To be able to evaluate oneself fairly,
candidly, and helpfully is a valuable life skill which
will be an asset to you long after you leave college.
This is perhaps the most important reason why
Fairhaven requires a self-evaluation instead of a
letter grade. The other reasons are that letter grades
are too limited, too inaccurate, and too inflated.
There is no single way to write a good
evaluation. That will depend upon the course, your
goals, your style, and your needs. The advice below is
only that - advice. Do not follow it slavishly or
respond as if it were an outline to be followed. And
do not assume that you must touch on all of the points
mentioned. A good evaluation selects the most
important results of the learning process, and from
this selection much else is evident. Give time and
thought to what you write and care to how you write. A
sloppy, careless self-evaluation filled with
misspellings, incomplete sentences, and half-thoughts
leaves a poor final impression even if you did very
well in a course of study.
A VITAL POINT: Try to write in a way which
communicates information about the content of a course
or independent study. Do not just speak in
abstractions and personal feelings, such as "This
class was extremely important to me because through
discussion and the readings my thinking developed
immensely." What subject? Which discussions? What did
you read? think about what? developed from where to
where?? A reader who does not know what the class
studied should be able to gain an idea from your
self-evaluation. One should be able to form some
judgment about how well you understand a subject from
what you say about it, not merely that you claim to
understand it. In other words, BE SPECIFIC, BE
SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, and,
finally, BE CONCRETE.
One of the important skills in a good
education is being able to ask the right questions.
Likewise, writing a good evaluation depends upon good
questions. In fact, one might begin an evaluation by
inquiring "What are the important questions about this
subject?", listing several, and then discussing some
good answers. There are many problems and issues which
one might address to oneself in order to trigger a
good evaluation. Here are some-suggestions only:
<sum> Did I do more or less than was expected by the
instructor? by me? Why, or why not?
<sum> This is a 3 credit class, which should have an
investment of 9 hours of study time per week. Did I
give it that much time?
<sum> What do I now understand best about this
subject? least well?
<sum> My strongest and weakest points as a student?
What did I do to improve the weak points? What will I
do next?
<sum> What do I need to learn next about this subject?
<sum> What was most satisfying about the class? most
frustrating? your responsibility for each?
<sum> Has the course irritated you? stimulated you?
touched you personally? Has it made you uncomfortable
about yourself, about society, about the future, about
learning? Are you the same person who began the class
ten weeks ago? What's different?
<sum> What did you expect to learn? What did you
actually learn? more or less, and why?
Retired dean Phil Ager says, "It is a fiction to
measure learning in a single way which therefore can
be recorded by a single letter grade." Instead, he
argues, there are at least four different kinds of
learning:
Cognitive. Your new understandings and knowledge? What
is the most important single piece of knowledge
gained? What will you remember in a year? five years?
How has your knowledge grown? changed? become more
sound?
Skills. New skills gained? old skills improved? your
ability to solve problems, think, reason, research?
Did you actually use these skills? What skills do you
need to develop next?
Judgment. Do you understand the difference between
process and content? Can you apply principles? to
other classes? life? If you took the class again, what
would you do differently? Has your way of thinking
changed?
Affective. (emotions and feelings) Did you change?
your beliefs? values? Was the class worth your time?
Do you feel good about it? the single most important
thing you learned
about you? Evaluate your participation in discussion.
Did you discuss and learn with other students? How has
the course altered your behavior? Did you grow?
shrink? stagnate? float?
Suggestions to Students for Writing Self-evaluation
It helps to write evaluations in two stages.
The first stage is really for yourself. So you can get
things straight in your own head without worrying yet
about what to write for the second stage: a transcript
document aimed at the outside world. For the first
stage, write quickly, loosely, and as much as possible
without stopping. Don't even worry about mechanics,
organization, or whether it makes sense. Don't even
worry about whether it is true: sometimes blatant
exaggeration or distortion is the only way to get your
hands on a half-buried insight. The idea is to get
your thoughts and feelings down on paper where you can
see them and learn from them.
Wait until AFTER you get that interesting
mess written before going back over it to decide which
things are true and which of those true things you
want to share with strangers who will read your
transcript. It will be easier to write appropriately
for a transcript reader when you get the false and
private things down on paper so they don't make fog
and static in your head to confuse and slow you down.
Useful Questions for Your First-Stage Self-Evaluation
1. How do you feel now at the end of this course?
2. How accurate are those feelings?
3. What are you proud of?
4. Compare your accomplishments with what you hoped
for and expected at the start.
5. Did you work hard or not? get a lot done or not?
6. What kinds of things were difficult or frustrating?
which were easy?
7. What's the most important thing you did this
period?
8. What bits of reading or lecture stick in your mind?
9. Think of some important moments from this learning
period: your best moments, worst moments, typical
moments, crises or turning points. Tell five or six of
these in a sentence or two each.
10. What can you learn or did you learn from each of
these moments?
11. Write a letter to an important person you studied,
thanking the person for what you learned. Or telling
the person how you disagree. Or telling the person how
good a job he or she did.
12. Who is the person you studied you cared most
about? BE that person and write that person's letter
to you, telling you whatever it is the person has to
tell you.
13. What did you learn throughout? skills and ideas.
What was the most important thing? What idea or skill
was hardest to really "get?" What crucial idea or
skill just came naturally?
14. When they make the movie, who will play you?
What's the movie really about?
15. Describe this period as a journey: to where? what
kind of terrain? Is it a complete trip or part of a
longer one?
16. You learned something crucial which you won't
discover for a while. Guess it now.
a few ways you could have done a better job.
17. What knowledge and skills will you need in five
years? Did you learn any?
18. What advice would some friends in the program give
you if they spoke with 100 percent honesty and caring?
19. What advice do you have for yourself?
The following information will be useful in improving courses in the future. Please answer honestly.
1. Considering your own learning style or preferential way to learn, what could have been done in the course to make it easier for you to learn the material?
2. What did you like most about the course? (“Nothing” is not acceptable.)
3. What is (are) some area(s) that need(s) to be improved to make it easier/better for students in the future?
4. If you were teaching this course, how would you do it differently?
5. Are there any other comments, questions, or concerns you would like to make?