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Student Self-Evaluation and Reflection
We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience. John Dewey
One of the things that teachers and students now have to deal with is the importance given to student self-evaluation and reflection. Some may resent devoting class time to this issue. Others may worry that students will not take it seriously. However, we must not underestimate the power of student self-evaluation. Our goal is to make students aware of what they are learning and how they are learning so that they can develop responsibility and become active participants in their own learning process. If students are aware of how they gain their skills, they will become more involved and more interested in their learning. They will be able to set goals for themselves and further improve. By developing the strategy of self-evaluation, students are able to reflect on what they have learned in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses.
There are other advantages to having students reflect on their learning. By reading students' comments, we can adjust our teaching practices to better meet the needs of each student. By noting down thoughts or problems encountered during an activity, students can come up with their own solutions. Writing down their thoughts allows students to concretize and visualize what has happened in class. It also gives them a great opportunity to do some 'free writing.' Also, when students have to explain and justify what they're doing, they become more aware of their learning and what is going on in class!
Making reflection work
How reflection is presented to students has a great effect on the ways in which students will respond to it. Teachers need to present reflection as something valuable and important. If we don't, students will not take it seriously. If we present self-evaluation and reflection as essential elements for learning and improvement, students will come to value these strategies and will use them effectively to become better learners.
Give students time to reflect on their work. Leave 5-10 minutes at the end of a period or activity for students to think about what they learned, what went well, what didn't, and what they would change next time.
Allow students to react immediately to learning. Ask them to respond and note down ideas while their emotions are fresh. Reflecting on something that happened two classes ago will not have the same impact.
Ask students to reflect on a variety of things: learning strategies, cross-curricular competencies, subject-specific competencies, the Broad Areas of Learning, their attitudes and behaviour, cooperation and team work.
Show students how to reflect. Provide them with models. Begin with structured self-evaluation and reflection forms such as reflection coupons and multiple-choice questionnaires. As students become more comfortable with reflection, give them more freedom by using tools such as sentence prompts, open-ended questions and reflection journals.
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