self assessment in education

15 Self-Assessment Examples for Students

Dave Cornell (PhD)

Dr. Cornell has worked in education for more than 20 years. His work has involved designing teacher certification for Trinity College in London and in-service training for state governments in the United States. He has trained kindergarten teachers in 8 countries and helped businessmen and women open baby centers and kindergartens in 3 countries.

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Chris Drew (PhD)

This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU.

Self-assessment is when we analyze our own behavior. It is a way for us to understand how we are doing at something.

People who self-assess will examine their current level of performance on a given dimension in order to see how they can improve.

We can compare our performance to a known standard or our own set of goals. That evaluation will enable us to identify our strengths and weaknesses, and help us chart a path of progress.

Self-assessment can be applied in just about any context. For example, we can assess our level of fitness, how we perform during a job interview, or if we are easy to work with, or not.

Definition of Self-Assessment

Brown and Harris (2013, p. 368) defined self-assessment in a school context as a “descriptive and evaluative act carried out by the student concerning his or her own work and academic abilities” . 

Making a judgment regarding our own abilities is easier said than done. If we want to know the truth, then we need an objective assessment.

That’s not easy to do when it comes to our own performance, because:

• Some people may have a positive bias about their abilities and give themselves high ratings when that might not be deserved.
• Other people are very critical of themselves and may be overly harsh.  

Ideally, evaluations should come from professionals with a lot of training and experience. However, that’s not always convenient and it can also be expensive. So, although self-assessments are not ideal, they are very practical.

Student Self-Assessment Examples

1. keeping a diary.

If you’re not sure how to self-assess, the first step could be to keep a diary of what you’ve been doing. This is a form of personal reflection that allows you to pause and assess your progress.

There are also some great self-assessment diaries out there, such as the various reflective teaching diaries, that provide prompting questions such as “what is your mood right now?” and “what’s something you did that you were proud of today?”

These moments of self-reflection also act as moments of self-assessment . While you reflect, you also pause to assess your actions and what you could have done differently to change outcomes next time. In this process, you can learn to more effectively self-regulate and incrementally improve.

2. Self-Reflection After a Meeting

None of us want to be labeled as “difficult” or “lazy”. So, after a meeting, it is a good idea to take a few moments and reflect on how we did. Were we attentive? Did we participate enough, or did we talk too much? Were we argumentative and unreasonable, or did we make constructive comments?

One of the most difficult challenges of work is getting along with colleagues. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone wants to pursue their own agenda.

In addition to that, everyone has a different personality. Some of those personalities might be difficult to deal with, day in and day out.

So, understanding how we are to work with is important.

Work consumes most of our lives. Having a successful career is essential to so many other aspects of our happiness. Therefore, reflecting on how we act in meetings can go a long way to helping us be more respectful and conciliatory.

See More: Self-Reflection Examples

3. Recording Your Presentation at Work

One form of self-assessment that can be extremely valuable is to record our presentations. It can be a sales pitch or product proposal, or just about anything else. There is probably no better way to evaluate our performance than recording it.

We can make observations about our intonation and rate of speech, in addition to our posture and any odd mannerisms we might exhibit. Of course, we can ask a trusted colleague to watch and give us a few insights as well.

Surprisingly, based on some research findings, there may not always be agreement between our self-assessment and what our peers think (Campbell et al., 2001).  

4. Filming your Sports Performance

In the same way that you can record a business presentation, you can also record yourself participating in sports to watch it back.

In fact, professional sportspeople and their coaches like tennis players, football players, and baseball batters will all film themselves to see how they performed.

They might be looking at their stance in tennis to see if they’ve got the right posture. In baseball, they may be looking at the position of the shoulders and elbows when the batter swings his bat. These observations can help shape a sportsperson’s self-concept so they have a realistic idea of their abilities.

By watching their actions, the sportspeople can assess their own actions and see themselves from a new perspective. It gives them the opportunity to see things about their actions that they couldn’t see in the moment.

5. Tracking Your Gym Workouts

Recording your daily workouts at the gym is another form of self-assessment. This will help you assess your current status and also help you become aware of your rate of progress.

Back in the old days, people used to carry clipboards around with them at the gym. After finishing each set, they would write down how much weight they lifted and the number of reps. It was also a good excuse to take a breather.

Of course, in this century, there’s an APP for that. Instead of using a paper worksheet and wooden pencil that was made by killing trees and destroys the environment, you can use an electronic version on your smartphone that was made with rare earth minerals and child labor.  

6. Tracking Personal Growth 

Personal growth is a long-term process. The goal is to make continuous progress over time. That can mean months or even years.

Over time, we can continuously make improvements in our sense of well-being, state of mind, or even our spirituality. 

Assessing your personal growth can be on any dimension of life you want. It can be about our sense of well-being, our level of knowledge, level of spirituality, or anything else that is deeply important to you.

First, you determine where you are now and where you want to be in the future. This will help you identify your goals and set targets. Make sure that your targets are realistic and feasible, and phrased in a way that is measurable. For example, don’t just say that you “want to learn more about history.” Instead, say that your goal is to take a university course or read two books on the Roman Empire.

Phrasing your personal growth goal in a concrete manner makes them easy to determine if they have been accomplished or not. Furthermore, when they are accomplished, you can see it, and this will help you build your own self-efficacy .

7. Using a Fitness App

There are so many fitness apps available today that you can find one, or a couple thousand, that will suit your needs just fine.

Generally speaking, these apps fall into one of three categories: nutrition, workout, and activity.

These apps will allow you to become more aware of your nutritional intake, chart your progress at the gym, or record how long and how far you walk or run. Fitness apps are a great way to assess if you are making progress on any of these health dimensions, or if you are just maintaining the status quo .

It’s an example of elf-assessment in the palm of your hand.

8. Participating in a Mock Job Interview

Before going into a job interview, people will often practice in a mock interview to self-assess their performance in order to improve before the big event!

Job interviews can be a bit stressful. There is a lot riding on your performance, especially if it is for a job that you really want. Plus, you only have one shot. If you fail the first interview, you will not get called back for another.

Many universities have career centers that offer students an opportunity to receive valuable coaching regarding their job interview performance. This involves going through a mock interview with an experienced professional.

Afterward, the coach and student will discuss the results together. Participating in a mock interview is a fantastic way to assess your strengths and weaknesses, and just might help you land a great job.

9. Comparing Your Work with Others  

One of the best ways to know how good you are is by comparing your performance with others. This is a kind of self-assessment by way of social comparison.

