Effects of Student Self-Assessment on Knowledge Achievement and Academic Thinking

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of student self-assessment on English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students' knowledge achievement and academic thinking. Ninety-four college seniors from the Department of English at the School of Education at Suez University in Egypt participated in the study. They were randomly divided into two groups, an experimental group and a control group. In the experimental group, throughout the semester, students were asked to independently assess their own knowledge and thinking before and after each lecture. In the control group, students were taught the same English language teaching methodology course with the same method without self-assessing their knowledge or thinking. Prior to and at the end of the semester all subjects were tested on both knowledge and academic thinking. The data were analyzed using the t-test. It was found that the mean score gain of the experimental group was slightly higher than that of the control group on both knowledge achievement and academic thinking. The difference was not significant at the 0.05 level. Therefore, there is not sufficient evidence to conclude that self assessment can improve students' knowledge or academic thinking. Accordingly, there is also no finding that student self-assessment lowers scores either.