Say Yes to Assess (Yourself)

         I remember being in elementary school and dreading having to assess my peers in the classroom. I would think, “What happens if I say something too harsh? Are my peers even going to read these? What happens if they know it’s me writing this?” I don’t know if these were common issues among students but I remember it making me anxious in the classroom. Then when it came to the even worse self-assessment where I used to think, “I don’t know how I did? Isn’t this my teacher’s job to tell me? I’ll just say I did average, so it doesn’t look like I think too highly of myself. “ It was extremely hard to sit and think hard about how I really did on an assignment in school, it could have because I really didn’t know how well I did, or it could be because I didn’t want to take the time and think about it.

Self and peer assessment in golf coaching. (2015, August 30). Retrieved from PGA of Europe website: http://www.pgae.com/ask/self-and-peer-assessment-in-golf-coaching/

            After doing some research I could maybe see where my problems streamed. Alias, Masek and Md Salleh (2015) note that students have to understand the process of assessment, which includes what the ‘look for’s’ are and the different levels within assessment. This can be done through co-creating rubrics along side the teacher so students therefore they know exactly what to assess themselves and their peers on. Peer based learning is usually used in the classroom for projects and presentations. Students can be taught to give positive professional feedback to their peers. On the other hand self-assessment is used for students to evaluate their own work. This can be extremely hard for student! It involves skills to evaluate, reflect, metacognition, and goal setting (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2014). Kearney and Perkins (2014) look at the idea of how both self and peer assessment a process which connects the two called authentic self and peer assessment for learning (ASPAL). First students must co-create marking criteria to engage students in the learning process. Next, students are taught how to mark effectively based on the criteria they have created. Teachers give out anonymous assignments for students to practice their feedback on, and then students further their learning by marking their own assignments. Throughout this process the students are marked on how effectively they are able to use the criteria they have created to mark their peers work and their own work and this cumulates to a mark, and their final mark on their assignments come from this mark and the teachers mark. Using the ASPAL assessment process, it gives students agency in their and their peer’s assignments.

Kearney, S. P., & Perkins, T. (2014). Engaging students through assessment: The success and limitations of the ASPAL (authentic self and peer assessment for learning) model. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 11(3), 1-14.

            In classes we learn about the positives of self-assessment, but I was wondering is it actually that easy to accomplish?  I turned to an NPR podcast titled “Americans Flunk Self-Assessment” for answers (you can probably figure the answer I found just from the title alone). The host Andrea Seabrooke asked “how good are people at self-assessment?’ They found that people usually think that they are really good at self-assessments and put a lot of time into them. While doing these assessments people usually believe that they are well above average and are every defensive when trying to explain why they are so great at their jobs. Does this mean that we are unable to use of higher order thinking to evaluate and reflect on our own work? Seabrooke emphasizes the importance of peer and supervisor/ teacher assessment because they are a more accurate description of an individuals work. This may be a societal problem though! In a recent research they found that Canadian and Japanese students who were given a set time to finish a puzzle, the Canadain students who could not finish the puzzle within the set time gave up and did not continue. While, the Japanese students continued the puzzle even though time was up. Maybe as future educators we should be teaching our students to find the weaknesses and improve on them, rather than celebrating the good within them.

References

Alias, M., Masek, A., & Md Salleh, H. H. (2015). Self, peer and teacher assessments in problem based learning: Are they in agreements? Porcedia- Social and Behavioural Science, 204, 309-317.

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st-century learner. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.

Kearney, S. P., & Perkins, T. (2014). Engaging students through assessment: The success and limitations of the ASPAL (authentic self and peer assessment for learning) model. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 11(3), 1-14.