Feedback in Education: A Focus on Self-Assessment Tools

Abstract

Feedback has been documented as a powerful variable in hundreds of educational studies. The problem is that in a typical instructional setting, most feedback that students receive comes from teachers, and in contexts where the number of students is large, providing high-quality feedback can be an unsurmountable task. This urges to involve students in effective self-assessment, so high-quality self-feedback can carry positive effects for all involved (Nicol, 2021). Of self-assessment tools, rubrics and exemplars have been imperially proven to enhance students’ writing performance and also foster a sense of ownership over their learning outcomes (Lipnevich et al., 2014). In this paper, I would highlight the importance of feedback in education and then discuss the use of rubrics and exemplars as a self-feedback tool in ESL/EFL writing classes.