Self-assessment in PBL: A tool to develop self-confidence and autonomy of students: The example of self-assessment experiment at ISMEP-Supmeca in France

Abstract

Problem- and project-based learning approaches place the students at the center of the learning processes and give the opportunity to make the students active and involved. It also prepares the students for their future professional life by placing them in real situations with different stakeholders. The assessments implemented during problem and project phases allow to evaluate the acquisition of disciplinary skills and competences. This kind of teaching and learning also provides the opportunity to develop specific project skills giving more autonomy and agility to the students in complex problem solving. Knowing their level of acquisition of these skills is a key point for the students, making them more confident in face of the problems they have to solve. All these aspects have been widely experienced and are well documented. ISMEP-Supmeca, a French public engineering school, has chosen since decades to engage in problem-and project-based learning. Progressively, this approach developed through various axis, including educational research projects (IDEFI PLACIS, Erasmus+ strategic partnerships EPICES and EBCC). There are now three offers of this kind at ISMEP-Supmeca: one problem-based learning module for first year students, and two project-based learning modules for second and last year students. Moreover, a self-assessment process has been implemented in order to enable the students to self-assess their project mode skills. Students realize one self-assessment at the beginning of the module and one at the end. In the first one, they evaluate their skills before working with others and receiving feedback, whereas in the second one, their assessment results from the experience gained during the module. This paper presents the first results and the perspectives of this self-assessment experiment, which will continue to be developed.