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Thriving in Academe
Student Self-Assessment
Reflective learning is at
the heart of a quality education.
By Edith Kusnic and Mary Lou Finley, Antioch
University Seattle
If we want students to think for
themselves, we must give them opportunities to do so.
Teaching in a small undergraduate program
for returning adult students, we often ask ourselves why our students
characterize their education here as “powerful,” “meaningful,”
and “transformative.”
And students aren’t the only ones
who see their education in those ways. Those of us teaching in the program
see students develop their own voices, build a stronger sense of authority,
make connections among different subjects, and make sense of what they
have learned in relation to themselves and the world beyond themselves.
Through our work, we have become convinced
that student self-assessment is integral to a quality education.
Simply stated, student self-assessment
is students writing about their own learning. We did not originate this
practice although Antioch University’s adult campuses were some
of the first to use it.
The roots of student assessment go back
more than 30 years to the early days of alternative education programs
for adults returning to college.
Since then the practice has spread to
a variety of institutions, including those for traditional age students.
Because of its value and versatility as
an educational tool, we believe its use should expand further.
 Meet
Edith Kusnic and Mary Lou Finley
Edith Kusnic currently works as a counselor and community
educator in private practice and as an adjunct faculty member at Antioch
University Seattle. Her academic interests center on the question of how
people learn and how they translate learning into effective action in
the world. She developed the entry course, The Art of Learning, for new
students at Antioch Seattle and later adapted it for community college
instructors.
Mary Lou Finley
is a core faculty member in the B.A. Completion Program at Antioch University
Seattle. She is a sociologist whose teaching interests include a range
of social issues including race, class, and gender studies, nonviolence
studies, children and social policy, and women’s health in poor
countries.
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