Research Information System
MEVZU – SOSYAL BILIMLER DERGISI, no.1, pp.35-54, 2019 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
This article presents the findings of a seven-week case study which ai-med to identify the benefits of self-assessment in EFL writing classes at terti-ary level and to examine its effects on the development of metacognitive skills of the students. The study was conducted with 17 B1- English language profi-ciency level students studying at an English preparatory programme of a fo-undation university. First, the students were introduced to using rubrics to assess a written product. Then, each week after students composed a writing, a paragraph for the first three weeks and an essay for the remaining four we-eks, the students were asked to assess their own writing by using the relevant rubric and filling in the self-assessment form. In addition, a questionnaire was conducted at the beginning of the study to investigate whether the students could identify their own strengths and weaknesses in writing, whether they could make sense of the criteria that are used for writing quizzes, and whether they made sense of the feedback given by the teachers for their writings. The same questionnaire was conducted again on the last day of the research to check whether the participants changed their opinions. The results revealed that self-assessment had a positive impact on the performance of the students’ writings as well as on the development of their metacognitive skills as the students improved their understanding of the rubrics over time leading to more quality writings, they felt more responsible for their own learning, they were able to reflect on their own performance, and they became more auto-nomous learners.