The Effects of Student Self-assessment with Goal Setting on Fourth Grade Mathematics Students: Creating Self-regulating Agents of Learning

With the national trend toward student accountability as learners, few studies have identified effective instructional strategies that motivate elementary students in becoming agents of learning and the effect of these strategies on academic achievement. This quantitative study investigated the effect of student self-assessment with goal setting (SAGS), based on the work of Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, and Chappuis (2006), on elementary school students’ academic achievement and motivation in mathematics. This study employed a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, nonequivalent control-group design. Participants were 130 students drawn from six intact classes of fourth graders from five elementary schools located in a large Archdiocese in the Pacific Northwest. Participants completed a pretest consisting of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (modified) and the Fraction and Decimals Unit Assessment. During the unit of study, both the control and intervention groups received instruction through traditional strategies; however, the intervention group also received the intervention strategy of using the process of self-assessment with goal setting (SAGS). After completion of the unit of study, participants in both groups completed posttests. Data from both pretests and posttests were statistically analyzed using ANOVA and ANCOVA procedures. This study reported the results and interpretations, along with recommendations for future research