The authors would like to thank Dr. Dolmans for her thoughtful commentary on our study examining residents' use of external information during self-assessment of their performance (Plant et al. 2012).In her piece entitled "Self-assessment and dialogue: can it improve learning?", Dr. Dolmans (2012) discusses the importance of dialogue in the self-assessment process. As she points out, residents in our study had the opportunity to discuss their performance during facilitated debriefings immediately following a simulation exercise and some took the initiative to discuss their experiences with peers outside of the formal learning activity. These dialogues undoubtedly provided external information and an opportunity for active interpretation of information, crucial aspects of self-assessment (Sargeant et al. 2010). Interestingly, the study interview itself allowed for a dialogue between the interviewer and interviewee and may have affected the self-assessment process as well. While the interviewer did not provide any formal feedback, the social interaction of the interview allowed the residents to monologue and reflect on their performance. Our study demonstrates that it may be impossible to examine self-assessment in action without affecting the process itself.
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