e-mail, various platforms.
In conclusion, students’ self assessment has a large number of benefits, being associated in studies with: improving learning, preparing students for later social roles, producing a sense that students have some control over their own assessment, increasing learning autonomy, developing cognitive skills, competencies, reducing students’ anxiety and the contradiction between students and teachers regarding the grading process.
Examples of self assessment tests in the ICT discipline: forms.gle/zuyXpRPaynZLnuMk6, forms.gle/UHyGkeSa21pk8px67, forms.gle/TkaJtdWBBe4JRbyj9.
Bibliografie
Andrade, H. & Valtcheva, A. (2009). Promoting learning and achievement through self- assessment. Theory Into Practice.
Boud, D., Falchikov, N. (2006) Aligning assessment with long-term learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.
www.mindtools.com