For example, after spending a ton of time on an essay, it is easy to be so immersed in it that you lose objectivity. You may think that you have really nailed it. However, instead of waiting to get the essay back from your teacher, it is a good idea to see an example of a paper that was already completed and evaluated as being very good.

You can then compare and contrast that essay with yours . Maybe the literature review in the really good essay went into much more detail than you thought was necessary. Or, maybe it contained charts and graphs that yours did not.

This form of self-assessment can be very informative.

10. Hiring a Life Coach

A life coach is an expert on helping people get the most out of their lives. A life coach can help someone improve their career, romantic relationship, or even offer advice on how to handle day-do-day affairs.

Every life coach is different, but generally speaking they will construct a very holistic assessment of a client by conducting in-depth conversations with them and maybe even make direct observations over an extended period of time. This will give them enough information to make suggestions and provide guidance. They will even take their services one step further and help the client implement those changes.  

So, if you are looking for a comprehensive assessment of your life, something that is also very practical and forward-looking, then a life coach may be exactly what you need.

11. Career Aptitude Test  

A career aptitude test is a simple questionnaire that asks about your interests, values, skills, and personality characteristics. It then uses that data to identify different careers that would be a good match to your profile.

It is a great self-assessment tool that can offer some career guidance. You can discover which professions are most suited to your unique profile. The results can be surprising. You just might discover that people like you do very well in a certain job you would have never considered before.

These sorts of self-assessments are often given to students graduating from high school. High school students are at a phase in their life where a decision about what sort of career they want to do is at the front of mind. So, it’s the perfect time to take one of these tests.

12. Taking the Big Five Personality Traits Inventory

A personality trait is a consistent way that a person acts and feels. The Big Five personality traits are considered to be the most commonly occurring. They consist of: extroversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness , and neuroticism. Everyone has these 5 traits to one degree or another.

Research has investigated how these traits relate to an incredibly wide range of subject matter, from leadership style to quality of romantic relationships and everything in between. Not only are the Big Five consistent across diverse cultures, but they have considerable stability across the lifespan as well (Rantanen et al., 2007).

Fortunately, there are many versions of this inventory available online. Most have reasonable reliability and validity. So, if you wish to conduct a personality self-assessment, there are many options to choose from.

13. Using a Wellness Wheel

A Wellness Wheel is a form of self-assessment that examines all aspects of our life. Most wheels include seven dimensions: spiritual, emotional, professional, intellectual, social, physical, and environmental.

Wellness wheels are very popular because they can provide a snapshot of our current status from a broad perspective.

By examining the status of our life on these seven dimensions, we can increase our self-awareness . If that analysis leads to the conclusion that we need change, then the wellness wheel will show us wear to focus most of our effort.

The Wellness Wheel is an example of a very holistic approach to self-assessment. It doesn’t require a trained professional either, and many versions are available online.

14. Metacognitive Strategies

Metacognition refers to the act of thinking about thinking. It requires you to reflect on how you went about a task and identify pros, cons, and alternatives to the way you went about the task.

For example, if you had just had an argument with a friend, metacognition might involve reflecting on how you lost your cool and started saying things you regretted. You can think about why you followed that thought path, and how you might have been able to de-fuse the situation in the future.

Another example is reflecting on your own learning style. You may have tried to study for a test using reading, leading to a poor test score. Upon reflection, you may realize you were getting very tired when reading; and as a result, next time you are going to try to study by watching lecture videos instead of reading.

15. Taking a Myers-Briggs Test

A Myers-Briggs test is a personality test that can help you to understand your own personality and the personalities of others.

The test assesses you against 16 different personality types, and each type has its own strengths and weaknesses.

The Myers-Briggs test can help you to find out your own personality type, and it can also be used to improve communication and team work by understanding the different strengths and weaknesses of each personality type.

Thus, while the tool is doing the assessment, by self-administering this test, you’re actually self-evaluating in order to learn more about yourself and how you interact with the people around you.

Self-assessment can help us get a better handle on where we are in life or in our profession. Examining our status quo can help us identify our strengths and the areas that we should try to improve.

Self-assessment comes in many forms. It can include modern technology such as fitness apps, or old-school tech like making a video recording. There are also forms that don’t involve any technology at all. Hiring a real live person to be your life coach may be a bit pricey, but it is a long-term strategy that can be personal and totally centered on your needs.

No matter your preference or goals, there are many self-assessment methods available.

Andrade HL (2019) A Critical Review of Research on Student Self-Assessment. Frontiers in Education, 4(87). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00087

Brown, G. T., and Harris, L. R. (2013). Student self-assessment. In J. H. McMillan (Ed.), Sage Handbook of Research on Classroom Assessment , pp. 367-393. Los Angeles, CA: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452218649.n21

Campbell, K. S., Mothersbaugh, D. L., Brammer, C., & Taylor, T. (2001). Peer versus self- assessment of oral business presentation performance. Business Communication Quarterly , 64 (3). https://doi.org/10.1177/108056990106400303

John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big-Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (Vol. 2, pp. 102–138). New York: Guilford Press.

Muntaner-Mas, A., Martinez-Nicolas, A., Lavie, C.J. et al. (2019). A systematic review of fitness apps and their potential clinical and sports utility for objective and remote assessment of cardiorespiratory fitness. Sports Medicine, 49 , 587–600. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01084-y

Rantanen, J., Metsäpelto, R. L., Feldt, T., Pulkkinen, L. E. A., & Kokko, K. (2007). Long‐term stability in the Big Five personality traits in adulthood. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology , 48 (6), 511-518. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2007.00609.x

• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 23 Achieved Status Examples
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• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 15 Theory of Planned Behavior Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 18 Adaptive Behavior Examples

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 23 Achieved Status Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Ableism Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 25 Defense Mechanisms Examples
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• Exam Wrapper Examples

Self-Assessment

Self-assessment activities help students to be a realistic judge of their own performance and to improve their work. 

Why Use Self-Assessment? 

• Promotes the skills of reflective practice and self-monitoring. 
• Promotes academic integrity through student self-reporting of learning progress. 
• Develops self-directed learning. 
• Increases student motivation. 
• Helps students develop a range of personal, transferrable skills. 

Considerations for Using Self-Assessment 

• The difference between self-assessment and self-grading will need clarification. 
• The process of effective self-assessment will require instruction and sufficient time for students to learn. 
• Students are used to a system where they have little or no input in how they are assessed and are often unaware of assessment criteria. 
• Students will want to know how much self-assessed assignments will count toward their final grade in the course. 
• Incorporating self-assessment can motivate students to engage with the material more deeply. 
• Self-assessment assignments can take more time. 
• Research shows that students can be more stringent in their self-assessment than the instructor. 

