What did you do well? How do you know?

The term knowledge-rich curriculum is being increasingly used in discussions about curriculum reform. That’s particularly true in countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

A knowledge-rich curriculum ensures all students have access to selective, sequenced, clear and coherent knowledge. That also acknowledges that knowledge and skills cannot be taught separately. Knowledge enables the development and application of skills.

A knowledge-rich curriculum provides the essential foundation for learning but knowledge alone is not enough. Without the capacity to monitor, evaluate, and adapt one’s approaches to learning, the development and application of knowledge can remain static. It is argued that knowledge enables the development and application of skills. We argue that self-assessment a valuable skill or competency is an enabler of the development and application of knowledge. 

Students may know facts and concepts. But they may also struggle to accurately judge the degree to which they understand or identify areas in which to improve. Self-assessment becomes a key mechanism for students to monitor, direct and apply their knowledge, enhancing subject content mastery.

But is self-assessment a valid approach?

In many classrooms, self-assessment is used to prompt reflection (“What did you do well?”). That doesn’t necessarily guide students in monitoring and directing their learning beyond the reflection task. 

Many scholars have highlighted the validity and reliability concerns associated with self-assessment.  Students may not understand the criteria. They may not be able to judge the quality of their work. Despite such concerns, research evidence suggests that when students explicitly learn and practice how to assess their own performance alongside clear criteria and are taught metacognitive skills, there is an improvement in learning outcomes.

We conducted a longitudinal study at a large independent school, 241 senior secondary students across two rounds (March and September 2025) of self-assessments. We wanted to survey their understanding of, and progress in, key, real world competencies such as communication, creative thinking and critical thinking.

Upon completion, students were provided with detailed information about their current level of performance as well as the levels above and below. This provided an opportunity for students, with the assistance of teachers, to target specific aspects of the competency.

When capturing the experiences of 94 students who took the self-assessments, about half of the students felt the self-assessments helped them to monitor progress and become more aware about these key competencies: “We could see the areas of improvement and learn how we could improve and know our strengths.” 

The other half argued that opportunities for self-assessment needed to be accompanied by teacher guidance and feedback so that they knew how to “connect to my learning” and ensure that it was not “quickly forgotten about.”

Knowing yourself

As Lao Tzu reminded us centuries ago, “Knowing yourself is true wisdom.” 

As demonstrated by our recent study, students require not only a clear understanding of the criteria to judge their performance but support in ensuring that they are regularly monitoring their progress. This highlights the role of teachers in explicitly teaching and guiding students to monitor and direct their own learning so that they can further develop and apply knowledge.

Authors

Melissa Barnes is associate professor and deputy dean in the School of Education at La Trobe University. Her teaching focus and research interests explore system-wide change in instructional and assessment practices. 

Kate Lafferty is senior lecturer in the School of Education at La Trobe University. Kate researches general capabilities assessment, micro-credentialing, and competency-based education. 

Chue Kah Loong is a senior lecturer at the National Institute of Education Singapore. His research interests include educational and psychological assessment and measurement, student wellbeing and motivation. 

Wong Hwei Ming is assistant Centre Director and a Senior Education Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, National Institute of Education Singapore. 

Linda Morell teaches within Berkeley School of Education, University of California. She also conducts original research in the Berkeley Educational Assessment Research centre. 

Ulla Hietamaki works at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, focussing on assessment in multidisciplinary learning.

Source

Australian Association for Research in Education. “What did you do well? How do you know?” (2023). Available here.