Virtual Session 3: Competence Based Qualifications and Vocational Skills Demonstrations; Evaluation/Assessment; Student's Self-evaluation

Today we had the third virtual session. Our group was the chair group, and we were meant to keep eye on the time, as well as make sure that everything was running smoothly. I think the session went pretty well. We managed to have breaks between the presentations. We even had time to fill in a questionnaire based on the learning goals of each presentation. It will be interesting to see what the results are! Did we learn what the presenters wanted us to learn?

Following on from the first virtual session, we are now discussing more during the presentations, which is a really good thing. Only that it feels as if we did not have enough time for discussion. Luckily we can always continue on our blogs... 

Overall, the presentations were good, and they were made from the vocational education point of view. I would still love to see even more practical examples though.

In my breakout group all the presenters were great. We had some technical issues, but luckily only small ones this time. I am sure there will be even less problems in the future once we learn to use AC more efficiently. 

Today's topics covered competence based qualifications and vocational skills demonstrations, evaluation/assessment and student's self-evaluation. The first two topics were quite familiar to me, at least in theory. I will come back to evaluation later on. 

Self-evaluation

Student's self-evaluation is something I would really like to gather a deeper understanding of. What are the best tools to do it with teens? How could I, as a teacher, help them to understand their learning? Our students evaluate themselves during the on-the-job learning which takes place twice or three times during the studies. There they learn to evaluate not just their professional skills but also their lifelong learning skills. But is that enough? Should we use self-evaluation more in the school as well? 

I think one way to help students acknowledge their learning is to explain to them what they have learned so far. When I started a customer service course with a group of first year students, they were not able to define good or bad customer service. As the course went on, they started to understand what was excellent customer service. In the end they got to a point where they were observing the customer service personnel while they were shopping. They came to my classes to share their experiences with the others. At that point I told them how far they had come from knowing very little to being able to observe their environment critically. I hope that helped them to understand their learning, and maybe in the future they can self-evaluate themselves more independently. In the future I may include some kind of self-evaluation exercises in the end of the course.

What Methods of Assessment/Evaluation Will I Use?

So far I have taught only two courses. I did not have exams or tests in them. For a novice teacher an exam may have been an easy option, but I did not see the point testing customer service skills in the form of exam. Instead, I gave them scenarios, and they had to find solutions to them. Those were written tasks. I also had a small group task in the end of the course. 

In the future I may reduce the number of written tasks and ask them to make a video of a customer service situation instead. I think they would find it fun, and it would really show their skills. Some written tasks could also be delivered in other forms such as cartoons. Not all of the students are such great writers, but they could maybe show their knowledge by drawing. I would not give that option with each task because it is important to practice the writing skills, too. The last task could be some kind of self-evaluation. 

So all in all, I think I will continue with my "say no to exams" policy and try to find other ways to assess the students. I think carefully thought exercises can motivate the students more than the traditional exams. Also the process of preparing a video, for example, may teach more to the students than just getting ready for an exam. They would not just learn from each others, but they would also learn important skills such as group working and presentation skills. And wouldn't it be much nicer from my point of view to watch videos than correct exams late into the night? ;)