Assessing Fourth Year Student-teachers’ Understanding of Self-evaluation Report Writing

Abstract

1. Self-evaluation plays a vital role in the levels of understanding learning goals, expectations, strength and weaknesses which lead to improvements at work or professional development. This study explores students- teachers’ understanding on the impact of self-evaluation report writing. The paper explores fourth year student-teachers who are doing Bachelor degree in education at Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. The student who are doing first year to third year they attend their teaching practice in April to May of each year whereas the fourth year students they go to teaching practice from June to December of each year. The participants were randomly selected from the cohort of thirteen (13) fourth year students that the researcher was evaluating. The researcher selected six (6) student-teachers based on their easily accessibility. The data were collected through documents analyses of the students’ journal. The study only focused on the section of self-evaluation that is completed by the student him/herself. The analyses of paper draw on the concept of self-assessment which includes self-diagnosis and self- monitoring. The data revealed that most of the student-teachers to some extend can do self-diagnosis as they were able to identify their learning need and challenges, which will help them to develop their profession. However, student-teachers cannot do self- monitoring as they were unable to identify their present status on the extent to which they have improved in different areas of learning and also to provide constructive feedback. Therefore, students’ teachers have limited knowledge on how to do self- evaluation which includes self-reflection; hence it can have a negative impact on their professional development. As a result, student-teachers require a special training on how to do self-evaluation which includes understanding the purpose, impact and theoretical underpinnings of self-assessment practices so that they can be used productively for their professional development.