Student Self-Evaluations
Giving students your expert feedback on their work is a vital part of teaching. They learn from your criticism and are inspired by your praise. But they also need to learn how to turn a critical eye on their own work, both so they can edit without your help and so they can weed out their problem areas, allowing you to focus on the remaining issues in the critique.
What is a self-evaluation?
It is a tool for students to guide their analysis of their own work. It can be a rubric or checklist with pre-written criteria, or it can be a blank form with prompts that students can fill out to describe their strong and weak points.
| |
What I did well |
What I didn’t do well |
What I will work on |
| Composition |
|
|
|
| Value |
|
|
|
| Rendering |
|
|
|
| Proportion |
|
|
|
Other |
|
|
|
What should a self-evaluation include?
- Make sure the self-evaluation form is consistent with assignment specifications, your grading rubric, and your course outcomes.
- In writing a self-evaluation rubric, use language that students would use to talk about their own work or elicit critical language from students before making the form (Terms like: needs work, could be clearer, not what I hoped for, I had trouble with. Not: shoddy, weak, poor, incomprehensible, etc.)
- Target the self-evaluation tool to specific assignments. Use specific, detailed language. It’s difficult for students to give themselves inflated marks when the language is objective and clear.
Why do you have students self-evaluate?
- Self-evaluation motivates students to set higher goals and commit to their work.
- It gives students a chance to reflect on and talk about (defend) their work.
- It allows students to look closely and better understand the rubric/grading criteria.
- It helps students anticipate what the reactions to their work will be.
- It shows teachers how much students grasp their strengths and weaknesses.
- Rather than being passive recipients of feedback, students learn to take a more active role.
When can you have students self-evaluate?
- After peer evaluations, summarizing and consolidating input they got from their peers and turning their analytic eye on their peers’ work back towards their own.
- Before a critique. (Have the student submit the completed form in advance to help your critique along).
- After a critique (include a plan for revision/future work).
How do you use their self-evaluation?
- Compare the student’s self-evaluation with your ‘teacher’ evaluation; discuss and clarify the differences.
- Tailor your feedback around the most glaring points; work with the student on setting goals based on commonly identified issues
- Factor the issues the student identifies as needing to work on into future critiques; reward students for goals set and achieved.
Resources and other readings:
Rubrics and self-evaluation
Self-Evaluation tips
Sample self-evaluation prompts
Student self-evaluation: what research says and what practice shows
|
