Peer and self-assessment — how to train students

• Teach a simple checklist or rubric and practice on models first.
• Use sentence stems for peer feedback: “You did well at X. To improve, try Y.”
• Make self-evaluation explicit: have students produce a one-paragraph ‘learning reflection’ before submitting final work.
• Include a metacognitive prompt with major assignments: “What did I try? What worked? What will I do differently next time?”

Self-evaluation is a skill; scaffold it.

Using assessment data to adapt instruction (closing the loop)

After a formative or summative assessment:

• Look at class average and standard deviation. What does the spread tell you?
  • Small dispersion + high mean = teaching likely effective and level appropriate.
  • Large dispersion = some students didn’t benefit; investigate.
• Item analysis: which items were commonly missed? Are mistakes conceptual or procedural?
• Re-teach: focus on the group of students who struggled on the same concept with targeted instruction or alternative representations.
• Differentiate: provide scaffolded mini-lessons for those who need it and extensions for those who show mastery.
• Modify future instruction based on frequent errors — this is assessment informing teaching.

Practical tip: calculate mean and standard deviation for summative tests to sense-test validity. If SD is large, check if the test matched what you taught or if the test was poorly designed.

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