Secondary education students’ self-assessment: the effects of feedback, subject matter, year level, and gender

ABSTRACT

The effects of relevant factors related to self-assessment have not been systematically investigated. We explored four factors and their effects on self-assessment and self-efficacy: (1) feedback (with vs without), (2) subject matter (Spanish vs mathematics), (3) year level (K7 vs K10 vs K11), and (4) gender. The participants included 64 secondary education students who self-assessed during a set of Spanish and mathematics activities while being video-recorded. Data came from think-aloud protocols, direct observations, and self-reported instruments. The use of self-assessment strategies and criteria was more frequent and advanced without feedback and in females. There were differences in the self-assessment of Spanish and mathematics. As for year level, results showed more similarities than expected, though the use of advanced strategies and criteria varied across levels. Additionally, none of the factors had significant effects on self-efficacy. This study opens a new avenue for self-assessment research, unveiling the black box of self-assessment.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-assessment
• subject matter
• feedback effects
• developmental effects
• gender effects

Article Highlights

• Research has studied self-assessment as a unified strategy, here we open the black box of self-assessment

• Four factors were explored: feedback occasion, subject matter, year level, and gender

• The dependent variables included self-assessment strategy use (number and type), criteria (number and type), and self-efficacy

• The four factors showed significant effects on self-assessment strategy and criteria use but just an interaction was significant for self-efficacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundación BBVA [122500]; Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación [EDU2016-79714-P, RYC-2013-13469].

Notes on contributors

Ernesto Panadero

Ernesto Panadero is an IKERBASQUE Researcher at Universidad de Deusto (Spain). His research focuses in understanding how to employ educational psychology methods and theories to better understand the effects of educational assessment.

Javier Fernández-Ruiz

Fernandez-Ruiz is a PhD candidate student at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. His main research topics are Formative Assessment and teachers’ decision-making processes.

Iván Sánchez-Iglesias

Iván Sánchez Iglesias is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Psychology, at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). His research focus is in methodology and data analysis.