22 Evaluate Your Learning
“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”
– Bill Gates
During the learning process, we have many opportunities to receive feedback about the quality of our learning and work. In the university environment, this often comes in the form of grades and Instructor comments on assignments and exams. By using this feedback to evaluate your learning strategies in light of your goals, you will be able to make adjustments to move you towards your goals in current and future courses.
Thinking about your learning occurs in a cycle:
- In the planning stage, you determine what you need to learn and what strategies you will use for your learning.
- In the monitoring stage, you consider how well your current strategies are working, and add new strategies as needed. You also carefully track what you have successfully learned, and what content is still challenging for you.
- In the evaluation stage, you respond to feedback you receive about your learning. You reflect on how successful your learning has been, and consider the changes that you wish to make in your current or next courses in order to achieve your goals.
Reflecting Mid-Course
An excellent time for self-evaluation is after you have received feedback on your first midterm exam or major assignment. Consider the following reflection questions at this stage in your course:
What grade do I hope to achieve in this course? ________
To what extent am I meeting my goal for the course at this point?
What about my exam/assignment preparation worked well?
What in my exam/assignment preparation did not go well? What do I want to change?
How will what I have learned help me in the second half of the course?
| Key question | Other questions to ask yourself |
| What do I need to learn? (Planning) | What are the Learning Objectives/Outcomes for this class?
What do I already know about this topic? What are the concepts I need to master before my next test? What do I want to learn about this topic? How do I distinguish important information from the details?
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| How am I going to learn the material? (Planning) | How can I integrate textbook reading with lecture notes?
What active learning strategies will support my learning? Will I study alone or with a study group? What charts or visuals will help me reorganize or process this material? What memory strategies can I use to remember key words and concepts? How can I connect with my instructor in office hours? |
| How am I doing at learning this material? (Monitoring) | What concepts do I understand well?
What concepts are still confusing for me? Can I explain the material to someone else without referring to notes? Can I create and answer self-testing questions about these concepts? What other strategies could I use to learn this material? Am I using the supports available to me (e.g. office hours, tutors)? How can I make this material more personally relevant to me? |
| Did I learn the material effectively? (Evaluation) | To what extent did I meet the Learning Objectives for this unit?
What in my exam preparation worked well? What in my exam preparation did not go well? What do I want to change? How did my exam answer compare with the suggested answer? What key components did I miss? How will what I have learned help me in my next courses? |
