Fostering student self-assessment confidence and skill
Subject
Abstract
The present study was created to develop students’ confidence (self-efficacy) and skill (expertise) to self-assess their own writing. The literature suggested that the self-assessment process is designed to enable students to understand and apply quality criteria to their work (Harris & Brown, 2013). Student engagement is vital to the student’s learning at any grade level K through 12 (Handley & Williams, 2011; McMillan & Hearn 2008; Orsmond et al., 2002). Student self-assessment is directly related to intrinsic student motivation and purposeful learning (McMillan & Hearn, 2008). A class of Grade 4 and 5 students participated in an instructional self-assessment unit to improve both confidence and skill. Instructional qualitative rubrics were introduced as the format of the self-assessment. The students completed a survey regarding self-assessment confidence and skill before and after the instructional unit. As the teacher, I completed the instruction, teaching the writing process write, assess, goal set, edit and revise. The writing process was practiced three times. My hypothesis was that the students would rate their confidence and skill levels higher after the implementation of an instructional self-assessment unit. Overall, the results of the pre-and post-surveys indicated that the instructional self-assessment unit was successful. The data concluded that both skill and confidence regarding self-assessment improved. Further research and surveys are encouraged to further support the theory that confidence and skill levels regarding self-assessment can be developed through a reflective creative writing unit.