Education is a joint venture in which teachers and students share responsibility for students' learning. In order to assume greater responsibility for their own learning, students must be able to monitor and assess their own progress. Self-regulated learning depends upon substantive self-appraisal in which students judge their own strengths and weaknesses and determine how to enhance the quality of their own learning. And, since learning and teaching are closely linked, students should be able to explain how teaching contributes to their progress. Feedback in which students explain how specific teaching practices help or hinder their progress toward course goals, is far more useful to teachers than traditional student ratings of instruction.

How it turned out.  The assignments ranged in length from 4-8 pages. Although the depth and scope of their answers varied, all of the assessments were substantive, candid and contained specific reasons and examples of their learning and my teaching.  I found them so rich that I asked students if I could keep them. The assessments reveal what students find exciting and dull in the class, how they think about their own engagement with the material, what kinds of difficulties they are having, and how they perceive and respond to my teaching.

What I learned from the assessment and what I would do differently next time and why. The  assessments contain far more information than I can squeeze into two pages. Therefore I will focus on only one question of the self-assessment, and I discuss students' assessment of teaching in the Course Summary section of the portfolio.

I am especially interested in students' understanding of their own thinking. Below are excerpts from 18 students in the class in response to the question:

Examine your ability to think critically- to analyze, evaluate, integrate, synthesize and develop ideas, beliefs, judgments and viewpoints on issues and problems we encounter in the course. Can you identify strengths and weaknesses in your thinking? Any noteworthy improvements? Any particular confusion or difficulties?

I am spending more time analyzing and formulating my own thoughts.  .  . now I try to understand 'why' the authors are writing about the subject.

 

I am still having difficulty in developing ideas, but I don't consider myself to be exceedingly creative anyway.

 

When we studied the topic of cooperative learning a lot of the research was supportive of it. What about negative experiences with it? .  .  . I tend to ask myself 'negative' questions such as the one above.

 

By discussing our views in group discussions, I see how much my thoughts are different from others which is good but at times I feel I'm way off base.

I enjoy the opportunity to piece together and formulate ideas. I am becoming better at it through the writing assignments, but one weakness is that my thinking revolves around my interest in the topic. When I enjoy a certain topic I tend to dig in and question--when I don't enjoy it, the exact opposite occurs .  .  .

 

Learning is emphasized in the course. As a result, I spend most of my time focusing on the material rather than a grade. It seems easier to really think about things. In other classes I seem to center on what I think will be on the exam. But, in this course I can take time to think about things because it's an objective of the course.

 

I think that I now look at different sides to issues.

 

I see improvement in the way that I judge information and opinions in that I use to be too accepting of published works. Now I am more critical in reviewing evidence and sources. My weakness is in developing ideas--where is my creativity I wonder!

 

Weaknesses that I have are the ability to see other viewpoints and also to organize my thoughts on paper. Things will make sense in my head, but when I write nothing sounds right and I do a lot of babbling.

 

I can organize and make sense of large amounts of material, but as I have learned, a list is not sufficient support unless I explain how they tie into the argument.

 

My thinking is strong on organization and facts but weak when it comes to providing support for my statements.  .  . I have no trouble verbalizing my beliefs, ideas and viewpoints, but I have a tendency to want people to subscribe to the same viewpoints and beliefs as me.

 

I am having a little trouble developing my own ideas on information learned. Sometimes I go off on a tangent and talk about things that do not apply. But, I am becoming more comfortable in forming ideas.

 

I have seen my thoughts become more focused. I am able to develop ideas based upon my own thoughts integrated with the authors'. I have been working on becoming more direct in writing--I have a tendency to go on and on.

 

I enjoy taking specific smaller parts, questioning and challenging to confirm or refute, and arriving at a bigger understanding. I know that my weakness is in the way that I communicate. My thoughts become jumbled, unstructured, and simply out of order.

 

I think a lot of times I just take in information as it is given and believe that it is the truth. It is in discussions that I really begin to think about what I've read and either strengthen my belief or begin to question it.

 

I have difficulty making judgments and coming up with an opinion or viewpoint. . . In my essays I need to use more specific examples and elaborate on my ideas.

 

I feel I often judge too quickly as I analyze and evaluate the material. However, I find myself more able and willing to listen and often integrate others' opinions with my own. In the past I didn't care to change my views in fear that I would be considered 'wishy-washy.'

The material we are studying lends itself to critical thinking because each article or reading tends to be like a position paper. Consequently, questions come to mind such as: Do I agree with this?, Does this sound reasonable and practical?, Is the author being clear, and if not what is his point?

These comments indicate that students can talk sensibly about their own complex thinking (28 out of 38 students in the class wrote something specific). They recognize the importance of essential dispositions (e.g., a questioning attitude) and skills (e.g., using evidence to support arguments), and can pinpoint specific difficulties (e.g., developing ideas, organizing and expressing ideas coherently). They also talk about situations that prompt critical thinking (e.g., class discussions, writing assignments), as well as those that interfere with complex thinking (i.e., lectures).

Students' self-assessments add a dimension to my understanding of how they learn to think critically. Students' observations reflect the "growing edges" of their thinking, and reveal some of their struggles as they engage new material in complex ways. Each time I ask students to really talk to me about their learning I am surprised at how much of their growth and development I miss during a semester. I think this is due to my tendency to focus on the end product. I would like to improve my ability to support students' fledgling efforts and guide their development. For many years I have perfected my skills in "error detection," and I have gotten quite good at telling students about their inadequacies--how their work differs from the ideal. Unfortunately, error detection conveys the idea to students that the goal of learning is to minimize the errors you make in the eyes of the teacher. This approach also makes it too easy to oversimplify students' performance and attribute errors to students' shortcomings (i.e., there are good, bright students and poor, dull students).

I think I have made significant progress as a teacher in terms of creating situations and assignments that engage students in meaningful learning and complex thinking. The self-assessments indicate that I need to pay more attention to the processes of learning and thinking and not just their products. There are several ways I might strengthen my efforts to be a helpful guide and "supportive critic." One is simply to collect better information from students in a timely fashion. I might ask them to document their progress and difficulties more extensively throughout the semester. For instance, I could ask students to indicate their greatest difficulties and problems for each writing assignment. In past semesters I have given students extensive guidelines that characterize critical thinking skills and dispositions. I can see the value in asking students to keep track of their progress in relation to these qualities.