Abstract:

The aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ ability to support the development of young children’s self-assessment skills. Self-assessment refers to processes where a student describes and evaluates his/her work and abilities and can be an important component of the learning process (Brown & Harris, 2013).
Research has shown that engaging children in self-assessment improves their engagement and motivation with positive effects on their academic performance (Brown & Harris, 2013; Panadero, Alonso-Tapia, & Antonio, 2012) and their self-efficacy (Panadero, Jonsson, & Botella, 2017).
Young children are not always aware of their progress and therefore, teachers’ ability to engage children effectively in interactions where they can observe and discuss their way of working and their achievements is of most importance. During self-assessment children can be engaged in four phases of discussion: remembering and describing their work (knowledge phase), discussion that gives emphasis in understanding how they managed to complete their work and explain their reasoning (analysis phase); evaluate their work and explain the criteria of their evaluation (evaluation phase); make connections and set future objectives (synthesis phase) (Tower & Broadfoot, 1992).
During 2021-2023 Greek kindergarten teachers participated in an in-service training course with the aim to develop their skills on engaging children in self-assessment. The course took place virtually and as part of their training teachers had to implement self-assessment sessions individually with children 4 and 5 years old. Teachers recorded their interactions with each child and feedback was given in relation to their professional practice.
For the purpose of the current study 20 sessions from 20 kindergarten teachers were selected. On all sessions teachers encouraged children to compare selected drawings or writing samples and discuss areas of progress. A microanalysis of interaction took place and the data was analyzed at the level of utterance.
In most sessions the proportion of young children’s participation was high. Teachers engaged children in discussion where they had to describe, analyze, evaluate and synthesize their work. Their majority encouraged children to compare distinctive features of their work, evaluate the quality of their work and give explanation for their assessments. However, variations emerged among teachers in the quality of discussion. Some teachers had difficulties in engaging children in the analysis of their work, driving connecting with prior knowledge and prompting them to set future goals. Apart from the cognitive processes, there was considerable variation in teachers’ provision of affective feedback.
The findings are discussed in relation to the development of young children’s ability to engage in high cognitive demand discussion related to self-reflection and the development of their self-regulated learning. Additionally, suggestions are being made for teachers’ professional development and how to support children during self-assessment discussions.

Keywords:

Self-assessment, preschool education, kindergarten teachers, cognitive interaction, affective feedback.