Effect of self‐scoring on subsequent performances in academic achievement tests

Summary An experiment was conducted to examine the relative effectiveness of a self‐scoring methhod of evaluation on subsequent performances of secondary school students in academic achievement tests. Two whole classes (Class A and Class B) of Standard (Std) 10 students at a high school in Itsoseng area of Bophuthatswana (Southern Africa) were randomly chosen out of four classes. Both classes were first pre‐tested and found at the same level of achievement in agricultural science. Class A was subjected to the self‐scoring method of evaluation for four weeks, while the conventional teacher‐evaluation approach continued for Class B. It was found that the performances in the last two weekly achievement tests of agricultural science for the self‐scoring group were significantly higher than those for the teacher‐evaluation group. No significant sex differences in reacting to evaluative feedback were found.