Accuracy of students' self-assessment and their beliefs about its utility

The purpose of the two studies presented here was to evaluate the accuracy of students' self-assessment ability, to examine whether this ability improves over time and to investigate whether self-assessment is more accurate if students believe that it contributes to improving learning. To that end, the accuracy of the self-assessments of 3588 first-year students enrolled in a post-secondary institution was studied throughout a semester during which each student made approximately 80 self-assessments about his or her own learning process. These self-assessments were then compared with multiple judgements by peers and tutors. The overall correlations between the scores of self-, peer and tutor assessments suggest weak to moderate accuracy of student self-assessment ability. The findings also reveal an ability effect; students judged as more academically competent were able to self-assess with higher accuracy than their less competent peers. Comparing the accuracy of student self-assessment averaged over four consecutive periods indicates that the accuracy does not improve over time. In a second study, a questionnaire aimed at eliciting student's beliefs about the effects of self-assessment on their learning was administered to 936 first-year students. Based on their responses, sub-groups of students were identified: those who either believed in the usefulness of self-assessment or did not. Results suggest that there is no significant association between student beliefs about the utility of self-assessment and the accuracy of their self-assessments.