A Literature Review Study of Self-Assessment in Music Education

With the purpose of improving the self-learning processes of young musicians, this study is an analysis of literature on self-assessment in music education including (a) literature that shows that self-assessment encourages personal learning and selfdevelopment; (b) self-assessment used to promote self-regulation in learning and the connection between them; (c) effectiveness of self-assessment in music education. Self-assessment is defined by Koutsoupidou (2010) as a method students and teachers can use to re-think their learning process and be more conscious of their strengths and limitations. This thesis explores the literature on self-assessment in music education. I analyzed the literature of self-assessment both in the area of general education and music education. I adopted Zimmerman’s Self-Regulated Learning as the theoretical framework to explore the relationship between self-assessment, metacognition, and self-regulation, and identify the effectiveness of self-assessment. The findings of this study show that self-assessment has limitations during the evaluation process, but may be key in the development of students as life-long learners.