Alex C. Lange

School of Education

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE; n.d.) defined career and self-development as a key competency for a career-ready workforce. This competency includes an “awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses” (para 6). Most employers will ask students to self-evaluate their work. They may write annual reviews, reflect on their growth during internships, or explain their contributions to a team project. Yet, in many courses, students have few chances to practice that kind of self-evaluation in a guided way.

I started to use self-assessments in my graduate courses as a way to support this skill development. I teach students preparing for work in various areas of higher education, fields where reflection, feedback, and developmental supervision are part of professional practice. I want students to learn course content, and I want them to practice making fair, evidence-based judgments about their work. I want them to build realistic self-appraisal.

In my courses, students complete a self-assessment twice: once around the midpoint of the semester and once at the end. The midpoint assessment focuses on engagement. Students respond to several prompts about their preparation, participation, contributions to discussion, support of peers’ learning, and respect for others’ perspectives. For example, I ask students to think about whether they come prepared for class, whether their comments or questions demonstrate engagement with course materials, and whether they participate in ways that fit the class format, such as in small groups, large-group conversation, or asynchronous tasks.

I also ask students to complete a Plus/Delta reflection, a common debriefing model in multiple fields. The plus invites them to name what is working well. The delta asks what could change. This simple structure helps students move beyond “I am doing fine” or “I need to do better” and toward more specific reflection. A student might notice that they are completing the readings but not taking notes in a way that helps them speak during class. Another might realize that they contribute often to small group discussions but rarely bring those ideas into the full group. Another might identify a barrier outside of class that is shaping their engagement and name a plan for navigating it. At the end of the assessment — I do mine through Qualtrics — students self-assign a grade.

At the end of the semester, students complete a second self-assessment. This one returns to the engagement criteria but also asks students to reflect on course learning outcomes, their successes, and the barriers they faced. In both assessments, students assign themselves a grade for course engagement. I tell students that I reserve the right to raise or lower that grade. I frame this as both a safeguard and an opportunity for dialogue. If my view of their engagement differs from theirs, we have a reason to talk about evidence, expectations, and participation.

That last point matters. One of the most important things I have learned from this practice is that self-assessment is not automatically equitable. Some students—especially historically underrepresented students—may hold themselves to unrealistic standards. They may discount quieter forms of engagement, overlook how they supported peers, or rate themselves lower than the evidence suggests. Other students may overstate their engagement without much evidence. In my experience, however, students tend to be more harsh on themselves than overinflate their contributions.

For that reason, I do not treat self-assessment as transactional. I review the assessments and respond. I affirm strong self-appraisal when I see it to affirm and promote students’ capacities for self-reflection. I ask follow-up questions when a student’s reflection seems too vague, too harsh, or too generous. After the midpoint assessment, I also share whole-class themes with the group. I tell students what I am learning from their feedback and what I plan to adjust as the instructor.

Instructors who want to try this do not need to redesign an entire course. A short self-assessment can include four questions:

1. What evidence shows that you have been prepared and engaged?
2. What is one way your engagement has supported your learning or your peers’ learning?
3. What is one realistic change you want to make before the next assessment?
4. What grade or rating best reflects your engagement, and why?

These questions can work in graduate seminars, undergraduate courses, labs, studios, and asynchronous classes. The key is to make the criteria clear, engage in the self-appraisal process more than once, and respond to what students share.

For me, the deeper value of self-assessment is that students practice a professional skill (Gansemer-Topf et al., 2024). They learn to describe their work, name evidence of growth, identify barriers, and set goals. They also learn that self-appraisal is not about being perfect or being punitive. It is about being honest, fair, and open to change.

When students practice that kind of reflection in our courses, they are not only looking back on a semester. They are rehearsing a skill they will need in the workplaces, communities, and professional roles they will enter next.