Getting Started with Self-Assessment 

• Identify which assignments and criteria are to be assessed. 
• Articulate expectations and clear criteria for the task. This can be accomplished with a  rubric . You may also ask students to complete a checklist before turning in an assignment. 
• Motivate students by framing the assignment as an opportunity to reflect objectively on their work, determine how this work aligns with the assignment criteria, and determine ways for improvement. 
• Provide an opportunity for students to agree upon and take ownership of the assessment criteria. 
• Draw attention to the inner dialogue that people engage in as they produce a piece of work. You can model this by talking out loud as you solve a problem, or by explaining the types of decisions you had to think about and make as you moved along through a project. 
• Consider using an “exam wrapper” or “assignment wrapper.” These short worksheets ask students to reflect on their performance on the exam or assignment, how they studied or prepared, and what they might do differently in the future. Examples of exam and homework wrappers can be found through Carnegie Mellon University’s Eberly Center. 

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Principles of assessment for learning

• 2 Working in groups
• 3 Self and peer assessment
• 4 Sharing objectives and criteria
• 5 Questioning
• 6 Using feedback
• 7 Using tests

Self and peer assessment

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Discover how you can use self and peer assessment to actively involve students in their learning, including teaching tips and examples to use in your classroom

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Self and peer assessment gives students a structure to reflect on their work, what they have learned and how to improve.

What is self and peer assessment?

Self-assessment enables students to take ownership of their learning by judging the extent of their knowledge and understanding. It provides a structure for them to reflect on their work, what they have learned and how to improve.

Peer-assessment, where they act as critical friends and support each other, can help students to develop self-assessment skills.

In order to make any judgements, students must have grasped the learning and the standards of work expected of them.

Why use these techniques?

Through self and peer assessment, students take more responsibility for their own learning. It helps the individual to:

• assess their own progress objectively
• crystallise learning objectives
• recognise their understanding
• think about what they did not understand
• grow in confidence
• take their own learning forwards.

Within the class, it fosters respect and collaboration.

Peer criticism can be more effective than that from the teacher because:

• The normal shared language will be used.
• It acts as a stimulus to complete work and to raise standards.
• Some students are more receptive to comments from their peers.
• Group feedback can command more attention than that of an individual.

It frees up the teacher to concentrate on what is not known, rather than what is.

How do I set up self or peer assessment?

When preparing for an activity involving self or peer assessment, it is vital to:

• Create an atmosphere of mutual trust.
• Decide how the students will discover the learning objectives. Criteria for success must be transparent.
• Select a technique suitable to the topic (see ’Example activities’ below for some ideas). Give explicit instructions.
• Encourage students to listen to others, to ask questions on points that they do not understand and to contribute ideas and opinions (see ’Discussion and feedback’ below).

Example activities

Examples of what the students might do include:

• Research and present within a small group, which then judges each talk.
• Make a judgement about an answer and suggest improvements.
• Use the criteria to give feedback about their peer’s work.
• Research answers in order to give feedback about their peer’s work.
• Comment on anonymous work.
• Indicate how confident they are about a topic or task (both before and after an activity).
• Write questions to match a learning outcome and then answer questions written by others.
• In groups, generate questions for homework, then select the best through class discussion.
• Analyse a marking scheme and apply it to their own or others’ work.
• Develop the learning outcomes for a given area of work for themselves.

Discussion and feedback

• Have a strategy to tackle the weaknesses that are identified. For example, if it is a small number of students, draw them together for further work whilst giving the rest of the class an extension activity.
• Allow plenty of time for students to take action following feedback from peers or you. This may be repeating an experiment, carrying out further research or rewriting their notes. You may have to provide input for this.
• Use plenaries and feedback, to pause and take stock, during and towards the end of the session.
• Check that, if needed, students have made correct records.

Hints and tips for promoting effective self and peer assessment

Alternative plenary.

In this variation, a small group of students leads the discussion, instead of the teacher. When preparing and running the activity, it is important to:

• Let students know that they will sometimes lead a plenary themselves.
• Remind the class of the learning objectives.
• Use judicious questions to review the learning achieved.
• Summarise as a basis for working out the next steps.
• Ensure that the class agrees with any summary (may be by group discussion).
• Ensure that there is opportunity for students to make additional points.
• Give supportive, tactful feedback to the leaders.

‘Traffic lights’ or ‘Thumbs up’

Using this technique, students show an instant evaluation of their knowledge and understanding. From this, both teacher and student can recognise problems.

• thumbs up – confident
• thumbs sideways – some uncertainty
• thumbs down – little confidence.

Using green, amber and red ‘traffic light’ cards, instead of thumbs, makes students give a definite response and provides the teacher with a good visual indicator. These cards can also be used for students to show their choice between alternatives, for example, ‘Do you think the answer is 1, 2 or 3?’

Cards or thumbs can be used at any time during a session.

Prompt questions

You can use questions to help students move forward.

Appropriate questions would be based on:

• What do you think you could improve?
• Why do you want to improve that?
• What was the hardest part?
• What help do you need?

Learning diary

To ensure that the self or peer assessment activity is meaningful, and not a bureaucratic exercise, it can be helpful to make recording an integral part of activities. The diary could be linked to plenaries and written in class notes. Headings or questions might include:

• What was exciting in chemistry this week.
• The most important thing I learned this week.
• What I did well. What I need to do more work on.
• Which targets I’ve met.

The questions do not need to be the same each week.

Is there anything else teachers should think about?

When preparing and running a self or peer assessment activity, consider:

• Introducing the technique gradually so that skills are developed.
• Different methods for introducing students to the learning objectives/outcomes.
• Setting up a supportive atmosphere, so that students are comfortable about admitting to problems.
• Giving students sufficient time to work out the problems.
• Making the encouragement of self-reflection intrinsic to teaching.

Common issues to watch out for

• It takes time, patience and commitment to develop self and peer assessment. For preference, there should be a strong learning culture and an environment of mutual trust throughout the school.
• Students will need group skills.
• There must be an opportunity for the expected learning and standards to be made clear.
• Teachers need to listen unobtrusively to avert the propagation of misunderstandings (careful group selection also helps).
• A few students will only respond to work in class as exercises to be completed and not internalised.

How can I tell if self or peer assessment is successful?

