Search

This study explores the effects of feedback type, feedback occasion, and year level on student self-assessments in higher education. In total, 126 university students participated in this randomized experiment under three experimental conditions (i.e., rubric feedback, instructor's written feedback, and rubric feedback plus instructor's written feedback). Participants, after random assignment to feedback condition, were video-recorded performing a self-assessment on a writing task both before and after receiving feedback. The quality of self-assessment strategies decreased after feedback of all kinds, but the number of strategies increased for the combined feedback condition. The number of self-assessment criteria increased for rubric and combined conditions, while feedback helped shift criteria use from basic to advanced criteria. Student year level was not systematically related to changes in self-assessment after feedback. In general, the combination of rubric and instructor's feedback produced the best effects.

This study aims to adapt and validate the Classroom Motivational Climate Questionnaire and Attribution of Motivational Changes to the Teacher Questionnaire, for their administration in Higher Education and thus having adequate instruments to assess motivational climate and student preferences in this educational level. Data from 624 university students were analyzed through a Confirmatory Factor Analysis based on the original models proposed for each questionnaire. Then, a cross-validation analysis was performed for each questionnaire between two random sub-samples. Subsequently, a Path Analysis was conducted on both instruments to measure predictive validity on performance. A multigroup analysis was also conducted with two categories of students: those in their initial studies (basic) and those in practice-oriented studies (in-depth). The results confirm the factor structure for both questionnaires with configurations slightly different from those found in previous studies with high school samples. The Classroom Motivational Climate Questionnaire was found to influence performance and to identify differences in student's motivational profile depending to the year of their study.

The growing number of peer assessment studies in the last decades created diverse design options for researchers and teachers to implement peer assessment. However, it is still unknown if there are more commonly used peer assessment formats and design elements that could be considered when designing peer assessment activities in educational contexts. This systematic review aims to determine the diversity of peer assessment designs and practices in research studies. A literature search was performed in the electronic databases PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Web of Science Core Collection, Medline, ERIC, Academic Search Premier, and EconLit. Using data from 449 research studies (derived from 424 peer-reviewed articles), design differences were investigated for subject domains, assessment purposes, objects, outcomes, and moderators/mediators. Arts and humanities was the most frequent subject domain in the reviewed studies, and two-third of the studies had a formative purpose of assessment. The most used object of assessment was written assessment, and beliefs and perceptions were the most investigated outcomes. Gender topped the list of the investigated moderators/mediators of peer assessment. Latent class analysis of 27 peer assessment design elements revealed a five-class solution reflecting latent patterns that best describe the variability in peer assessment designs (i.e. prototypical peer assessment designs). Only ten design elements significantly contributed to these patterns with an associated effect size R[superscript 2] ranging from 0.204 to 0.880, indicating that peer assessment designs in research studies are not as diverse as they theoretically can be.

This study explored the effects of three factors (feedback occasion, type of feedback, and year level) on self-efficacy and emotions when university students self-assessed. 126 higher education students from three different year levels self-assessed their performance on a writing task two times (before and after receiving feedback). Self-efficacy and emotions were measured via self-report at three times (a baseline before self-assessment, after self-assessment without feedback, and after self-assessment with feedback). Feedback was provided in one of three conditions (rubric vs. instructor's feedback vs. combined) to which the participants were randomly assigned. In general, rubric feedback showed the strongest effects on self-efficacy and emotions (i.e. increased positive and decreased negative emotions). Year level was significant for self-efficacy, showing that the effect of university schooling experience enhances this variable. This study shows the impact that feedback has on self-efficacy and emotions while self-assessing, with an especially positive effect for rubric feedback.

The design and implementation of assessment is one of the main challenges for university teachers, who claimed needing more and better professional development courses in such area. Our study aimed to analyse at a nationwide level how public universities (N = 50) design and implement their assessment professional development courses and programmes. Every professional development course from Spanish public universities (N = 1627) was screened, and data from all available assessment courses (N = 82) was collected and analysed. These courses were compared in terms of total length, evaluation of the course learning results, and content knowledge covered. Regarding total length, most universities have little offer of courses, both in terms of quantity and duration. However, there are exceptions that implement longer and more intensive courses. Regarding the evaluation of the courses results, many universities do not evaluate teachers' learning and the ones which do it tend to use passive methods such as attendance. Regarding content knowledge covered, online assessment is the most frequent topic, but important areas such as self- and peer assessment or feedback are vastly underrepresented. Our conclusion is that there is a large room for improvement in ADPC and we propose some recommendations aligned with existent literature.

