Hello again everyone. I'm Dr. Kymn Rutigliano, and it's great to be back with you. Now that we have helped Sonia conduct a self-assessment in preparation for her interview with Rick, the hiring manager at Demode. Let's take a step back and discuss self-assessment from the literature. Self-assessment has been studied for over a hundred years by educational theorists and practitioners. As well as those in the fields of business, career management, medical training, and vocational education. A leading researcher, George Jean Lackier, of Alverno College in Wisconsin, define self-assessment this way. As the ability to evaluate one's competence, one's progress, and the determination of what needs to come next. Simply put self-assessments lets you know how you measure up in a given area, helps you determine what the gap is to excellence and mastery. And helps you create a plan of action to bridge the gap. She offers seven concepts of self-assessment that are very helpful. So let's briefly discuss each one. Self-assessment is a developmental process. You get better at it the more you do it. Self-assessment involves looking for patterns of strength and weakness, so that you can plan for improvement. Careful, precise observation so that you don't overdo or underrate your performance is very important. And reflective analysis, kind of like linking new knowledge with what you have learned previously always helps you keep goals in mind and energizes your learning. Internalizing criteria so that self-assessment begins to come naturally is equally important. Utilizing feedback so that you can better understand what constitutes effective performance and mastery is also quite important. And last but not least, planning for improvement. Seeing where you are, where you want to be as we discussed previously when we talked about your future work self. All of this adds up to one graduate's statement and I quote, you have to be able to have an accurate idea of where you are and how you're doing. Especially, when you take in new information and no longer have teachers as resources anymore. This is why Sonia's self assessment is so important to prepare well for the job interview at Demode. A consistent message in the career development in literature is this. Possessing a strong understanding of your skills will likely result in better career choices, especially as you face a variety of options. In nearly every profession there's considerable research on the importance of self assessment. Now let's take the field of medicine for example. We certainly want our doctors and nurses to be confident throughout their careers. We count on them to keep current, to fill in gaps in their knowledge, and to know when they need to seek additional skills and training. Their self assessment is essential to our health. It is the form of quality assurance and the hallmark of a dedicated practitioner. That certainly makes sense, doesn't it? So more and more we are seeing that self assessment is no longer a nice component for educational programs. It is a mandate. In fact, the commission on dental accreditation now has a standard that reads. Graduates must be competent in the application of self-assessment skills to prepare them for lifelong learning. And many other fields are creating similar standards, and higher education must keep up. A sterling example in the adult education arena is a project called Vintage. It's an online tool for self evaluation of key competencies. And what's really great about this is that six countries, Italy, Austria, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Sweden join together to create this initiative. That focuses on lifelong learning, offering a tool anyone can use for self-assessment, personal empowerment, and development. Likewise, Professor David Boud at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia has written and researched about self-assessment for over 30 years. And something he calls Assessment 2020. He makes a passionate plea for the case that higher education needs to teach self-assessment strategies and tools once again. So that lifelong learning, especially for careers in the VUCA environment, is fostered. We here at SUNY Empire State College and Coursera agree. Now what have we learned? Self assessment is of interest to researchers in many fields, accurate self assessment is difficult. And must include both self-reflection and external sources. It is a lifelong learning skill that needs to be developed and can be developed as we are experiencing in this specialization. Self-assessment helps us make better career decisions. Especially in the VUCA environment. In the career development lab we will continue to develop the muscle of self-assessment. And next, we will explore the tools of self-assessment. I look forward to seeing you there. Thanks so much.