When you devise your checklist to evaluate the session, consider how you will measure:

• How well the students understood the objectives.
• Whether the student groupings worked as you wished.
• If the students improved their self-assessment skills.
• How meaningful the peer assessment was.
• The students’ response to the technique.
• The support for different abilities.
• Whether the lesson correlated with the objectives.
• Improvement in work standards.

Additional information

This information was originally part of the  Assessment for Learning  website, published in 2008.

Working in groups

Sharing objectives and criteria

Questioning

Using feedback

Using tests

• Working independently
• Active learning
• Peer assessment

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Encourage your students to take an active role in their learning using these assessment for learning principles to structure and plan your chemistry lessons.

Using tests | Principles of assessment for learning

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Hints and guidance on how to use tests in the classroom as a formative exercise to actively involve your students in their learning.

Using feedback | Principles of assessment for learning

Learn how to use feedback more effectively to actively involve your students in their learning, with tips and ideas to use in the classroom.

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Benefits and examples of student self-assessments.

Studies suggest that student self-assessments can help students perform better. A study published in the online journal Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education found that when students evaluate themselves and receive feedback, their grades improve. Feedback literacy means being able to understand and use feedback to improve learning.

Proper student self-assessment goes beyond simple self-rating or guesswork. It involves students evaluating their own work against specific criteria. Then, they can reflect on and judge their performance based on objective and select benchmarks.

The application of self-assessment can vary. Examples of student self-assessment range from using learning logs and reflective journals to rubrics self-assessments. Teachers need to understand how student self-assessment helps students learn so they can properly guide them and advance their educational development. 

What Is Student Self-Assessment?

Student self-assessment is an approach that students can apply to gauge how they’re doing in school. This can be accomplished by checking their own work, performance, behavior, as well as understanding what they’ve learned and what they still need to learn. This encourages students to take ownership of their learning and fosters accountability. Examples of student self-assessment activities can include establishing goals, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and setting plans for improvement.

Effective self-assessment means consistently showing students how to think about their own learning through the entire learning process. Insights gained from the self-assessment process can help improve their achievement. Teachers play a critical role in regularly making the process clear to students and removing obstacles for productive self-assessments.

Why Is Student Self-Assessment Important?

Student self-assessment is important for several reasons. It encourages independent learning, enhances learning outcomes, and can potentially reduce teachers’ workloads. It also helps students understand what they are learning and the reasons why they are learning about a particular subject. This understanding is a key to educational growth and helps provide a clear path to follow in their ongoing growth journey. 

Student-self assessment also promotes metacognition, which means understanding one’s own thought processes. This helps improve cognitive functions, including problem solving, learning, and decision making.

What Are the Benefits of Student Self-Assessment?

Student self-assessment boosts motivation and engagement by empowering students to take control of their learning. Active involvement in assessing their progress increases their investment in education. 

Numerous studies highlight the positive impact of student self-assessment. For instance, a study in the International Journal of Educational Research revealed marked enhancement in writing skills among students who use rubrics compared to those who did not.

Additional examples of student self-assessment benefits include the following.

• Students can evaluate knowledge and learning processes.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills can be improved.
• It champions a growth mindset for viewing challenges as opportunities.

Student self-assessment not only benefits students themselves, it provides valuable feedback to educators. This helps teachers gain insights into students’ understanding, strengths, and weaknesses. It also promotes a supportive and inclusive learning environment, as students feel that their perspectives and voices are valued.

7 Examples of Student Self-Assessments

For teachers, discovering effective self-assessment strategies, processes, and tools in collaboration with students is an ongoing journey that demands time and patience. Here are seven examples of student self-assessments.

1. Learning Log

A learning log serves as a personal journal for students to record their thoughts, questions, and experiences on their educational journey. It encourages deep self-awareness, helping students track their growth, identify strengths and weaknesses, and gain insights into their learning patterns. By updating their learning log regularly, students take ownership of their learning, fostering a deeper understanding of their academic development and promoting accountability.

2. Reflective Journals

Reflective journals prompt students to write about their learning experiences, challenges, and achievements, including personal reflections, emotions, and opinions. Such journals encourage deep reflection and enhance self-awareness. Reflective logs, however, differ from learning logs by being more open-ended and less focused on objective data. Journaling in an online format can also be beneficial. It can open versatile reflective tools for students in the form of documents, videos, or audio, fostering richer learning experiences and improved outcomes.

3. Goal Setting

Students can set specific goals that are measurable, achievable, relevant, and timebound (SMART) within their learning logs or reflective journals. Examples of student self-assessment SMART goals can include improving academic performance—more specifically, a student can say: “I will increase my grade from a B+ to an A next marking period.” 

Another example of goal setting can include working to increase class participation—for example, establishing a promise to participate in school at least 3 times every day. This approach provides students with clear roadmaps for their learning journey and fosters a sense of accountability.

4. Rubric Self-Assessment

Rubrics can aid in the self-assessment process. This helps students identify areas for improvement and take ownership of their learning process, providing a clear framework to evaluate their own work and gain an understanding of high-quality performance. 

Commonly used rubric types in schools include holistic rubrics (an overall performance assessment) and analytic rubrics (a breakdown of performance into separate elements). Another type, developmental rubrics, measure growth along a proficiency scale from novice to expert. Assessment rubrics help students proactively self-assess their work against predefined criteria.

5. Questionnaires or Surveys

Students can regularly fill out self-assessment questionnaires or surveys to reflect on their learning experiences, as well as identify strengths, weaknesses, and improvement opportunities. Examples of student self-assessment questions can include: What did you learn today? Did you try your best on your assignment? Answers to these types of questions can help students set action plans for continuous improvement.

6. Self-Reflection Worksheets

Self-reflection worksheets enable students to reflect on the breadth of their learning experiences, identify areas for improvement, and develop action plans to address those areas. Including action plans in these worksheets empowers students to take tangible steps toward enhancing their abilities, turning self-awareness into a catalyst for growth and development. 

7. Exit Tickets

Exit tickets are brief assessments or reflections completed by students at the end of a lesson or class session. They help educators gauge student comprehension, identify areas that need further attention, and tailor future lessons accordingly. Exit tickets also encourage students to reflect on their learning and provide valuable feedback to the teacher.

Become A Transformative Educator

Despite the noted benefits of student self-assessment, putting forward new strategies into practice can come with challenges. If you are looking to incorporate teaching strategies to better connect with students and help improve learning outcomes, an advanced degree in education can prepare you with essential skills to become a transformative educator.

Wilson College Online offers a Master of Education (MEd) degree , covering subjects such as differentiated instruction, best practices, and technology integration. This program hones teaching skills through both research and classroom practices. It also offers educators the flexibility to continue teaching in their current district, thanks to the program’s asynchronous self-paced model.

