Cultural: Group vs. Individual Self-Assessment: Alicia Duncan

Students need to self-assess their own progress as an individual learner as well as their work as a team member in group work. While self-assessment as an individual seems to be a more common practice it is important that one of the key skills students will need beyond school is the ability to collaborate and collectively solve problems and work toward common goals.

Before getting started it is essential to discuss what quality group work looks like. We suggest you set the first round of criteria. Explain to students, “On our first group project there are three things you need to think about that make groups work effectively. This will be our first set of expectations for your self-assessment. These expectations will change over time as your group reflects on what you need to be effective, but for this first step we are going to reflect on how well we 1.help each other 2. Listen to all ideas and 3. Use growth mindset encouragement. Now, let’s brainstorm together what each of these expectations looks like.”

With the criteria set for HOW groups work together, students will be able to reflect on their group work and think clearly about what elements are working well and which elements need to improve. It is important to remember that when groups assess themselves they not only assess the level of quality for each but they also have to explain why they gave themselves the grade that they did.

As students reflect and grow in group self-assessment skills they will discover new goals to set and work towards in order to be effective group workers. See the example and template at the end of the newsletter for an idea of how to help students track their group work progress.

Group Assessment Example
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Rate your group from 1 – 5 for each group expectation. (One is the lowest, five is the highest.)
3.5 because we need to work on collaborating during our project better, not just before and after.

What does the group do well?
We honor each other’s ideas really well

What does the group need to work on?
Collaborating in the middle of the project