As the articles in this special issue on "Psychological Perspectives on the Effects and Effectiveness of Assessment Feedback" have shown, feedback is a key factor in education. Although there exists a substantial body of research on the topic, it is imperative to continue advancing the field. My aim is to outline five steps to solidify the potential paradigm shift that the feedback field may already be experiencing, while incorporating the insights gleaned from the articles within this special issue. Firstly, there is a need to develop new models that thoroughly explore and operationalize the intricacies of the feedback phenomenon. Secondly, it is essential to conceptualize feedback as a dynamic process and collect data that directly investigates this process. Thirdly, it would be advantageous to leverage insights from the self-regulated learning field, which has made significant strides in advancing measurement methods applicable to feedback research. Fourthly, employing multimodal methods can enrich our comprehension of the multifaceted nature of the feedback process. Lastly, placing the feedback agent at the core of the feedback process, with particular attention to individual differences, is of utmost importance.

Peer assessment is a popular research topic as it takes place in multiple educational settings around the globe. Due to its nature, a number of intrapersonal and interpersonal factors are involved. Empirical research on these factors has been increasing and our aim was to systematically review them to extract conclusions about the relationships between peer assessment and intrapersonal and interpersonal factors. Using different search strategies, we reviewed 69 articles. We investigated: (1) the characteristics of the included studies, (2) the trends in the bidirectional relationships of intrapersonal [left right arrow] peer assessment and interpersonal [left right arrow] peer assessment, (3) the empirical findings in the relationships between intrapersonal factors and peer assessment, and (4) the empirical findings in the relationships between interpersonal factors and peer assessment. We identified six intrapersonal factors: motivation, self-efficacy, emotions, trust in the self as assessor, fairness, and comfort; and five interpersonal factors: social connections, trust in the other as assessor, psychological safety, value diversity/congruence, and interdependence. The results showed clear directions for some of those factors and preliminary in some of the others. This review offers directions to improve the quality of peer assessment research and explores the role of bidirectionality for future research, including an instrument to report the characteristics of future peer assessment studies to facilitate better reports and research designs.

Rubrics are widely used as instructional and learning instrument. Though they have been claimed to have positive effects on students' learning, these effects have not been meta-analyzed. Our aim was to synthesize the effects of rubrics on academic performance, self-regulated learning, and self-efficacy. The moderator effect of the following variables was also investigated: year of publication, gender, mean age, educational level, type of educational level (compulsory vs. higher education), number of sessions, number of assessment criteria, number of performance levels, use of self and peer assessment, research design, and empirical quality of the study. Standardized mean differences (for the three outcomes) and standardized mean changes (SMC; for academic performance) were calculated from the retrieved studies. After correcting for publication bias, a moderate and positive effect was found in favor of rubrics on academic performance (g = 0.45, k = 21, m = 54, 95% CI [0.312, 0.831]; SMC = 0.38, 95% CI [0.02, 0.75], k = 12, m = 30), whereas a small pooled effect was observed for self-regulated learning (g = 0.23, k = 5, m = 17, 95% CI [-0.15, 0.60]) and for self-efficacy (g = 0.18, k = 3, m = 5, 95% CI [-0.81, 0.91]). Most of the moderator variables were not significant. Importantly, to improve the quality of future reports on the effects of rubrics, we provide an instrument to be filled out for rubric scholars in forthcoming studies.

This study has a two-fold objective: First, to adapt and validate the Emotions and Motivation Self-Regulation Questionnaire (EMSR-Q) with university students in Colombia, and secondly, to verify whether the relationship model between emotional and motivational self-regulation and academic performance coincides with what was initially proposed by the questionnaire's authors. A total of 644 higher education students participated in the study. To test the questionnaire's structural validity and generalizability across cultures and educational levels, confirmatory factor and cross validation analyses were carried out. Besides, to test its predictive validity, a multiple linear regression analysis was carried out. Results showed that the data fit the model well, that the scales of the questionnaire have adequate reliability, and that negative self-regulation of stress and avoidance-oriented self-regulation related negatively and significantly to academic performance. The results support the emotion and motivation self-regulation model proposed by the authors.