Discover how the Wilson College Online Master of Education degree can empower you to further impact the lives of students.

Recommended Readings

Pros and Cons of Education Apps for Toddlers

Special Education Teacher Salary and Career Overview

Tips for Building an Engaging Special Education Classroom

ASCD, “How to Provide Better Feedback Through Rubrics”

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, “Self-assessment is About More Than Self: The Enabling Role of Feedback Literacy”

EducationWeek, “Rubric Do’s & Don’ts”

Edutopia, “Teaching Students to Assess Their Learning”

E-Learning Heroes, “Using Learning Journals in E-Learning #344”

International Journal of Educational Research Open, “Examining the Impact of Self-assessment with the Use of Rubrics on Primary School Students’ Performance”

Kami, “How to Use SMART Goals for Your Students”

NWEA, “2 Types of Student Goal Setting that Empower Early Learners”

NWEA, “Proof That Student Self-Assessment Moves Learning Forward”

ProProfs, “Self-Assessment for Students: The Ultimate Guide”

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Helping Students Thrive by Using Self-Assessment

As a teacher, when you design a lesson or unit, you design it with the hope that everything will go according to plan, your students will learn the content, and they’ll be ready to move on to the next concept. If you’ve been a teacher for more than a day or two, however, you know that this often isn’t the case.

Some students will pick up the information and quickly get bored while others will be lost and quickly fall behind. And sometimes, the lesson will fall flat and none of your students will understand much of anything.

Other times, a lesson will work really well with one group of students, but it will flop with another. This is all just par for the course with teaching, and you never know what you’re going to get on any given day.

Thankfully, there is a way you can make your lessons better, more achievable, and more appropriate for all students. The solution is to teach them how to use self-assessment.

Self-assessment is one of those “teach a man to fish” concepts–once students understand how to self-assess, they’ll be more equipped to learn in all aspects of their life. At the very basic level, self assessment is simple: students need to think:

• What was I supposed to learn?
• Did I learn it?
• What questions do I still have?

This formative assessment helps students and teachers understand where they’re at in their learning. The more students learn to do this at your direction and the more techniques they have to self-assess, the more likely they are to inherently do it on their own.

What does self-assessment look like?

Self-assessment can take many forms, and it can be very quick and informal, or it might be more structured and important. In essence though, self assessment looks like students pausing to examine what they do and don’t know. However, if you simply say, “OK, class, time to self-assess,” you’ll likely be met with blank stares.

The more you’re able to walk students through strategies for self-assessment, the more they’ll understand the purpose, process, and value of thinking about their learning. For the best results to reach the most students, aim to incorporate different types of self-assessment, just as you aim to incorporate different ways of teaching into your lessons.

Why self-assessment works

One of the reasons self-assessment is so effective is because it helps students stay within their zone of proximal development when they’re learning. In this zone, students are being challenged, which means they’re learning, but they’re not being pushed too hard into frustration.

The reason this is so helpful is because teachers can see anywhere from 15-150+ students every day, so it’s hard for a teacher to know where every single student is at in his or her learning. Without stopping for self-assessment, it’s easy for a teacher to move on before students are ready or to belabor a concept students mastered days ago.

When students are able to self-assess, they take control of their learning and realize when they need to ask more questions or spend more time working on a concept. Self-assessment that is relayed back to the teacher, either formally or informally, helps the teacher get a better idea of where students are at with their learning.

Another benefit of self-assessment is that students tend to take more ownership and find more value in their learning, according to a study out of Duquesne University. According to the study, formative assessments like self-assessment “give students the means, motive, and opportunity to take control of their own learning.” When teachers give students those opportunities, they empower their students and help turn them into active, rather than passive learners.

Self-assessment also helps students practice learning independently, which is a key skill for life, and especially for students who are pursuing higher education.

How to execute self assessment

To truly make this part of your classroom, you’ll need to explain to students what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and you’ll need to hold them accountable for their self assessment. The following steps can help you successfully set up self-assessment in your classroom.

Step 1: Explain what self-assessment is and why it’s important

Sometimes teachers have a tendency to surprise students with what’s coming next or to not explain the reasoning behind a teaching strategy or decision. While this is often done out of a desire for control and power as the leader of the classroom, it doesn’t do much to help students and their learning.

If students don’t understand why they’re doing what they’re doing, they usually won’t do it at all, or will just to the bare minimum to go through the motions and get the grade. If students don’t understand the purpose of a learning strategy, they often see it as busy work. Most students are very used to being assessed only by their teachers, so they may not understand why they’re suddenly being asked to take stock of their own learning.

Make sure you take the time to explain why you’re implementing this new learning strategy and how it is going to directly benefit them. That explanation is going to vary based on the age of your students and other factors, but you can give students some variation of the explanation of why self-assessment works above.

Step 2: Always show a model

As you scroll down, you’ll see that we give you some examples of ways to use self assessment; each time you try one of these new techniques, be sure to create an exemplar model for your students. If you want this to work, students need to know what the goal that they’re working toward looks like.

Depending on the type of self-assessment you’re working with, a simple model might be enough, or students might need to practice with the work of others. A low stakes way to start this out is with examples from past students. Pull out an old project from years past and have students assess the project as if it were their own.

Once students learn how to be respectful and constructive with this peer assessment, they can practice with the peers in their class. Including this step often makes it easier for students to assess their own work. It can be hard to look back at your own work or thought process, especially if not much time has passed since you did the work.

Step 3: Teach students different strategies of self-assessment

We all learn best by doing, so rather than just giving students a list of self-assessment strategies, take your time walking through different strategies together. Also remember that the strategy that works best for Jimmy might not work well for Susan, so the more you can diversify self-assessment for your students, the more students you’re going to be able to reach.

Try starting with just one type of self assessment, give students time to master that type, then add another type. As time goes on, you can offer students choice in the type of self-assessment they want to use.

Step 4: Practice

Before you ask students to actively assess their own work, let them practice with some low stakes examples. It’s hard for many people to critique themselves and to recognize they have room for improvement, yet it’s essential.

Give students some examples of work from past students (names always removed) and walk through “self” assessment with those examples together as a class.

Step 5: Create a way to hold students accountable

Self-assessment shouldn’t always be tied to a grade, but students will catch on quickly if you’re not somehow holding them accountable. There are many ways to do this, for example:

• Conference with each student throughout the process
• Make self-assessment part of the final grade for a project or unit
• Create a self-assessment reward chart

The important thing to remember with holding students accountable for their self-assessment is that you should be holding them accountable for doing the self-assessment, but not for what they do or don’t know, nor for the changes they make based on their self-assessment.

