A Deeper Look at Self-Assessment

I’ve been refining my thinking about self-assessment with help from a colleague and some reading. Much of what I’ve been considering applies to teacher self-assessment as well. Self-assessment is another of those loosely used terms that refers to different activities. It’s regularly equated with self-reflection, and it references assessments an individual makes of a performance or product. Self-reflection tends to be larger, more global in focus—say, a set of beliefs that form a teacher’s identity, a teacher’s understanding of how she functions in groups, or whether a teacher believes he’s good at facilitating discussion. Individual assessments are specific and focused externally—those occasions when students might self-grade solutions to a problem set or critique a self-authored story.