Students are the central agent in self-assessment; therefore, their perceptions are crucial for successful self-assessment. Despite the increasing number of empirical studies exploring how students perceive self-assessment, systematic reviews synthesising students' perceptions of self-assessment and relating them to self-assessment implementation are scarce. This review covered 44 eligible studies and synthesised findings related to two key aspects of students' perceptions of self-assessment: (1) usefulness of self-assessment; and (2) factors influencing their implementation of self-assessment. The results revealed inconclusive findings regarding students' perceived usefulness of self-assessment. Although most studies reported a generally positive perception of self-assessment among students, some studies revealed students' skepticism about its usefulness. Usefulness was influenced by specific individual factors (i.e., gender, age, and educational level) and instructional factors (i.e., external feedback, use of instruments, and self-assessment purpose). Additionally, implementation was influenced by specific individual factors (i.e., perceived usefulness, affective attitude, self-efficacy, important others, and psychological safety) and instructional factors (i.e., practice and training, external feedback, use of instruments, and environmental support). The findings of this review contribute to a better understanding of students' perceptions of self-assessment and shed light on the design and implementation of meaningful self-assessment activities that cater to students' learning needs.

This study aims to identify different profiles of higher education teachers based on the way they design their assessment methods. It also explores differential characteristics in each profile and differences in the assessment methods preferred by the teachers and those implemented in their subjects. Seventeen teachers from four universities participated carrying out a think-aloud simulation task: designing the assessment methods for a set of learning outcomes. Teachers' testimony during the task was transcribed and categorized using content analysis and an open-coding procedure. Three different patterns were identified: (a) focus on the feasibility of the assessment tasks; (b) on the alignment with the learning outcomes; or (c) alignment with teaching methods. Most of the participants focused only in one of the three elements. Teachers also designed different assessment methods in the simulation task in comparison with the ones they use in their subjects, despite the guidelines of assessing the same learning outcomes. A lack of resources is claimed as the reason of these differences. Implications for future research are discussed.

The analysis of exemplars of different quality is a potentially powerful tool in enabling students to understand assessment expectations and appreciate academic standards. Through a systematic review methodology, this paper synthesises exemplar-based research designs, exemplar implementation and the educational effects of exemplars. The review of 40 empirical exemplar-based studies indicated frequent use of post-intervention evaluation designs. The integrated use of exemplars and strategies such as rubrics, peer or self-assessment was a major pedagogic feature to enhance students' understanding of standards and aid their generation of internal feedback for self-monitoring. There was evidence suggesting that the combined use of exemplars with these strategies could advance students' academic performance and development of self-regulated learning. The review results set future directions for exemplar-based studies: quantitative research would benefit from controlled manipulation of variables to disentangle the effects of exemplars and those of other strategies; qualitative research could profitably use self-reflective diaries, think aloud protocols or classroom observations to develop deeper understandings of exemplar implementation. The key pedagogical implication recommends students' production of an assignment draft prior to exposure to exemplars so that they can compare their own work with exemplars and then make improvements independently of teachers.

This study explores the effects of the shift to emergency remote teaching on assessment practices due to COVID-19 lockdown. A total of 936 Spanish teachers from all educational levels ranging from early childhood to university participated in this nationwide survey. Four aspects were explored: (1) changes in the use of assessment instruments (e.g. exams); (2) changes in assessment criteria, standards and grading; (3) changes in the delivery of feedback and use of rubrics; and (4) changes in students' involvement in assessment (i.e. self- and peer assessment). In general, results are mixed, with some areas undergoing certain changes with the aim of adapting to the new situation (e.g. primary education teachers lowering their grading standards), whereas many other assessment practices have remained similar, especially among higher education teachers. Unfortunately, some of the assessment practices have worsened, such as students' involvement in assessment which has decreased.