Step 6: Don’t stop

Sometimes we have a tendency to try a strategy once or twice and then let it slide as the school year goes on, but as students learn that they’re no longer being held accountable, they will stop. You can’t ever assume a student will keep using a strategy unless you give them explicit instructions and hold them accountable.

Remember that as with anything, students will get better at self-assessment the more they practice it. The more you explicitly assign self-assessment, the more it will become a normal part of the learning process.

Examples of self assessment

Remember that it’s good to use a variety of self-assessment strategies so all students have a chance to find a style that works best for them. Any time you introduce a new strategy or assign self-assessment, be very clear about what students should do and how they should do it.

The strategies we suggest are broken down by age, but always use your best judgment regarding which strategies will be best for your students.

KWL chart: Before starting a lesson or unit, have students write or say what they already know (K) and what they want to know (W) about the topic. After the lesson or unit, they write or say what they learned (L). This can easily evolve into larger discussions and assignments.

Goals: At the end of each lesson, day, week, etc. students write one learning goal they would like to achieve. This can be very open-ended, or it could be very focused, asking students to reflect on one specific subject or topic. You can expand on this by having students return to their goal to see if they met it, encouraging them to ask for help if they haven’t met their goal.

Red, yellow, green: Give each student three circles: one red, one yellow, and one green. Throughout the school day, students place their red circle on their desk if they’re lost or confused, yellow if they’re struggling a little bit, and green if they understand, and they’re good to go. You can also stop to have students check their understanding by asking them to hold up a color. Some students feel shy about admitting they’re confused, so this strategy can also work really well if you have students place their heads down before holding up their circle.

Objective check: In the morning, give students a list of objectives you will cover in school today. Have each student write down an objective they would really like to learn today. At the end of the day, students return to the objective and determine whether they learned it or not.

Tricky spots: Work with students to identify where they struggle (for example, “I have trouble with word problems in math,” or “I have trouble spelling new words”). When starting a new lesson or unit, have each student identify one tricky spot they want to focus on. Be sure to check in with students often on their tricky spot to make sure they are making progress and not getting frustrated.

Highlighting: Have students go back to a writing assignment, worksheet, or project and highlight the section that they think was their best work. As an extension, have them explain why this was their best work. This is an excellent strategy to use with students who struggle or lack confidence in their work.

Self reflection: After a speech or presentation, have students write down three things they did well and one thing they can improve on. Extend this by returning to these during the next speech or presentation; you could even make them part of the rubric for the next assignment.

Exit tickets: Before students can leave the room, they must fill out an exit ticket and hand it to the teacher. You might ask them to write one thing they learned today and one thing they want to learn tomorrow, for example.

Think, pair, share: Pose a reflective question or prompt to students, for example you might tell them to think about or even write down the most important thing they learned in class today. Next, have them pair with a partner or small group to discuss their answer to the question or prompt, and finally, have students report back to the whole class.

Grades 9-12

Rubrics: Before completing a project, give students the rubric you will use to grade their effort. Have students complete a draft of the project and assess themselves using the rubric. After they do this, you might conference with them, give them feedback, or have them complete a reflective assignment. Then, have students complete a second draft that they will turn in for their grade (or to continue to work and improve upon).

Writing conferences: After students write an outline or first draft of an essay, hold an individual conference with each student. Before you provide your input, have students identify the strengths and weaknesses of their work. Use their self assessment as the guide of what you discuss during the conference. You might even find that students are more critical of themselves than you would have been.

Empty rubrics: At the beginning of a project, leave a space on the rubric empty. Help each student fill in the empty spot with something they need to work on, whether it’s something that they’re already good at and want to get even better or it’s something they struggle with and want to get better at.

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The importance of student self-assessment

Want to know a secret? I didn’t mean to become a secondary ELA teacher. One of the reasons why an ELA endorsement wasn’t originally at the top of my list was this persistent worry: How does one keep up with marking and grading all those ELA assignments? I do love a good challenge, though, so despite my concerns, I jumped into the adventure, and I am so glad that I did.

Over time, I faced that ELA assignment volume fear. Through support from mentors, observations of experts, and practice in professional development settings, I learned how to embed student self-assessment into learning processes so that my workload concerns were alleviated. More importantly, my students were able to build metacognition and self-efficacy skills .

I don’t want to give the impression that learning how to embed self-assessment processes was smooth or linear, or that the process is complete for me. There was trial and error, zigs and zags, and I am still learning how to improve my practice. I hope that sharing the things I’ve learned along the way can bring relief and support you in your work.

The topic of student self-assessment is huge, so for the purposes of this blog post, I will focus on three things that I’ve learned along the way. If you want to know more about the components and benefits of self-assessment, check out this short Dylan Wiliam video . I also encourage you to read Heidi Andrade’s “A critical review of research on student self-assessment.” She asks and answers several key questions about self-assessment including, “What is self-assessment?” and “Why self-assess?” She also digs into how it relates to feedback.

1. Reflect on your role

When I first started teaching, I was prepared to operate as a learner-manager instead of a learner-empowerer. As a learner-manager ELA teacher, I would give directions for an essay, set a due date, collect essays, take hours to mark and grade the essays, and then hand back the papers. Inevitably I would be frustrated when students ignored my marks or tossed out the paper, only to ask how to raise their grade at the end of the quarter. Ugh! Wasn’t this precisely why I hadn’t planned on being an ELA teacher?

Authentic, meaningful, and effective student self-assessment requires participants to be honest and vulnerable.

Slowly I came to understand how important it was for me to make the shift from thinking of myself as a learner-manager (an “I say it. You do it” approach) to thinking of myself as a learner-empowerer (a “How do I partner with my students to build knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy throughout the learning journey?” approach). (For more about learner-manager versus learner-empowerer as well as information about the connections to equity and a trauma-informed practice, see my post “6 ways to help heal toxic stress, trauma, and inequity in your virtual or in-person classroom” .)

Once I committed to being a learner-empowerer, my actions followed suit. I engineered learning goal paths that made students active agents in the learning processes. For example, I built in small, quick opportunities to practice self-assessing along the way so that by the time we arrived at an end point, students’ work was solid and they could reflect on the goal or explain a grade. More on that in the next tip.

2. Use reliable strategies, processes, and tools

Here are four “moves”—examples of specific actions I learned to embed in learning processes—that I think can help you as you consider the role of self-assessment in your classroom.

