Developing Student Self-Assessment Competences in the Online Learning Environment Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background

In the last 3 decades, the instructive-educational process from Romania has undergone significant changes, one of the most important being the shift of emphasis from the teaching/assessment activity of the teacher to the learning/self-assessment of the student (Kiss, 2018). The literature addresses self-assessment from various points of view. In terms of social psychology, Breakwell (1992) relates self-assessment to social self-efficacy and defines it as the perception of each individual on their own abilities, which influences their course of action, cognitive patterns, motivational level or emotional reactions in various situations. The perception of one's own effectiveness is positive if the individual has succeeded in accomplishing the tasks and is negative if the individual has been wrong or unable to correctly anticipate future actions. The authors' observations have applicability in different areas of social life such as orientation towards various forms of schooling, choosing a career or involvement in political or social activities (Breakwell, 1992).

With reference to the educational phenomenon, self-assessment represents “the student's ability to make value judgments on his/her own academic competences and performances, of his/her own person, in general” (Stan, 2001, p.11). By analysing this definition, one can notice a number of similarities with Breakwell and his collaborators' conception. As in the case of the social dimension of this phenomenon, academic self-assessment aims at students' own cognitive, emotional and practical skills that will lead to academic performance as an expression of achieving a learning task. However, the two components are not always in a direct relationship, sometimes students may have high availability, but not materialized by performing a school task at optimal parameters. A reverse situation where students obtain outstanding performances in terms of reduced skills for that activity is also possible. In such situations, the role of self-assessment is precisely to seize the real level of their academic competences meant to facilitate the achievement of expected performance.

From a socio-psychological point of view, achieving self-assessment in students is strongly mediated by their personality traits, the requirements of their background as well as by teachers' teaching style. Without the intention to carry out a “factorial analysis” of these elements, it can be noted that students' age can influence the assessment of the difficulty of the task and of their own potential (elements that constitute the cognitive-estimation component) as well as the setting of the level of aspiration and immediate expectation (elements that form the affective-motivational component). The demands of the family, academic and social environment as well as the status students hold within can influence the way students perceive themselves or others. Also, teachers can encourage the formation of self-assessment competence in students through the teaching/assessment strategies that they use, the type of learning they cultivate and, in general, through their value as a teaching model and human personality (Bradea, 2012). On the other hand, a very close interdependence is established between self-assessment and self-knowledge, being absolutely necessary to know one's own potential, but also that of others in order to correctly estimate the chances of success and to objectively appreciate one's own achievements. In addition, accurate self-assessment can create the premises for self-knowledge/inter-knowledge as close as possible to the truth (Blândul, 2014).