Self-assessment and dialogue: can it improve learning?

Abstract

Self-assessment is a topic that receives much interest. Self-assessment is assumed to be a process that informs the learner about his strengths and weaknesses based on which he can make decisions about what needs further learning or further improvement. Although it is known from previous studies that self-assessment requires clear, timely, specific and constructive feedback to inform the learners’ self-assessment (Sargeant et al. 2010); not much is known about the conditions under which self-assessment is effective and does enhance learning. Plant et al. (2012) report an interesting study about the process of self-assessment. The aim of the study was to better understand HOW and WHY resident physicians adjust their self-assessment after reviewing their own performance in leading a simulated resuscitation in the presence of an interviewer. The study demonstrates that: (1) the residents find selfassessment important and the video review useful and (2) quantitative feedback from observers is of limited used when qualitative feedback is lacking. But the quantitative and qualitative data reported in this study raise more interesting insights and questions. A first interesting finding that is not explicitly referred to by the authors of this paper is that, during the interviews, 11 out of the 16 residents reported that they reflected immediately after the simulated resuscitation. One resident said: ‘‘It made me think about things that I wished I had done differently’’. So the simulated sessions made residents reflect on their performance even before the video review. A detailed look at the paper makes clear that each simulated session was facilitated by trained faculty instructors and followed by a semi-structured group debriefing during which team members provided feedback on each other’s performance. The data seem to demonstrate that this group debriefing stimulated them to reflect on their performance. In addition, 5 out of 15 residents reported that they talked with other participants about the experience. One resident said: ‘‘A co-resident and I talked a lot about it for probably, like, two hours after’’. So not only the video review but also the group debriefing immediately after the simulation made residents reflect on their