About the Project SELF EVA

The idea of “SELF-EVA” was born during a study visit in Prague about “evaluation in schools”.

The main theme is: Self-evaluation in schools will create better education (Improvement through Internal School Evaluation)

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publications reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.  

Project. Nr. 2011-1-DE3-COM06-18898 1 -- CML-K-BY-11-18898

Self-Evaluation in Schools

In a lot of schools people are asking students to become more actively involved in the evaluation process by doing self reflective activities on their learning. In many classes and learning community programs, students develop and refine their self-evaluations in collaborative groups.

There is a spiral of improvement of school quality:

  1. Self evaluation shows you the needs.
  2. The needs help to design new teaching methods.
  3. The new teaching methods are executed for a while.
  4. A new self evaluation has to take place to show, what now are the new needs and so on.

There are three main questions for the students to answer:

  1. What did you learn?
  2. How well did you learn it?
  3. So what now? What do you see as the next steps in your learning?

To be able to evaluate yourself fairly, candidly, and helpfully is a valuable life skill which will be an asset to you long after you leave school. This is perhaps the most important reason why in a lot of schools a self-evaluation is required.

Here are some advises for pupils to do a self evaluation

There is no single way to do a good evaluation. That will depend upon the course, your goals, your style, and your needs. But be specific and be concrete.

One of the important skills in a good education is being able to ask the right questions. Here are some suggestions only:

  1. Did I do more or less than was expected by the instructor, by me? Why, or why not?
  2. What do I now understand best about this subject, least well?
  3. My strongest and weakest points as a student? What did I do to improve the weak points? What will I do next?
  4. What do I need to learn next about this subject?
  5. What was most satisfying about the class, most frustrating, your responsibility for each?
  6. Has the course irritated you, stimulated you, touched you personally? Has it made you uncomfortable about yourself, about society, about the future, about learning? Are you the same person who began the class ten weeks ago? What's different?
  7. What did you expect to learn? What did you actually learn, more or less, and why?

It is a fiction to measure learning in a single way which therefore can be recorded by a single letter grade. Instead there are at least four different kinds of learning:

  1. Cognitive. Your new understandings and knowledge? What is the most important single piece of knowledge gained? What will you remember in a year, five years? How has your knowledge grown, changed, become more sound?

  2. Skills. New skills gained, old skills improved, your ability to solve problems, think, reason, research? Did you actually use these skills? What skills do you need to develop next?

  3. Judgment. Do you understand the difference between process and content? Can you apply principles, to other classes, life? If you took the class again, what would you do differently? Has your way of thinking changed?

  4. Affective, emotions and feelings. Did you change? What are your beliefs, values? Was the class worth your time? Do you feel good about it, the single most important thing you learned about you?

  5. Evaluate your participation in discussion. Did you discuss and learn with other
    students? How has the course altered your behavior? Did you grow, shrink,
    stagnate, float?

 

Useful Questions for Your First-Stage of Self-Evaluation

- How accurate are those feelings?

- How do you feel now at the end?

- What are you proud of?

- Compare your accomplishments with what you hoped for and expected at the start.

- Did you work hard or not, get a lot done or not?

- What kinds of things were difficult or frustrating, which were easy?

- What's the most important thing you did this period?

- What bits of reading or lecture stick in your mind?

- Think of some important moments from this learning period: your best moments, worst moments, typical moments, crises or turning points. Tell five or six of these in a sentence or two each.

- What can you learn or did you learn from each of these moments?

- Write a letter to an important person you studied, thanking the person for what you learned. Or telling the person how you disagree. Or telling the person how good a job he or she did.

- Who is the person you studied you cared most about? BE that person and write that person's letter to you, telling you whatever it is the person has to tell you.

- What did you learn throughout, skills and ideas. What was the most important thing? What idea or skill was hardest to really "get?" What crucial idea or skill just came naturally?

- When they make the movie, who will play you? What's the movie really about?

- Describe this period as a journey: to where, what kind of terrain? Is it a complete trip or part of a longer one?

- You learned something crucial which you won't discover for a while. Guess it now.

- Tell a few ways you could have done a better job.

- What knowledge and skills will you need in five years? Did you learn any?

- What advice would some friends in the program give you if they spoke with 100 percent honesty and caring?

- What advice do you have for yourself