Self-assessment of the oral presentation competence: Effects of gender and student’s performance

Abstract

Oral presentation competence is critical to graduates’ employability. Improving this competence involves developing self-assessment skills that help students to analyze their own performance. However, more research is needed on the factors affecting self-assessment of the oral presentation competence, such as the speaker’s confidence and the summative use of self-assessment that can act as a sort of incentive for students. A study with 201 students was carried out, focusing on a segmentation analysis and differentiating by gender and level of performance on the assessed competence.Results show that: (1) the existence of incentives is the only variable that significantly influences men’s self-assessment, whereas women’s self-assessment is basically conditioned by their confidence as speakers; and (2) the self-assessment of the worst speakers, rated by teachers, is influenced only by the existence of incentives, whereas the best speakers give themselves higher scores when they feel confident about speaking in public.