Thinking about the self-assessment process

This exercise encourages students to think back on how they completed the self-assessment to consider whether it was fair and accurate.

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Background

The goal of this exercise is to help you learn how to learn about your own learning and how to make adjustments to learn more effectively. This process, called 'metacognition,' has been shown to improve student success in all sorts of ways, including boosts in reading comprehension, exam performance, and problem-solving. This exercise gives you an opportunity to learn about your own learning and apply those lessons to your research project.

Purpose of the exercise

The overall goal of the self-assessment of process is to help you and your instructor better understand your views, expectations, interests, and skills related to the research process. This exercise encourages you to think back on how you completed the self-assessment to consider whether it was fair and accurate.

Instructions

Consider your recent scoring on the self-assessment and the scores offered by your instructor. Think about how the scores are related and what you might learn about how you approach the self-assessment process. Answer the following questions. Your answers do not need to be overly long, but you should try to provide enough detail so that you explain your responses.

  1. Now that you've had a chance to review the scores, are there places where you and your instructor came to different conclusions? Why do you think scores differ?  
  2. As you think back on the self-assessment process, do you think you were being too hard (or too easy) on yourself? Does this happen in other situations (other classes, at your job, extracurricular activities)?
  3. Can you point to evidence that supports your instructor's scoring? Would you now change your assessment in light of that evidence? Why or why not?
  4. Moving forward, how do you plan to strengthen the items addressed in the self-assessment? What's the plan? Can you identify the resources you might need to strengthen your skills?
  5. After reflecting on this most recent self-assessment, what lessons will you take to the next time you go through the process of self-assessment?