Self assessment skills used by high school students without formal training

This study focuses on assessment from an internal source (self) before any formal training is given to the students. A random sample of 570 (227 males) from ten state-run high schools in Barbados, West Indies was selected. Survey instruments used for data collection included semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire. The SPSS/PC package was used for data analysis. Results showed leptokurtic, negatively skewed frequency distributions of responses for Achievement (Ac) and Understanding (Un) scales indicating a variation of emphases on self assessment techniques used without formal training. Principal component analysis in factor analysis showed that Ac, Un, Endurance (En) and to a lesser extent Autonomy (Au), contributed for approximately 35 percent of the total variance with Ac having the highest loading followed by Un (Ac: 0.77; Un: 0.71). Au with a small contribution from En (Au: 0.82; En: 0.16) contributed to 17 percent of the total variance. Au (0.30) contributed to 15 percent of the total variance. All components together accounted for 67 percent of the total variance. Ac and Un contributed for over 70 percent of the total variance. Ac contributed more than twice as much as Un (Ac: 48.42 percent, Un: 22.35 percent). Girls appeared to surpass boys in En and Un (En: Mean: Boys: 6.28, Girls: 6.50; Un: Mean: Boys: 6.68, Girls: 6.88) using data from independent t-tests performed on both groups of participants. Examples of self assessment activities included closing the eyes and trying to recall main points, asking someone to quiz on school work, answering past test papers, drawing diagrams, singing rhymes and songs about school work, etc.