The effect of training students on self-assessment of their writing

This study aimed to investigate the effect of training students to self-assess their own writing. The study basically sought to find out (1) the effect of training students to self-assess their own writing, on the quality of self-assessment, and (2) the effect of training students to self-assess their own writing, on their writing skills. The study was conducted in the First Year English Program (FYE) at Bilkent University where the students receive content-based instruction courses and practice process writing. The participants of the study were 25 Bilkent University Freshman Engineering and Science students. There were two groups: one treatment and one control. In the treatment group there were 13 students and in the control group there were 12 students. The students in the treatment group were given training on how to self-assess their own writing. The students in the control group self-assessed their writing, without any training, during the course of their usual instruction. After the training, the students in the treatment group were also administered an attitude questionnaire to elicit their thoughts about the effectiveness of training and about the practice of self-assessment. The analysis of the data indicated that the students in the treatment group seemed to have improved their self-assessment skills consistently throughout the training and got closer to the scorings of the external raters while the students in the control group were observed to be less consistent in their ratings. Also, although there was significant improvement in the writing skills of the students in both groups throughout the writing process, no statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups’ in terms of writing improvement. Finally, the analysis of the data collected through the attitude questionnaire showed that most of the students in the treatment group perceived the training as effective and their attitudes toward selfassessment were in general positive. The results indicate that the training had been effective particularly on the quality of self-assessment. Thus, it would appear that the instructors in the First Year English Program, at Bilkent University could benefit from the findings of the current study as it yielded encouraging results for engaging the students in their own learning and assessment process.