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Efficacy of student's self-assessment.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

This study examines research on high and low achievers with a particular focus on 30 undergraduate students. Critical student achievement behaviors are reviewed using a critical reflective inquiry process. Through the use of a survey, the disparities between student and instructor ratings of student behaviors that contribute to achievement were explored. Preliminary results reveal that a significant difference exists between teacher and student ratings of academic behaviors. Self-assessment and its problematic issues are reviewed, particularly as they relate to increased student awareness and learning.

Introduction

Reflective inquiry-based science and current models of teaching and learning require that students become more active in their learning. For many students, getting acclimated to new modes of teaching while assuming more responsibility over their learning than has been traditionally expected, is not an easy task. According to Lob, Reiser, Radinsky, Edelson, Gomez and Marshall (2001), "reflective inquiry is a style of inquiry that encompasses both effective inquiry strategies (e.g., systematically collecting and interpreting information) and reflective activities (e.g., monitoring, periodically evaluating progress, and revising plans)." A critical component of the "reflective inquiry" process is self-assessment. An accurate appraisal of oneself requires the ability to critically examine oneself and appraise academic/learning strengths and weaknesses, and then use that analysis to formulate a study plan that involves both in-class and out of class behaviors (Mentkowski, 2000).

Reflective Inquiry and Self-Regulated Learning

In educational research today, there is a significant amount of literature concerning reflective thinking and self-regulation in teaching and learning (e.g., Anzul & Ely, 1999; Curtis & Szestay, 2005; Ghaye, 2000; Glazer, Abbott, & Harris, 2004; Griffin, 2003; Newman, 1999). The topic of self-regulation has a long history of research that emphasizes the fact that students with poor self-regulation skills achieve poorly in school (Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1988). Many researchers have furthered argued that many of the problems students exhibit with low achievement has more to do with difficulties with self-regulation rather than poor learning behaviors alone (Carey, Evans, Honda, Jay and Ungen, 1989; Shauble, 1990).

According to Boekaerts and Pintrich (1999), self-regulated learning is "an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior, guided and constrained by their goals and contextual features of the environment" (p. 453). Even though the changing demands of students' challenges them to utilize reflective inquiry practices to succeed academically, many of them do know neither where to begin nor how to proceed (Kyza, Golan, Reiser, & Edelson, D.C., 2003).

Student achievement and it relationship to self-regulated learning continues to be a major area of...

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