Self-assessment as a strategy for developing metacognition in science classes

This paper presents a descriptive study, with a qualitative approach, in which a self-assessment activity was used as a tool for the interpretative analysis of the metacognitive knowledge and strategies adopted by students in Physics classes. The activity of self-assessment was carried out in 2009 by students of three classes of the second year of High School at the Federal Center for Technological Education Celso Suckow da Fonseca (CEFET/RJ UnED NI) in Nova Igua u, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The analysis allowed us to associate the elements mentioned in the students’ texts with metacognitive knowledge. Thus, we suggest that writing a self-assessment can be both a strategy of cognitive self-regulation and monitoring, improving learning, and a tool for research on metacognition.