Iouri Belski, The Impact of Self-Assessment and Reflection on Student Learning Outcomes Proceedings of the 2010 AaeE Conference, Sydney, Copyright © Iouri Belski, 2010 The Impact of Self-Assessment and Reflection on Student Learning Outcomes Iouri Belski Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia iouri.belski@rmit.edu.au Abstract: It has been found that the Task Evaluation and Reflection Instrument for Student Self-Assessment (TERISSA) has helped many educators to improve student satisfaction with educational feedback by engaging students in self-assessment and reflection. This paper evaluated the impact of TERISSA, used in formative assessment on student learning outcomes. It presents the results of an experiment conducted in semester 1 of 2009, where those students engaged in self-assessment and reflection with TERISSA achieved better grades than students who did not use TERISSA. Keywords – self-assessment, reflection, educational feedback, learning outcomes, student satisfaction. Introduction It is a well known that students can produce valid educational feedback both for themselves and for their peers (Heron, 1981). This can be achieved by engaging students in self-assessment and/or peer- assessment; and this has been demonstrated as a valid approach to self-improvement in engineering education (Boud & Holmes, 1981). The outcomes of student self- and peer-assessment can be manifold. It has been shown by a number of authors that well implemented self- and peer-assessment can notably improve educational feedback and simultaneously save significant time and effort for educators. Self- and peer-assessment can also result in better engagement and improved students’ course performance. The following are just a few recent accounts of effective implementation of self- and peer-assessment. ‘Traditional’ Implementation of Self- and Peer-assessment McDonald and Boud reported on teachers effectively developing students’ self-assessment skills (McDonald & Boud, 2003). O’Shea and Bigdan engaged students in peer-assessment by devising an academic version of the Biggest Loser competition (O’Shea & Bigdan, 2008). Belski, Harlim and De Silva reported on statistically significant improvements in teaching quality indicators for numerous units that engaged students in self-assessment and reflection by means of the Task Evaluation and Reflection Instrument for Student Self-Assessment (TERISSA) (Belski, 2007, 2009b; Harlim, De Silva, & Belski, 2009). Implementation of Self- and Peer-assessment Using IT/web Resources Most of the recent studies actively used IT/web resources to engage students in self- and peer- assessment. Turns reported on the effectiveness of the Reflective Learner web-based environment in enhancing the traditional practice of self-assessment, by writing 'learning essays' on learning experiences (Turns, 1997). Smith and Kampf achieved effective peer-assessment by supporting informal cooperative student learning groups using the WebCT as a peer-review system (Smith & Kampf, 2004). McGourty reported on the effectiveness of the Team Developer computer-based survey system in engaging students in generating multisource feedback (McGourty, 2000). Willey and Gardner used the web-based tool SPARK PLUS to facilitate learning orientated peer-assessment (Willey & Gardner, 2009). Kay, Li and Fekete proposed an exciting two-stage process of self-assessment and reflection (Kay, Li, & Fekete, 2007) that engaged students in reflection-on-action, and in reflection-in- action as suggested by Schön (Schön, 1987). There are also many reports on successful usage of Wikis 216