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What are the Effects of Self-Assessment Preparation in a Middle

School Science Classroom?Sara E. Severance

Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts, Thornton, COUniversity of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Streamline to Mastery Professional Development Program

PER at ColoradoFaculty:

Melissa DancyMichael DubsonNoah FinkelsteinValerie OteroKathy PerkinsSteven PollockCarl Wieman (on leave)

Postdocs/ Scientists: Charles BailyDanny CaballeroStephanie ChasteenJulia ChamberlainKelly LancasterLaurel MayhewEmily MooreAriel PaulRachel PepperNoah PodolefskyBenjamin Zwickl

Grad Students:Stephanie Barr Kara GrayLauren Kost-Smith (PhD May 11)May LeeMike RossBen SpikeBen Van DusenBethany Wilcox

Teachers / Partners / Staff:Shelly BelleauJackie Elser, Trish Loeblein Susan M. Nicholson-DykstraSara SeverenceEmily QuintyMindy Gratny, Kate KidderJohn Blanco, Sam ReidChris Malley, Jon OlsonOliver Nix, Nina Zabolotnaya

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Benefits of Self-Assessment

• Students become better critical thinkers [1]• Students can direct their own learning more

effectively [1]• Students can monitor their own progress [3]

1. D. Nunan. The Learner Centered Curriculum, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 19883. M. Harris, “Self-Assessment of Language Learning in Formal Settings,” ELT Journal. 51: (1997)

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Previous Studies• Multiple studies done at the university level

showed that students who engaged in self-assessment practices:– scored higher on assignments [5]– showed higher conceptual gains [6]– produced marks that were closer to their

professor’s marks over time [7]

5. B. McDonald, “Improving Learning through Meta Assessment,” Active Learning in High Education. 11: 119-129 (2010)6. E. Etkina, “College Physics Students Epistemological Self-Reflection and its Relationship to Conceptual Learning,”

American Journal of Physics. 70: 1249-1259 (2002)7. Y.Chen, “Learning to Self-Assess Oran Performance in English: A Longitudinal Case Study,” Language Teaching Research. 12: 235-262 (2008)

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Hypotheses

• Students who can accurately self-assess will score higher on final assessments than students who cannot accurately self-assess.

• Students who participate in the self-assessment preparation will score better than students who do not.

• Students will get better at self-assessing over time.

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Research Context

• Small urban 7th – 12th grade school• 8th grade physical science• 100 students • 37% English-Language Learners• 82% Free and Reduced Lunch

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Methods

Name:

Date Activity # Learning Target

Self-Assessment

Score Why?

Score Earned on

Graded Assignment

Clicker Question

(Y/N)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I do well with __________________________ _____________________________________ I struggle with _________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I do well with __________________________ _____________________________________ I struggle with _________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I do well with __________________________ _____________________________________ I struggle with _________________________ _____________________________________

Unit B: The Chemistry of Materials

3 2

Students in the treatment group used a self-assessment learning target tracker to keep track of their scores and the teacher’s scores for each lesson.

3 - 2 = 1 discrepancy value

9/2 15I can group elements based on physical and chemical properties.

explaining physical grouping elements

properties Yes

Control Group

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Methods

Units Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4

The Chemistry of Materials

Treatment Control Control Control

The Chemistry of Water

Control Treatment Control Control

Energy Control Control Treatment Control

Forces and Motion

Control Control Control Treatment

The treatment was applied to different classes of students throughout the year.

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Methods and Data Collection

• Average absolute discrepancy scores for each student were compared to final assessment scores

• Assessment scores for students who engaged in the self-assessment tracking were compared to those who did not.

• Discrepancy scores were compared over time• Qualitative and survey data were also taken

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Result 1

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 40

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Final Assessment Score

Avg

Disc

repa

ncy

Valu

e

HypothesisR2 = 0.0019

There was no correlation between students’ ability to self-assess and test scores.

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Result 2Students who engaged in self-assessment tracking did not score better on final assessments compared to students who did not engage in self-assessment tracking .

The Chemistry of Materials

The Chemistry of Water

Energy Forces and Motion0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4

Aver

age

Asse

ssm

ent S

core

s

= treatment

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Results 3Students did not get better at self-assessing over time.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 100

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Average Discrepancy Values for The Chemistry of Materials Unit

Time

Avg

Disc

repa

ncy

Valu

e

hypothesis

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Result 3

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

Avg

Disc

repa

ncy

Valu

e

The type of question may have had more of an effect on students ability to self-assess.

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Survey Results• 91% of students felt they were aware of their

understanding on a particular concept• 61% of students could articulate their

understanding using specific science vocabulary.

Student Example:

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Conclusions and Implications• A student’s awareness of their own learning did not

lead to increased achievement

• Students are engaging in formative assessment practices by using the self-assessment trackers, but what do we do with this information?

• This study implies that structures need to be in place to help students and teachers use formative assessment data to increase student achievement [9]

9. V. Otero and M. Nathan, “Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Views of their Students’ Prior Knowledge in Science,” Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 45: 497-523 (2008)

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Future Questions

• What is our next step once students and teachers have formative assessment data?

• Based on formative assessment data, what in-class structures need to be provided for middle school science students to help address their needs?

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References1. D. Nunan. The Learner Centered Curriculum, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 19882. D. Little, “The Common European Framework and the European Language Portfolio: involving learners and their judgments in the assessmentprocess,” Language Testing. 22: 321-36 (2005)3. M. Harris, “Self-Assessment of Language Learning in Formal Settings,” ELT Journal. 51: (1997)4. N. Falchikov and D. Boud, “Student Self-Assessment in Higher Education: A Meta-Analysis,” Review of Educational Research. 59: (1989-01)5. B. McDonald, “Improving Learning through Meta Assessment,” Active Learning in High Education. 11: 119-129 (2010)6. E. Etkina, “College Physics Students Epistemological Self-Reflection and its Relationship to Conceptual Learning,” American Journal of Physics. 70: 1249-1259 (2002)7. Y.Chen, “Learning to Self-Assess Oran Performance in English: A Longitudinal Case Study,” Language Teaching Research. 12: 235-262 (2008)8. S. Ross, “Self-assessment in Second Language Testing: a Meta-Analysis and Analysis of Experiential Factors,” Language Testing. 15: 1-20 (1998)9. V. Otero and M. Nathan, “Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Views of their Students’ Prior Knowledge in Science,” Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 45: 497-523 (2008)

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Acknowledgements

• Special Thanks to Ryan O’Block, Valerie Otero and members of the Streamline to Mastery Professional Development Program.

• This work was partially funded by NSF Grant DUE 934921