This study examined differences in the assessment criteria used by the USA and Spanish university instructors to assign course grades. The US sample included two hundred and fifty course syllabi (159 from universities and 91 from 4-year colleges) developed by randomly selected instructors from five academic disciplines (education, math, science, psychology, and English). Spanish data set included 175 syllabi, chosen from the national database from the same five domains. The results revealed that university instructors employed a number of criteria when assigning course grades, with the US instructors relying equally on process and product criteria, and Spanish instructors using a higher proportion of product indicators. We also found that self- and peer assessment were used scarcely between the two countries and that no syllabi employed progress criteria. Theoretical, practical, and policy implications are discussed along with avenues for further research.

This study's aim was to analyse the decisions higher education students make about learning strategies. We focus on research questions related to the strategies that students report, their strategy adaptability to different learning situations, and the association of learning strategies with students' self-regulated learning and academic performance. We carried out qualitative semi-structured interviews with 17 higher education students of Psychology and Sports Sciences with different self-regulatory profiles and levels of academic performance. The results indicate that students reported mainly basic learning strategies, but the level of elaboration of their cognitive and metacognitive operations was different although they use the same terms to identify their strategies. In addition, we found that students change their learning strategies depending on different factors, with a noticeable influence of assessment activities, and that students with low academic performance showed organization problems and limited knowledge of learning strategies. We present some implications for the promotion of critical use of learning strategies.

Developing the ability to self-assess is a crucial skill for students, as it impacts their academic performance and learning strategies, amongst other areas. Most existing research in this field has concentrated on the exploration of the students' capacity to accurately assign a score to their work that closely mirrors an expert's evaluation, typically a teacher's. Though this process is commonly referred to as self-assessment, a more precise term would be self-assessment scoring accuracy. Our aim is to review what is the average accuracy and what moderators might influence this accuracy. Following PRISMA recommendations, we reviewed 160 articles, including data from 29,352 participants. We analysed 9 factors as possible moderators: (1) assessment criteria; (2) use of rubric; (3) self-assessment experience; (4) feedback; (5) content knowledge; (6) incentive; (7) formative assessment; (8) field of knowledge; and (9) educational level. The results showed an overall effect of students' overestimation (g = 0.206) with an average relationship of z = 0.472 between students' estimation and the expert's measure. The overestimation diminishes when students receive feedback, possess greater self-assessment experience and content knowledge, when the assessment does not have formative purposes, and in younger students (primary and secondary education). Importantly, the studies analysed exhibited significant heterogeneity and lacked crucial methodological information.

The role of the academic discipline is a major factor in the assessment design and implementation in higher education. Unfortunately, a clear understanding of how teachers from different disciplines approach assessment is still missing; this information can lead to teacher training programmes that are better designed and more focussed. The present study compared assessment design and implementation in three programmes (sport science, mathematics, and medicine) each representing a discipline from 4 Spanish universities. Using a mixed-methods approach, data from syllabi (N = 385) and semi-structured interviews with teachers (N = 19) were analysed. The results showed different approaches to assessment design and implementation in each programme in two main axes: summative or formative purposes of assessment, and content-based or authentic assessment. Implications for further research are discussed.

Teachers are playing crucial roles in the implementation of formative assessment, which has been widely recognised as a valuable strategy in enhancing students' learning outcomes. However, systematic analysis on factors that might facilitate or hinder teachers' intentions and implementations regarding formative assessment is scarce. This review covers 52 eligible studies and identifies factors, which have been categorised into personal and contextual factors, that influence teachers' intentions and implementations regarding formative assessment. The results of this review may benefit researchers, school leaders, and policy makers when they aspire to facilitate the implementation of formative assessment.

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is associated with increased academic achievement and improved learning outcomes for students. Thus, it is import to find ways to improve SRL, such as through training. Face-to-face training, discipline-dependent training, and paper-and-pencil diaries are limited in the number of students they can reach. The current randomised control study implemented discipline-independent online training and novel mobile-app based diaries and tested SRL motivation and perceived strategy use in 73 University students from mixed disciplines and study mode. Results showed that participants in the combined condition (training with diaries) improved more than other conditions. Specifically, they improved on SRL knowledge, metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies (elaboration, organisation and critical thinking), and resources management strategies (time-management and effort regulation). The present study extends previous findings, showing that positive effects can be found for SRL when a discipline-independent approach is used coupled with online training and a mobile-app based daily diary.

