This is an atypical chapter of Facilitating Effective Sixth Form Independent Learning. Whereas all the chapters that follow relate to either a certain stage in how independent learning takes place or an element within it, in this chapter I turn my attention to a process that begins even before the main body of the teaching programme starts. In particular, it highlights the importance of a tool which can be used by students to assess their skills at the outset and then monitor their progress in acquiring more; this tool has equal value before, during and at the end of the teaching. In recording their ideas, students also provide insights that can help the educator.

Origins

The rationale is derived from the long-established practice in education that begins with a group of students sitting some form of test prior to a teaching programme, either to determine their suitability for it or to discover their existing skill level before the work starts. The programme is delivered and a post-test applied. The results of the two tests can then be compared in order to ascertain, in statistical terms, how much learning has taken place. A similar pretest/ post-test approach is well established in formal educational research of an experimental design where evaluation is a key focus.

The tool forming the subject of this chapter is a softer, multi-faceted variation, with the students here assessing their own skill levels before and after an information literacy programme leading to the construction of a product based on independent learning. The tool is meant for use in an ipsative capacity – students should, by the end of the course, consider how far they have improved on their own original assessments; they are not competing against the ratings of their fellows. The principles and individual stages within the self-evaluation method can, of course, be transferred to a range of other situations and merit consideration far beyond an independent learning context. Comparable tools can easily be constructed for application in individual curricular areas, for example.

Construction

The first step in creating the instrument lies in developing a series of prompting sentences dealing with the skills inherent in the learning outcomes which it is anticipated will result from the course.