2006 Volume 46 Issue 3 Pages 65-73
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether conducting repeated self assessment exercises is effective and to examine the correlation between self assessment and learning concepts. For this purpose, we adopted learning contents comprising three small units: respiration, digestion, and circulation. Each unit consists of four stages: pre-test, class, post-test, and self assessment. We examined the students' preconceptions at the pre-test stage. At the self assessment stage, the students were instructed to compare their responses on the pre-test and post-test by themselves. The post-test was administered in order to assess the students' understanding. We conducted an experiment with these three small units. After three months, we administered another test in order to evaluate the students' concepts about the contents. We obtained the following data from these experiments: 1 The mean points of the students' writings graded by criteria during the self assessment stage were gradually increased. 2 There was a clear correlation between the points on the self assessment and the post-test. 3 The experiment showed a clear correlation between the points on the self assessment and the test administered after three months. As a result, our analysis showed that repeated self assessment is effective and that there exists a clear correlation between self assessment and learning concepts.
