Abstract:

The importance of student self-assessment and its contribution to learning in higher education is well rooted in the research literature. However, we still need to strengthen the foundations of our pedagogical knowledge and enhance our understanding of when and why self-assessment actually works. The purpose of the study was to examine students’ perception of self-assessment prior to and following experiencing self-assessment. The study included 135 students studying at two education colleges in Israel. The students attended seven courses with three differing evaluation approaches: summative, formative, and integrative (a combination of formative and summative evaluation) with a differing degree of involvement in determining the evaluation criteria. Self-assessment was integrated into all the courses. The findings show that the experience with self-assessment in the courses with formative evaluation or integrative evaluation encourages the students’ positive perception of self-assessment, in contrast with the students attending the summative evaluation courses. The study serves to expand our understanding of the importance of student involvement in the evaluation processes, as well as the role of the feedback in the process.

Keywords:

Self-assessment, formative evaluation, summative evaluation, student perceptions, higher education.