The use of student self-assessment questionnaires to inform practice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi37.1750Keywords:
self-assessment questionnaires, student needs analysis, evidence informed practice, higher educationAbstract
Self-assessment questionnaires in which students rate their confidence across a range of discrete study skills are a familiar tool in the ‘study skills’ repertoire (Cottrell, 2001; Cottrell, 2019). At West Suffolk College we have made an annual online self-assessment questionnaire central to our study skills provision. Our initial motivation was to reverse our default position of starting with what we think students need, creating resources and arranging workshops, hoping students turn up and complaining when they don’t. We now use the questionnaire to gauge students’ perceptions of their own needs and use this to inform the content of our study skills provision and target its delivery. With a 56% completion rate this year, the questionnaire data offers valuable insights for the student support team and academics alike, providing the basis of a new way of working together that transcends ‘bolt-on’ or ‘built-in’ approaches (Cairns, Hervey and Jonhson, 2018).
While this approach has felt like progress, it has also generated questions about the limitations of self-assessment questionnaires. Most striking has been the trend for students achieving lower academic outcomes to rate their skills surprisingly highly (a phenomenon with its own research literature, for example: Dunning and Kruger, 1999; Dunning, Heath and Suls, 2004; Miller and Geraci, 2011). This observation has helped us to reflect on our own unconscious theories of student success and particularly the role of self-efficacy within these (Bandura, 1977; Bandura, 1997; Ritchie, 2016).
The purpose of this mini-keynote is to share practical ideas for the use of self-assessment questionnaires (what to ask, when, how, what to do with the data), but also to consider their limitations and reflect honestly on the success or otherwise of our attempts to create reciprocal learning relationships with our students.
Research Questions:
1: How do you use self-assessment questions at your institution?
2: How does the ‘evidence’ generated by self-assessment questions influence practice?
3: What are the limitations of self-assessment questionnaires?
Keywords: self-assessment questionnaires; student needs analysis; evidence informed practice; higher education
References
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