Teacher Education Students’ Self-assessment in COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

This paper examines the importance of self-assessment as one of the key learning strategies in teacher education in COVID-19 crisis. The focus is on the teacher students’ engaging in formative self-assessment practices and students' perceptions of self-assessment. 100 second-year students and 15 fourth-year students in the study course "Research in teachers’ professional activity" at the University of Latvia participated in the study. The study was conducted from March 12, when a state of emergency was declared in Latvia due to COVID-19, until the end of the study course on May 29. Qualitative research design and non-probability convenience sampling technique were used to examine the use of self-assessment among the teacher education students. The study was based on students’ self-assessments about their research projects that were presented in class presentations and course papers. Students analysed their research competencies, process and products by using self-assessment rubrics of criteria. Students’ perceptions on self-assessment were obtained from journal entries on their use of self-assessments at the end of the course. Content analysis was used to analyse the obtained data. Research findings suggest that self-assessment helps with planning research projects, the necessary improvements and possible alterations in future projects, in particular when studying remotely due to Covid-19 crisis. In order to develop self-assessment skills, a guided and step-by-step support from lecturers and tutors would benefit the learning process. A call for an investigation of different self-assessment practices and approaches has been made so that superficial self-assessments could be avoided.