What is it?

Lots of people assume that feedback has to come from other people for it to be useful; however, this is not necessarily true, since students are more than capable of giving themselves feedback. For example, many students find that recording oral assessments facilitate self-evaluation since it allows them to not only review their own performance, but also to identify their own strengths and weaknesses. This form of self-evaluation can also be used alongside feedback from both peers and teachers to ensure that students are well aware of potential areas of improvement.

The art of self-evaluation is also a very important transferable skill that can be used in working life, as many employers require their employees to regularly carry out self-evaluations in order to monitor feedback, and thus adapt their performance accordingly.

How can students make the most of it?

Students should be encouraged to actively self-evaluate their performance throughout their course, since it will give them to opportunity to identify their strengths and weaknesses and thus adapt their performance accordingly. For example, before submitting an assignment, students should be encouraged to review it as though they were the marker in order to identify any areas of improvement. This will thus allow them to make progress, and potentially obtain a higher mark in the assignment. If students are unsure about how to self-evaluate their performance, many lecturers will be more than willing to provide further support and guidance as to how to go about this.