Students’ experiences in self-assessment: training, processes and feedback use in secondary and higher education

ABSTRACT

Self-assessment is a widely explored topic in educational research. However, more research is needed on some of the self-assessment practices and their relationship with academic performance. This study aims to fill the research gap by analysing students’ self-assessment training, what type of self-assessment processes they report, and how they use feedback when self-assessing. These were explored through interviews with 65 secondary education and 122 university students. Participants reported (1) to self-assess frequently, (2) to prefer different feedback sources with secondary education participants preferring learning materials over agents, (3) to use different self-assessment processes with higher education participants using more advanced strategies and a wider variety of criteria, (4) to enact different self-assessment processes depending on the task characteristics, and (5) there were differences between reported vs. performed self-assessment processes. Our results lead to more insight into the self-assessment experiences and emphasise the need to strengthen self-assessment practices in the classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-assessment
• feedback
• academic performance
• secondary education
• higher education
• classroom assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Note: Names are fictional.

Additional information

Funding

(1) Spanish Ministry of Universities (Ministerio de Universidades) National FPU Call (Formación de Profesorado Universitario), personal grant, reference: [FPU19/04661]. (2) Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) National I+D Call (Convocatoria Excelencia) project reference [EDU2016-79714-P]. (3) Spanish National R+D call from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Generación del conocimiento 2020), Reference number: [PID2019-108982GB-I00]. (4) Basque Government call for Ayudas para apoyar las actividades de grupos de investigación del sistema universitario vasco para los años 2022-2025. Reference number: [IT1624-22].

Notes on contributors

Leire Pinedo

Leire Pinedo is a PhD candidate in the Education, Regulated Learning & Assessment (ERLA) research group at University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain). Her research focuses on educational assessment and self-regulated learning, specially self-assessment, use of rubrics, and instructional feedback. Her current PhD thesis, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities (FPU 2019 call), explores how individual differences and feedback influence the self-assessment process. Most relevant publication: Panadero, E., Jonsson, A., Pinedo, L., & Fernández-Castilla, B. (2023). Effects of Rubrics on Academic Performance, Self-Regulated Learning, and self-Efficacy: a Meta-analytic Review. Educational Psychology Review, 35(4), 1-38.

Ernesto Panadero

Ernesto Panadero is the Director at the Centre for Assessment Research, Policy and Practice in Education (CARPE) at Dublin City University. He is also Honorary Professor at the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE), Deakin University (Australia). His research focuses on self-regulated learning and educational assessment, especially self & peer assessment, teachers’ feedback and the use of rubrics. He is the PI of the Education, Regulated Learning & Assessment (ERLA) research group since its creation in 2016. He received the Erik de Corte 2017, an award given by the EARLI to a promising early career European researcher in the field of Learning and Instruction.

Javier Fernández-Ruiz

Javier Fernández Ruiz is an Assistant Professor at the department of Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy of University of León. He holds a PhD in Psychology by Autonomous University of Madrid (2022). Currently, he is involved in several research projects as a postdoc researcher at ERLA Research Group. His primary research interests are in formative assessment, self- and peer assessment, and teacher’s conceptions about teaching and assessment. Most relevant publications: Fernández-Ruiz, J., Panadero, E., & García-Pérez, D. (2021). Assessment from a disciplinary approach: Design and implementation in three undergraduate programmes. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 28(5–6), 703–723. Fernández Ruiz, J., Panadero, E., García-Pérez, D., & Pinedo, L. (2021). Assessment design decisions in practice: Profile identification in approaches to assessment design. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1–16.

Carlos Rodríguez-Hernández

Carlos Rodriguez-Hernandez holds a Ph.D. in Educational Sciences from the KU Leuven (Belgium). His current affiliation is as Impact Measurement Research Scientist at the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico) and adjunct professor at the Humanities and Education school at the same institution. He has extensive experience working as an educational consultant for both private and public institutions. Specific areas of focus include educational assessment, analysis of academic performance in higher education, and quantitative research in education.