Perspectiva del alumno sobre la evaluación de los aprendizajes de los estudiantesun estudio de caso

Resumo

ABSTRACT OF A THESIS FOR A DOCTORAL DEGREE This doctoral thesis is entitled "Assessment on students learning from the point of view of the students themselves: a case study". The purpose of this study is to determine, from the student's experience, what were the different assessment procedures employed by their teachers in the obligatory subjects of the core curriculum both in the "Licenciatura en Pedagogía" (Bachelor Degree in Education under a former plan of studies) and "Grado en Pedagogía" (Bachelor Degree in Education under a new plan of studies) in order to get information on how they have learned and how they have developed their cognitive abilities during their studies. In this work, the following objectives have been pursued: 1. To understand and interpret the procedures that the professors have applied in order to obtain information to assess student learning in both the "Licenciatura" and the "Grado en Pedagogía" at the University of Murcia. 2. To identify and interpret the cognitive skills that students put into practice both in the "Licenciatura" and "Grado en Pedagogía" in order to successfully pass all the subjects required to obtain their degree. 3. To determine whether there is continuity or change in the assessment procedures applied by the professors in both the "Licenciatura" and "Grado en Pedagogía" at the University of Murcia. 4. To compare and interpret the use that students made of their various cognitive skills in general and in specific situations in both the "Licenciatura" and "Grado en Pedagogía" (2009-2013). 5. To suggest how to develop future research dealing with topics related to the object of this study. These objectives have undoubtedly guided our research and have provided a reference for making decisions regarding the dimensions and processes relevant to this thesis. Moreover, the structure of the methodological framework allows us, in its design and development, to determine how to proceed in this investigation. We would like to emphasize that this is a non-experimental research in a case study, since it is a specific degree, with some unique features. In this sense, Stake (2005) noted that the case study is one in which you start from "the uniqueness and complexity of a single case, in order to understand its activity in important circumstances" (p.11). In this particular case, it is analyzed "the perception of each student in a classroom (subcases) dealing with their experiences and their learning" (Stake, 2007, p. 325) As for the students who have participated in this study, it should be pointed out that we have obtained information at the completion of their fifth year in college in two promotions of students in the "Licenciatura" and in one promotion of the "Grado en Pedagogía" (The word "promotion" should be understood here as a group of students who for five years have had similar experiences, as they have completed the same subjects, with the same teachers, same examinations, same papers and same experiences as a whole). We would also like to stress that in order to obtain this information we have contacted a total of 205 students. Concerning data collection techniques, two methods has been used: the open questionnaire and the Likert scale. This brief review of the goals, objectives and methodology of our work allows us to understand the context in which we present the most relevant results and conclusions. Thus, we begin by noting that both, students of "Licenciatura" and of "Grado en Pedagogía", agree that the four standard techniques (written examination, oral examination, test and examination papers) are used by their professors to evaluate them. They also recognize that not all instruments of evaluation have been used with the same frequency and intensity, highlighting the presence of term papers in virtually every subject. We would also like to underline that the students refer to other practices different from the mentioned above that are more in the line of the new EEES methodologies. We also recognize that there are some absences in terms of assessment techniques as in the resolution of cases, panels of experts, apprenticeship contracts, reports, case study, the round table, term paper, class presentation, etc. Another important finding is the combination of different evaluation practices to obtain information from different sources related to the student learning. In this regard, it should be pointed out that the most common was the combination of two techniques (papers and exams), although there have been areas in which the evaluators have used up to four. The use of only one technique to evaluate the students is the exception. As for the results achieved in cognitive abilities, we should stress that students report having developed 5 cognitive abilities according to Marzano and Kendall (2007) (recovery, comprehension, analysis, solving problems and problematic situations), although not all were performed with the same degree of intensity. More specifically, they agree that the most commonly used have been recovering, understanding and analysis, while solving exercises and problematic situations are not so frequently used. Finally, learning from our research, we suggest some lines of investigation for future studies. We propose the following: to continue in the line of this study to include other areas and departments in the University of Murcia; to invite departments of Education in other universities to conduct similar investigations; to promote the in-depth analysis of term papers and TFG papers (TFG: Trabajos Fin de Grado or final papers in the senior year).