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READING
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XPERIENCE
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ELF
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SSESSMENT
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HE
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ROWTH
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EARNING
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ECOMING
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Sentence/phrase
Which Is it?
Assessment Evaluation
You did better than I expected.
Your essay is strong and demonstrates comprehensive research.
Steve’s draft was terrible.
Your draft could use additional sources.
...a grade of “A”
You missed question 7.
Try doing X instead of Y.
Assessment and Self-Assessment
In principle, assessment and self-assessment are identical. However, with self-assessment, the assessor
(the person performing the assessment) and assessee (the person whose performance is being assessed)
are the same person. While very similar, the difference between the two processes can be significant. Most
people find it more difficult to self-assess than to assess someone else.
Why is this? Wouldn’t you expect that because you know yourself better than anyone else does, that
you’d be the best person to assess your own performance? Not really, and here’s why: Performing an
assessment requires some degree of objectivity—you must be able to see the performance as a thing that
stands separate from your feelings
about
your performance. That is
not an easy task. As you will see later in this chapter, the ability to
remain objective while performing an assessment is one hallmark
of a strong assessor.
Here’s an example to help clarify things:
Suppose you are asked to look at a photograph and let the
photographer know what makes the picture “good,” (its strengths)
and what the photographer could do to improve the next photo
(areas for improvement). What would you look at? On a basic technical level, you might notice if the
picture is in focus, or if the photographer’s thumb is covering part of the picture. Now suppose the snapshot
is of you! The basic tendency in looking at the second photo is to focus upon yourself and how YOU look.
It is a challenge to keep what you think and feel about how you look in the photo out of your assessment
of the photo itself—in other words, to remain objective.