Prompting Responsible Learning - Self-Assessment in a Second-Year History Course Dr. Tracy Penny Light Department of History, University of Waterloo

Incorporating Self-Assessment "What have you done to assist yourself and others with learning in this course?" "How have you applied your skills (both existing and new) in this course?" "How can you transfer your learning to other courses or experiences outside HIST 253?" These are often difficult questions to answer, and especially difficult if the goal is to move beyond summarizing to real reflection on how learning in one context can be applied to another. Yet this type of reflective writing is a powerful learning tool because it allows students to make connections between/among a variety of learning experiences. It is also powerful because students can articulate their mistakes and learn from them. In this course, students were required to complete one-minute summaries of the course readings each week before coming to class, to work collaboratively with their classmates on a research project and to discuss films which were viewed periodically. Students also completed a number of individual assignments. Below are some of their reflections about how they learned in the course, how they made mistakes, and how they applyied their learning outside of the course. "I did all my work on time with the exception of the one minute summaries. There were many instances I fell short in getting the summaries done. Whether it was due to a stress on my time, not completing the readings by the specified time, or pure forgetfulness I did not complete as many of these summaries as was required of me in this class. This has stressed upon me the importance of deadlines which I feel I will carry on to other classes that I will take in the future...I feel I have learned a lesson, that lesson being to finish my reading for the week in that week (this being very contrary to my regular approach)." "Because there was no mid-term that motivated me to study, I had to be extra cautious to do my work on time, knowing very well that it will benefit me in the end at the exam, and it did!...I was able to transfer the skills from History 253 to my English courses as well, especially when asked to critique a documentary...the presentation was also beneficial, since it was the first one I had ever done in a university setting, and working in a small group of three in this course was an excellent preparation for working in a group of six for one of my presentations for an English class." "Experience in working as a group in this class has helped me in learning to cooperate as a group. When everyone cooperates in the group, such as handing in all the completed work that was assigned on time, going to the group meetings, a lot of work can be accomplished. When you feel like a lot of work has been done, you feel like you have achieved something, which makes one feel great about themselves. This will help in other classes that require group work." "There were also some previously attained skills that I had brought into my HIST 253 experience. I gained much research, essay writing, and presentation experience from taking History and English courses in high school and first year university, and these skills proved most useful for the group presentation. Combined with my organizational skills, I was able to help my group develop an effective and coherent structure in our presentation, and I believe that this helped the rest of our tutorial class understand more about the upper, middle, and lower classes in British North America." "Well, the research skills I had to apply and augment during this course came in quite handy for the other History and English courses I had this semester. All the writing I had to do for the course improved my writing skills significantly, which is really important since I want to be a dual History/English major. As far as my opinion of the course content, it gave me more of the specifics of what colonial culture had been like, and helped me flesh out previously acquired knowledge from other History courses I had taken." "Regarding group work specifically, I attempted to assist myself and teammates by challenging their statements, and inviting them to challenge mine. This is not so much a skill as a personal philosophy that I felt could be beneficial. Politely pointing out fallacies, flaws, or other approaches to an idea aid that person in refining and enveloping that idea. In essence, this strategy relies upon both preparation and participation, thus contributing to the reasons I find those two "strategies" so important. If a teammate challenges me...he/she can help me pinpoint weaknesses I may have overseen, and allows me to integrate more perspectives into that statement." "I have also brought many important skills that I learned...to my part-time job. An example of this is teamwork. I thought I knew everything about teamwork, but I learned so much more...I learned that organizing my time by writing down and making a schedule to give myself extra time has really helped me immensely!" "Although I do not believe that I personally have contributed as much to the overall learning of this course as a few other particular students may have this year, I do believe that being in our assigned groups did help me to learn the history of Canada a lot better than if I were to probably go at it alone." "Most of all I have been able to transfer my knowledge of proper history research to other courses in school. Doing research in the library has always frustrated me, but with the knowledge I acquired from HIST 253 about researching sources, it is less of a problem now. This has been useful and will always be useful for other courses in school." "Honestly though, I did fall behind in my readings quite often because this course was not my top priority. Often right before a group discussion, I would have to rush to catch up on my readings...I would say that my group and I did a lot of procrastinating but pulled through when needed." "One of my greatest skills is being organized and being able to organize. This is why I volunteered to organize our essay after the presentation. Each of us took a part of the essay to write and then those parts were sent to me. I then put them together in order to hand in a finished copy. I also ensured that everyone's part was handed in a day in advance so that I had the opportunity to send out a final draft to show everyone so that all were happy with what was being handed in." "I think that since my group had difficulties it has taught me to make sure that you are always communicating as a group as well as discussing important issues when they arise and not letting them build up." "Working as a group was also beneficial in a number of other ways. In regards to our group presentation, it was very productive and informative to have a collective group of minds working towards the same goal. I think through providing my own ideas and trying to balance them with the suggestions of the rest of the group that we ended up with a much better presentation than any one of us could have produced individually. The five of us would gather together in person, sit down, discuss what each of us had done individually and then work together to bring it all together. I believe that by giving my own constructive criticism and also in receiving some, that each of my group members and myself were able to raise the quality of our work...I also found that the questions posed to me during my presentation offered some different ways of interpreting various events in history that I perhaps would not have considered on my own."