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Thriving in Academe
Best Practices

Getting Students Involved in Their Education

• Teaching student self-evaluation: beginnings
  Brief writing exercises at the end of a class session can be a good starting point. For example, students write for one minute on what was most valuable to them and what was most confusing or problematic.
  Courses such as Antioch Seattle’s Art of Learning class for incoming students and the Ways of Knowing class at Seattle Central Community College lead students through explorations of their own learning styles and educational goals. These courses use autobiographical essays, self-assessments in relation to the required core competencies, journals of learning, and other tools to shift the locus of control to the students.
• Providing helpful prompts
  Giving specific prompts can encourage students to focus on key aspects of their learning. For example, in quarterly self-evaluations we ask students to respond to prompts such as: What were the key ideas, insights, or skills you gained? What themes emerged? What impact did the learning have on your values, beliefs, or assumptions? What did it contribute to your understanding of yourself as a learner?
• Giving feedback: balancing challenge and support
  Validating student efforts to cultivate their own voice is a crucial form of support. Feedback can also help students value the process of self-evaluation and support their development by encouraging them to, for example, probe more deeply or develop their insights further.

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