Educational Research Journal

Abstract

This paper examines how males and females apply self assessment (SA) as a learning tool. SA is "the involvement of students in identifying standards and/or criteria to apply to their work and making judgments about the extent to which they met these criteria and standards" (Boud, 1986). The sample of 256 females and 233 males from Barbados, West Indies came from ten high schools. Participants from Form 5 (Grade 11 in American high schools) were formally trained for three terms of an entire academic year. Whilst SA1 measured naturally occurring SA skills used prior to formal training, SA2 measured SA skills after formal training. Participants mastered making informed choices in life; learned and incorporated new ideas; demonstrated self motivation and responsibility; established prior learning and evaluated their own learning. However, whilst males tended to use significant others in the SA process, females appeared to be more autonomous. Females used posits, checklists, self tests and several memory games, quizzes and puzzles. Males thought about their tasks (cognitively and metacognitively) and showed autonomy about their actions and decision making differently from females. Females were more apt to discuss and arrive at mutually agreeable conclusions than males. These results have implications for SA training.

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