Improving learning through meta assessment

Abstract

Meta assessment goes beyond assessment in that it examines not only the elements of assessment but also the necessary and sufficient conditions as well as the needs of the assessment. Meta assessment in education tends to be the domain of course designers, planners and policy makers but rarely that of students. This article examines the role of meta assessment in improving student learning. The sample comprised 50 mathematics students from a tertiary educational institution. Achievement scores from the experimental group (those who did standardized meta-assessment training) on a difficult and an easy teacher-made assignment showed that those students performed better than their untrained counterparts from the control group. Findings from semi-structured interviews demonstrated both the breadth and depth of student understanding. This research fills the gap in the literature by demonstrating in a practical way how students who receive standardized meta-assessment training practise reflection and experience learning advantages. From this work, practitioners could take away sufficient stimulus material for developing additional in-depth questions for meta-assessment training and also some best practices that could be used in training their own students. Practitioners would be in a better position to formulate appropriate assessments for their students, assessments that encourage deep thinking and foster lifelong learning.