Relationships Between Student Self-Assessment Ability and Performance

Joel Sloan; Timothy Frank

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Civil Engineering Division (CIVIL) Technical Session - Effective Teaching 4
Tagged Division: Civil Engineering Division (CIVIL)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47937

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Paper Authors

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Joel Sloan United States Air Force Academy orcid.org/0000-0002-8135-3048

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Colonel Joel Sloan Ph.D., P.E. is the Permanent Professor and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado. He received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy, M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado, and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. He is an ASEE member and a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia. His research interests include geotechnical engineering, column-supported embankments, and engineering education.

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Timothy Frank United States Air Force Academy orcid.org/0000-0002-4771-3628

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Lt Col Timothy Frank is the Structures Division Chief and Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy. In this role, he develops leaders of character for the Air Force and Space Force by advising, teaching, and mentoring cadets. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, and Ph.D. from Stanford. Lt Col Frank is a registered Professional Engineer in New Hampshire. Courses taught include statics, structural analysis, steel design, concrete design, and engineering in the developing world. Research interests include fiber reinforced cement composites, community resiliency following climate and weather disasters, and engineering education.

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Abstract

Knowledge surveys (KS) are a self-assessment tool where the questions correspond one-for-one with learning objectives in a course. In response to the KS questions, students select a confidence rating that describes their self-assessed ability to demonstrate understanding or perform a skill. Pre-KS at the beginning of a course or unit of instruction serve as an outline of future learning objectives for students and alert faculty to pre-existing student capabilities. Students can access the KS questions continuously during the unit of instruction as a formative learning guide. Post-KS immediately prior to a summative exam enable comparison of student self-assessments of learning with faculty assessments of student performance.

Fundamental Hydraulics is a junior level fluid mechanics course required for civil engineering majors at a small university in the Western United States. KS were employed in eight sections of Fundamental Hydraulics from Spring 2019 to Spring 2021 with a total student population of 118. Prior research on KS in this course has shown that student self-assessments via KS are well-aligned with their exam scores. Given the data set in this course, we further explored relationships between student performance and their self-assessment abilities.

Results show that the correlation between student KS scores and their grades on each of the three unit exams in the course improves with each successive cycle of performance and feedback. We also examined the self-assessment ability of the student cohort by upper and lower halves of cumulative GPA, measured as of the semester prior to taking Fundamental Hydraulics. These data show that students in the upper half by GPA maintained consistent self-assessment accuracy through the three exams while students in the lower half by GPA improved their self-assessment accuracy by the third exam. Finally, we examined whether student performance improved in conjunction with the improvement in self-assessment accuracy. Although results are mixed as to whether student performance improved in a single semester, the self-assessment skills demonstrated by the entire student cohort, and particularly the improvement shown by the lower half of students by GPA, offers further encouragement that KS are a useful tool to support development of self-assessment skills and student learning.

Citation
Format

Sloan, J., & Frank, T. (2024, June), Relationships Between Student Self-Assessment Ability and Performance Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47937

TY - CPAPER
AB - Knowledge surveys (KS) are a self-assessment tool where the questions correspond one-for-one with learning objectives in a course. In response to the KS questions, students select a confidence rating that describes their self-assessed ability to demonstrate understanding or perform a skill. Pre-KS at the beginning of a course or unit of instruction serve as an outline of future learning objectives for students and alert faculty to pre-existing student capabilities. Students can access the KS questions continuously during the unit of instruction as a formative learning guide. Post-KS immediately prior to a summative exam enable comparison of student self-assessments of learning with faculty assessments of student performance.

Fundamental Hydraulics is a junior level fluid mechanics course required for civil engineering majors at a small university in the Western United States. KS were employed in eight sections of Fundamental Hydraulics from Spring 2019 to Spring 2021 with a total student population of 118. Prior research on KS in this course has shown that student self-assessments via KS are well-aligned with their exam scores. Given the data set in this course, we further explored relationships between student performance and their self-assessment abilities.

Results show that the correlation between student KS scores and their grades on each of the three unit exams in the course improves with each successive cycle of performance and feedback. We also examined the self-assessment ability of the student cohort by upper and lower halves of cumulative GPA, measured as of the semester prior to taking Fundamental Hydraulics. These data show that students in the upper half by GPA maintained consistent self-assessment accuracy through the three exams while students in the lower half by GPA improved their self-assessment accuracy by the third exam. Finally, we examined whether student performance improved in conjunction with the improvement in self-assessment accuracy. Although results are mixed as to whether student performance improved in a single semester, the self-assessment skills demonstrated by the entire student cohort, and particularly the improvement shown by the lower half of students by GPA, offers further encouragement that KS are a useful tool to support development of self-assessment skills and student learning.
AU - Joel Sloan
AU - Timothy Frank
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Relationships Between Student Self-Assessment Ability and Performance
UR - https://peer.asee.org/47937
ER -