Article Green Open Access 2025

Placing authenticity at the heart of student self-assessment: an integrative review

Teaching in Higher Education
Journal · Vol. 30 · Issue 3 · pp. 640-662
Abstract

Self-assessment involves students making judgements about their own learning. Self-assessment is promoted widely due to its benefits for lifelong learning. However, students often find self-assessment mechanical, useless and redundant–indeed inauthentic. This may partly result from understanding self-assessment as an instrumental and acontextual practice. We take an alternative approach by focusing on the authenticity of self-assessment. We bring together two research areas that have rarely intersected: self-assessment and authentic assessment. How has research conceptualised authenticity with respect to self-assessment? What could we learn from earlier studies to consider authenticity more meaningfully in self-assessment design? To answer these questions, we conduct an integrative review of 40 studies. We formulate an organising framework that outlines the various dimensions of authenticity in self-assessment. We argue that authenticity is a powerful idea that may bring self-assessment from the margins of higher education to its very centre. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Authentic assessment Reflection self-assessment evaluative judgement student identity

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON, Canada
Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, Work and Learning Research Centre, Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom
Funding & Acknowledgements
Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee, 研究資助局
This work was supported by the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee (grant number 27611723).
University Grants Committee, UGC
Grant: 27611723
This work was supported by the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee (grant number 27611723).
University Grants Committee, UGC
This work was supported by the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee (grant number 27611723).
References 10 References
1 References in Our Review are Marked with an Asterisk
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10 Boud, David J., Promoting Reflection in Professional Courses: The challenge of context, Studies in Higher Education, 23, 2, pp. 191-206, (1998)
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