Nurture a community of learning

Authentic, meaningful, and effective student self-assessment requires participants to be honest and vulnerable. I had to deliberately foster a safe, respectful, and inclusive learning environment. In my blog post “5 little things that are really big” I explain specific ways to partner with students to make this happen. My colleague Cara Holt outlines 10 useful community-building strategies in her blog post, and another colleague, Vicki McCoy, explores self-assessment and metacognition in “How formative assessment boosts metacognition—and learning.”

Reallocate time and energy

Early in my teaching career, I was hesitant to fully dive into processes for successful student self-assessment. It felt like the learning experiences in a lesson or unit would take longer if I did because of the need to make room for the exercises that make self-assessment fruitful, such as clarifying goals, using examples, and engaging in peer feedback. I had to trust that reworking how I used teaching and learning time would pay off in the end, and it did.

By making time in the lesson or unit for the short, frequent exercises that make self-assessment successful, I spent less time tracking down unfinished work and nagging students about revisions. I also ultimately saved time grading. Once my students and I got the hang of self-assessment processes, students could reflect on the learning goals and articulate their grade rationale—and they were usually right on! No more frustration of unread markups and ignored grades.

Use examples of work

Self-assessment is even more fruitful when students can process examples of work that illustrate the learning goals and success criteria. In other words, for meaningful self-assessment, we had to work to make sure there was a solid foundation of understanding about examples and how to use the examples as a guide. After creating that solid understanding of success through examples, my students and I could take next steps with effective self, peer, and teacher feedback, which ultimately led to successful self-assessment.

I learned to start with strong examples so that students were sure to have a sound reference for what the end result should look like. Sometimes I could access these examples from the provided curriculum materials or from previous students; sometimes I made the examples myself, especially if the learning goals or path to the learning goals were specific to my students’ motivations and interests.

If my students were working on a learning goal (such as building argumentation claims and counterclaims) expressed in a multi-step product (such as a multiple paragraph argument), we would process a whole example. We would also examine specific pieces (e.g., paragraphs or even sentences). The students and I would look for the success criteria together using processes that aligned to the learning goal(s). For instance, if we were working on argumentation learning goals, we would use an argument rubric to guide our processing of the example, usually a few parts of the rubric at a time. This practice set forth the words and procedures for effective teacher, self, and peer feedback grounded in concrete illustrations of the learning goals and success criteria. With the provided examples, we could practice a feedback strategy such as Stars (strengths) and Stairs (next steps): Using the language of the rubric, what is a strength of this argumentation example? Using the language of the rubric, what is a next step for this argumentation example? Students had plenty of practice with the strategy first for processing examples, then for practicing feedback, and finally as a frame for self-assessment: Using the language of the rubric, what is a strength of your argumentation? Using the language of the rubric, what is a next step for your argumentation?

Figuring out the self-assessment strategies, processes, and tools that work best in partnership with your students is an ongoing expedition that requires time, patience, and a sense of humor.

Once a solid understanding of the end result and its pieces are established through sound examples, it can be fun to process silly non-examples with students. For example, one of my favorite silly non-examples to use when practicing reading and writing for information is a YouTube video of a dad following his children’s written instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich . You can even ask students to help you make those silly non-examples, which is another way for students to both become active partners in learning and internalize what does and does not illustrate the learning goal(s) and success criteria. Making time for processing examples and non-examples equips students with a clear picture of the end result and the frames for self-assessment success.

Include self-assessment prompts during the journey and at the end

For far too long, I would tell students to self-assess and hope that they followed through. Eventually I made it a habit to embed self-assessment prompts, space, and time directly on formative (practice) and summative materials.

When relevant, I would simply embed a one-sentence self-assessment frame (e.g., On a scale of 1–5, my claim sentence is currently a ___ because ___.) Other times it was better to prompt more than a one-sentence self-assessment (e.g., To self-assess your use of textual evidence to support your claim, please follow these steps: 1. In your draft, highlight where you used textual evidence to support your claim. 2. Based on the textual evidence that you used, circle your current level of skill on the provided rubric. 3. Use the information on the provided rubric to list one action you take to make your textual evidence even stronger.) The students and I would use their self-assessment answers to plan next steps, which sometimes looked like adjusting the lesson plan for the next day for more practice or making mixed groups for the next formative exercise.

For the summative task(s), I got into the habit of making sure to include student self-assessment as the last part of the experience. For instance, if there was a written or spoken product, after the conclusion sentence students would also self-assess using a provided frame. If the summative was a set of prompts or questions, the last prompt or question would be self-assessment.

3. Embrace the process

Figuring out the self-assessment strategies, processes, and tools that work best in partnership with your students is an ongoing expedition that requires time, patience, and a sense of humor. You’ll take steps forward, steps sideways, and steps back. It can get messy, but that’s normal. Authentic, human-centered learning is messy!

I encourage you to try one new thing at a time, celebrate quick wins, think of “failures” as learning opportunities, and lean on your students for their help. Be reassured that applying self-assessment practices is one of the most valuable parts of the learning process. For more on the value of student self-assessment, see the discussion section in “Examining the impact of self-assessment with the use of rubrics on primary school students’ performance.”

Suggested next steps

I encourage you to continue the journey of including students as active agents in the learning process. Growing in or expanding upon the practices listed here can help you continue that journey. In case you find them helpful, here are a few discussion questions that can guide your thinking about student self-assessment. Tackle them on your own or with a colleague.

Questions for teachers

• What’s one student self-assessment strategy that you already use?
• What’s one student self-assessment strategy that you would like to try?
• What support do you need to try a new self-assessment strategy?
• What will inspire you to keep up the hard work of embedding student self-assessment in the learning journey?

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8 tools for peer and self-assessment

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Self-assessment is a powerful learning strategy. Students who can assess their own learning are more effective learners. They are more motivated and engaged, have a greater belief that they can succeed, and are able to adapt their approach if learning is not working. Assessment-capable students show higher achievement. While in the long-term self-assessment facilitates self-directed learning by students, establishing successful self-assessment requires considerable input by teachers. It needs sustained direct teaching on how to do it and follow-up support. Teachers also need to set the right conditions in the classroom so that students are not threatened by feeling judged. 

Here are eight tools, which may be useful in developing self-assessment practices:

• Traffic lights
• Paired marking
• Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time (DIRT)
• Rubrics 

Rubrics are an assessment tool which include two types of information:

• a list of criteria for assessing the important goals of the task
• a scale for grading the different levels of achievement in each of the criteria, with a description for each qualitative level.

