TEACHING STUDENTS TO SELF-ASSESS USING COGNITIVE STRUCTURE ANALYSIS: HELPING STUDENTS DETERMINE WHAT THEY DO AND DO NOT KNOW

Abstract

In previous papers, we have reported an assessment technique called Cognitive Structure Analysis (CSA) that is designed to assess the concepts that people have, not just how well they can give correct answers to questions. Types of knowledge covered by CSA include facts, procedures, problem solving strategies and rationales (why things work the way they do). Experimental tests of CSA have showed high correlations between the assessments of student knowledge and how well students perform on problem solving tasks. The present paper explores whether students can be taught how to use CSA to self-assess the knowledge they have about a topic they have just been taught. 16 students attending a gifted and talented high school were initially given instruction on how to self-assess using CSA. They were then given a lesson in calculus and asked to self-assess their own knowledge. They were then given a problem solving test that required knowledge of the topic they were just taught. Self-assessment protocols were evaluated with items listed in the protocols assigned to one of five categories: knowledge believed by the student to be relevant but not actually relevant; knowledge that the student knew was relevant and that the student did know; knowledge that the student knew was relevant but the student knew s/he did not have; knowledge that the student knew was relevant and believed s/he had but actually gave the wrong information; knowledge that was actually necessary to solve the problems but the student did not mention at all. Results showed that students’ self-assessments, on average, were 92% accurate, meaning of the knowledge required for problem solving, either students both knew the relevance of the knowledge