The effects of relevant factors related to self-assessment have not been systematically investigated. We explored four factors and their effects on self-assessment and self-efficacy: (1) feedback (with vs without), (2) subject matter (Spanish vs mathematics), (3) year level (K7 vs K10 vs K11), and (4) gender. The participants included 64 secondary education students who self-assessed during a set of Spanish and mathematics activities while being video-recorded. Data came from think-aloud protocols, direct observations, and self-reported instruments. The use of self-assessment strategies and criteria was more frequent and advanced without feedback and in females. There were differences in the self-assessment of Spanish and mathematics. As for year level, results showed more similarities than expected, though the use of advanced strategies and criteria varied across levels. Additionally, none of the factors had significant effects on self-efficacy. This study opens a new avenue for self-assessment research, unveiling the black box of self-assessment.

Recently, the concept of evaluative judgement has gained attention as a pedagogical approach to classroom formative assessment practices. Evaluative judgement is the capacity to be able to judge the work of oneself and that of others, which implies developing knowledge about one's own assessment capability. A focus on evaluative judgement helps us to better understand what is the influence of assessment practices in the regulation of learning. In this paper, we link evaluative judgement to two self-regulated learning models (Zimmerman and Winne) and present a model on the effects on co-regulation of learning. The models help us to understand how students can be self-regulated through developing their evaluative judgement. The co-regulation model visualises how the learner can become more strategic in this process through teacher and peer assessment in which assessment knowledge and regulation strategies are shared with the learner. The connections we make here are crucial to strengthening our understanding of the influence of assessment practices on students' learning.

Peers carry potential in enhancing students' self-assessment development, but few studies have explored how peer scaffolding is enacted in the process. This qualitative study explores peer assessment effects on the self-assessment process of 11 first-year undergraduates and the factors limiting peer influence. Drawing on the data from students' journals, follow-up interviews, observations of in-class formative peer assessment activities and teacher interviews, we ascertained that peers could aid the self-assessment process by enriching student understanding of quality, refining subjective judgement and deepening self-reflection. Yet, peer influence could be reduced by distrust, tensions in feedback communication, competition and lack of readiness for peer learning. Implications for effective use of peers in supporting self-assessment development are discussed.

Peer assessment has proven to have positive learning outcomes. Importantly, peer assessment is a social process and some claim that the use of anonymity might have advantages. However, the findings have not always been in the same direction. Our aims were: (a) to review the effects of using anonymity in peer assessment on performance, peer feedback content, peer grading accuracy, social effects and students' perspective on peer assessment; and (b) to investigate the effects of four moderating variables (educational level, peer grading, assessment aids, direction of anonymity) in relation to anonymity. A literature search was conducted including five different terms related to peer assessment (e.g., peer feedback) and anonymity. Fourteen studies that used a control group or a within group design were found. The narrative review revealed that anonymous peer assessment seems to provide advantages for students' perceptions about the learning value of peer assessment, delivering more critical peer feedback, increased self-perceived social effects, a slight tendency for more performance, especially in higher education and with less peer assessment aids. Some conclusions are that: (a) when implementing anonymity in peer assessment the instructional context and goals need to be considered, (b) existent empirical research is still limited, and (c) future research should employ stronger and more complex research designs.

Previous research has demonstrated the benefits of peer feedback for improving student work. Gender, as an individual characteristic, is now receiving increased attention due to its influence on the peer feedback process. This study examined the effects of gender and peer assessment training on the amount and content of peer feedback provided by assessors for poor, average and excellent writing samples, using a randomised controlled design. A total of 240 undergraduate psychology students participated in the study. Half of the participants received peer assessment training, while the other half received task instructions only. Participants were assigned to eight subgroups, providing peer feedback to writing samples attributed to fictitious male or female assessee. Analysis of 3017 feedback segments revealed that women provided a greater amount of peer feedback compared to men. Women also offered more positive verifications and suggestive elaborations for average and poor writing samples. Male assessees received more suggestive elaborations, while trained assessors provided more positive verifications. These findings suggest the need for a multifaceted training programme to bridge the gap between gender-based differences in peer feedback characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]