Developing The Self-Assessment Skill In The Teacher Training System

Abstract

A component of the training process aims at developing the specialists’ assessment and self-assessment skill. During the seminars on Didactics at the Physical Education specialty we worked on improving the assessment and self-assessment skill. Among the practice manners, we used the written paper in the 14 lessons in order to create exercises for different topics, a work which must end with a self-assessment. The present study was conducted on a group of 66 students at VAUB, using as a research method the bibliographic study, the testing method, the pedagogical observation, the statistical-mathematical analysis, the graphic interpretation and representation. The results of the research revealed a significant improvement in the self-assessment skill, with a more realistic arithmetic mean in the final self-assessment. This is highlighted by the dynamics of the results recorded between the initial teacher and student assessment, which recorded 1.31 points in the Group A and the final score of 0.17 points, while in the Group B there was a difference of 1.30 points in the initial assessment and 0.04 points in the final assessment. The interpretation of the data obtained emphasizes that during the training process, paying particular attention to self-evaluation capacity contributes to the formation of fair and competent specialists who face the development of the future society, culture and civilization.The conclusions highlight the differences between the initial and final self-assessment and emphasize the efficiency of the training process based on the practice of repeated self-assessment.

Keywords: Assessmentself-assessmentdevelopmentprofession

Introduction

The professional training process is an act involving the teaching, learning and evaluation activity. The evaluation performed by the teaching staff should be oriented towards the development of the assessment skill on the one hand and on the other hand of the self-assessment skill. Starting from the fact that the training process involves the joint activity of at least two people in which “the purpose of a member of group (A) is to change the member B, and from the fact that the efforts made by A mean an attempt to exercise a management function” (Zlate, 2004), which “implies an exercise of authority, control, decision-making, motivation, strategic planning”(Preda, 2006), we consider that the behavioral training is the target of the formative-educational activity. Occupying “a function, a position and a role in society, ... either in determining performance or in influencing others or a group” (Pieron, 2001) requires a special assessment and a self-assessment skill.

“The ability to influence others in order to achieve professional goals” (Constantin, 2004) requires knowledge and self-knowledge. Today’s learning is a complex learning that is done in an organized and direct way, as well as in an unorganized contextual learning in direct social interaction or through electronic devices, but which must, however, have a meaning and coherence. “Coherence is composed of three factors: understanding , control and purpose . “Understanding refers to the extent to which the person can comprehend the situation through which he or she passes and can assign a meaning” or can deal with it. “Control is defined as the ability of the person to perceive the existence of the available internal or external resources”, for real, in order to use it in the activity he is preparing for, and “purpose refers to the perception of a necessary or desirable end” (Antonovsky, 1987). All these eventually lead to the manifestation of professional behaviors which are able to carry out their teaching activity efficiently, able to open the mind and the heart of the children to knowledge and to the actual self-knowledge.

The students involved in the process of acquiring professional, teaching / pedagogical skills are endowed with the necessary skills for the particular activity, and the purpose / objective is sufficiently challenging to be able to raise the aspirant’s full interest. Nevertheless, “the individual needs to like what he does, the activity is complex enough to force the performer, but not to exceed his/her abilities” (Csikszentmihalyi, 2007). The performer must remain fairly real in his/her self-assessment. “The evaluation process has expanded not only to the results obtained by the students, but also to other economic and social aspects related to the education process and education as a whole” (Dumitriu, 2007). The achievement of these forms of assessment implies the knowledge of: the performance moment, the objectives pursued, the methods and techniques, the functions fulfilled and, last but not least, the effects produced” (Rață, 2008).

Self-assessment in the teacher training system is an exercise which helps to stimulate professional training and it is the first step in raising awareness of the competent professional skill training. There are no people enrolled in a vocational training program not wanting to improve their knowledge, but there are people who are more insistent, more persistent, more diligent, but also some who are more reluctant, lazy, shy, yet with a good impression about them. There are successful personalities who continually struggle with their own strengths to become better, more capable, and there are personalities who are satisfied with a little. The self-assessment skill in particular is one of the factors driving the evolution of a human personality, and it is generally the dynamism of the development of society. Overestimation as well as underestimation represent, compared to real assessement, the harmful factor that hinders the achievement of a good career. The idea of ​​conducting this research came from the discussions which took place during the seminars with the students.

Problem Statement

The study had the aim to highlight the formation of the self-assessment skill in two groups, different in age and experience. In this respect, within four months, during the seminars, the components of the experimental and control groups had the task of executing a practical written work, in which they carried out a self-assessment at the end. Its importance is justified by the special attention which trainees are treated with, but also by the important role in the general education process of the young generation in increasing professional performance or in preventing overestimation.

Research Questions

This research starts from clearing out the following questions: Does the students’ self-assessment skill improve in training? Is the self-assessment skill better in the students experienced in the education system than for the less experienced students in this field?

Purpose of the Study

In order to clarify these questions, we considered it necessary to verify the following hypotheses : a) if students take a written paper with debated and discussed problem solving, which is self-assessed by students and evaluated by the teacher during the 14 seminars (conducted for 4 months, a seminar a week), this can improve the self-assessment skill; b) if in the two experimental groups, group A with experience in the educational system and in group B without experience in the educational system, a self-assessment and assessment process is performed during the 14 seminars, it leads to the improvement of the self-assessment skill, better for group A.

Research Methods

In this paper, we used the following research methods: documenting, pedagogical observation, testing, experiment, data recording and processing method and graphical method. As statistical indicators we have chosen the arithmetic mean, the standard deviation, the maximum value and the minimum value.

This study was conducted on 66 subjects from “Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacău, aged 19-48, participants in the seminars of the Specialty Didactics in Physical Education, divided into two groups. Group A comprised 33 students with experience in the educational system (teachers already teaching in the educational system) and group B comprised 33 students with no experience in the educational system (i.e.

Since the formation of the assessment and self-assessment skills in the teacher training system has a decisive role in the evolution of the educational system, we consider that the theme is topical and was based on an evaluation protocol, according to the evaluation centralizer. In the seminars, besides the training of the professional competencies, we also followed the training of assessment and self-assessment. The research verified whether the self-assessment competence / skill could be improved after writing a paper at the end of each seminar, where self-assessment was also a task. Understanding the significance of this daily task requires and determines the involvement in solving it, and expresses the extent to which the subjects being investigated are challenged by the ambition to be as good as possible and to know themselves best, to be worthy of investment and commitment ‖ (Antonovsky, 1987). The assessment of the progress, after a period of 4 months of training and professional skill training, underlines the improvements in the individual and group self-assessments and highlights the effectiveness of the strategy.

Findings

Conclusion

After analyzing and interpreting the data gathered, we believe that giving special attention to the self-assessment skill in the process of professional training plays an important role when it is necessary to train skilled and competent specialists. Given the values ​​of the arithmetic mean for self-assessment in the initial and final evaluations, we can state that the hypothesis according to which “if students take a written paper with debated and discussed problem solving, which is self-assessed by students and evaluated by the teacher during the 14 seminars (conducted for 4 months, a seminar a week), this can improve the self-assessment skill ” has been confirmed. The hypothesis according to which if in the two experimental groups, group A with experience in the educational system and in group B without experience in the educational system, a self-assessment and assessment process is performed during the 14 seminars, it leads to the improvement of the self-assessment skill, better for group A has also been confirmed. Knowing these issues allows educational training teams to direct the formative process towards an extensive vocational training, to equip graduates with multiple competencies.

References

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