Using a rubric, students can compare their work against the criteria and assess the standard they have reached. Although rubrics are designed to evaluate a final product, if they are given to students at the beginning of a task rubrics can support students to plan their work, and review and adjust it during its production. Students can also be encouraged to rewrite or even create their own rubrics. You need to support your students in the use of rubrics – just handing them out is no guarantee of success.

Scripts consist of specific questions that are structured into a clear progression of steps, to guide learners in how best to achieve a task. They explicitly detail the ‘self-talk’ that accompanies working through a task. A script is useful for students to follow throughout a task, but it can also be used to analyse the final outcome. A script can help students to assess whether they are on the right track to completing the task, and supports them to adjust their learning behaviour according to the directions of the scripted questions. You can also ask students to use scripts to analyse their or their peers’ work after production, e.g. by reviewing whether each step was satisfactorily completed.

• Journals 

A learning journal is a place for students to reflect in writing about how their learning is going, what they need help with, and the effectiveness of different strategies for learning. Teachers need to provide regular, short periods of time for writing in the journal, with guiding questions to support self-assessment, goal setting, and metacognitive knowledge (understanding their thinking). For example, you might ask students to respond to questions such as these in their journals:

• Think about your work in relation to the success criteria and write in your journals what you noticed you were able to do well and two things you need to work on next.
• How well are different strategies working?   How does what you are doing help you?
• What one thing will you remember long after this lesson and why?
• What question are you still trying to understand and why might this be?

A portfolio is a student-managed collection of work which demonstrates the student’s learning and developing competence. Portfolios help students in self-assessment skills such as understanding progress through record keeping, documenting interests and strengths, and identifying choices and preferences. Portfolios can form a shared focus to assessment discussions and goal setting with teachers.

Some ways you could support students to build up their portfolios include:

• Reminding students, every lesson, that they can decide whether to include their work from this lesson in their portfolio.
• Sharing with students the outcomes and success criteria they are expected to achieve and then give them the responsibility to determine their own evidence.
• Providing a list of what students need to add to their portfolio each term: one piece of writing, one mathematics test or activity, one project, one artwork, and so on.
• Asking students to consider what others (such as parents, employers and other educational institutions) would need for proof of meeting learning goals.
• Providing a range of examples – such as taking photos, videoing themselves undertaking tasks, screenshots of internet search histories, a progression of drafts and peer feedback reports. You can ask students “Which work will you choose to show what you know?” or you can ask them to collect a set of work that shows different stages in development.

Portfolios can be digital, rather than paper-based, which solves issues of storage and the risk of loss or damage. Students should engage in summarising and reflecting upon their evidence; for example, identifying areas of strength or of growth, what they enjoyed or were most proud of, where they have made progress and why, and what else they could do to improve.

You can provide prompts for self-evaluation and goal setting, in the form of an evaluation sheet. For example:

• Did I ensure that each paragraph had a topic sentence?
• Did I include an introduction, main body and conclusion in my story/report?
• Did I proofread my story/report carefully, e.g. by checking the spelling of difficult words and making sure I used the correct punctuation?
• Did I avoid repeating the same words?
• What did I like best about my story/report? Why?
• What would I do next time to improve my writing?

Students are likely to enjoy amassing a collection of their work, and will begin to assume increasing responsibility for collecting, reflecting, and organising the work.

An exit card is a small piece of card or a post-it given to each student at the end of a lesson, on which they write a comment to self-assess what they have learned in the lesson and what they need more help with. This helps in planning the next lesson. This only takes a few minutes for the student to complete and is handed to the teacher as the students leave the class.

You can ask students to summarise the lesson or, alternatively, ask a generic question such as “What are the three most important bits of information you have learned today?” You can then check how well these responses match the learning objectives for the lesson. Or you might choose to ask a question related to the learning objective, such as “Why are historians concerned about bias in historical sources?” You can also ask “What do you think we need to spend more time on because you haven’t quite understood the topic?” or “What questions do you have?”

Exit cards might be pre-printed, like this:

You could also choose to do a digital exit card using a quiz application. Most applications automatically analyse the results making it easy for you to see how your students responded.

Traffic lights are a simple system for students to use to indicate their perceived understanding of particular work. Using a traffic light icon, students label their work green, yellow, or red according to whether they think they have good (green), partial (yellow), or little (red) understanding. This can be useful for determining groupings or activities for the next part of the lesson. The teacher might pair the green students with the yellow students while he or she works with the reds. Or students can select a follow-up activity matched to their traffic light colour.

You can also give students a list of key concepts or topics within the lesson content so far, and ask them to reflect on where they feel their learning is secure (green), and where they feel they need to concentrate their efforts (yellow or red). Traffic lights might also be used for peer assessment.

One word of caution : traffic lights provide a very visible way of communicating learning progress. Students need to feel safe to share their learning progress with the class without feeling threats to their self-esteem and peer relationships. Teachers might need to work hard to ensure that red lights are perceived positively (as part of learning and as opportunities for further instruction) rather than negatively associated with ability.

A similar strategy is ‘colouring squares’. This is a self-assessment technique in which students colour goal statements or sections of a rubric according to the level of confidence they feel in achieving that goal.

In paired marking, pairs of students interchange and assess work. This might mean using a rubric, or applying success criteria to each other’s work. Paired marking gives students opportunities to practise assessment skills, and opens up dialogue about the purpose of assessment, what information is useful as feedback from an assessor, and for reflection on success criteria and what they mean. These discussions can take place between the paired students or with the whole class after a paired marking session. The objectivity and assessment skills developed in peer assessment can help in improving the quality of students’ self-assessments. Students might be given scripts and exemplars to support their peer-assessments or they might be offered formulas for providing feedback, such as ‘two stars and a wish’ (two positive comments and one suggestion to improve it), or one specific thing that met the criteria, and one question. For students that are very confident giving and receiving improvement feedback, consider a ‘Four Faults and Fixes table’:

An extension of paired marking is group marking, where students are put into groups of four and assess each other’s work, giving feedback on a post-it. The post-it notes are collated (see the template below) and the teacher reviews, moderates and feeds back on the feedback (not the original work). The following template is titled “Accept or amend?”. Here the student reviews and reflects upon the feedback given to them and decides whether to accept the comments and make changes to their work or to amend the comments, and provide reasons.

• DIRT (Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time)

This is a time in the lesson in which the only goal is for students to read and make use of feedback they have received. Every student will need to have plenty of documented feedback (from themselves, the teacher, and peers) that they can respond to. You might like to sometimes offer feedback on the students’ response to feedback and use of DIRT time too.

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