Extended research proposal
Influence of self-assessment to professional development of teachers An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. Albert Camus Self-assessment stands for one of the key elements of quality professional development in which individual is „‟watcher‟‟ and „‟the watched‟‟. This research proposal has two key words: self-assessment and professional development. Self-assessment and professional development influence each other in theory and in practice. In the following work, you can find definitions of self-assessment and professional development in wide range of their meanings, sometimes conditioned by the context in which both are performed. Self-assessment is assessment or evaluation of oneself or one’s actions, attitudes, or performance1 According to Boud (1995), all assessment including self-assessment comprises two main elements: making decisions about the standards of performance expected and then making judgments about the quality of the performance in relation to these standards.2 When it comes to search for the basic and more complex meaning of the self-assessment, I have come across to similar definitions, and most of them regard self-assessment as a tool for children to learn more about themselves or their achievements while few of researches point out self-assessment of teachers used as an instrument for professional development and improvement of teaching. Professional development: Professional Development is the continuous process of acquiring new knowledge and skills that relate to one’s profession, job responsibilities, or work environment. It plays a key role in maintaining trained, informed, and motivated employees, regardless of job classification3. Professional development shall be comprised of professional learning opportunities aligned with student learning and educator development needs, and school, school district, and/or State improvement goals4. These two definitions give us several important highlights and terms in further research of the topic, such as: continuous process, motivated workers, development needs. Research interest in this work relates to the influence of self-assessment to professional development of teachers. It is presumed that professional development is closely related to personal growth and provision of improved services in education of children. Both areas of development are conditioned by timely and holistic self-assessment and feedback. In feedback we need „‟the other side‟‟ who provides us with their own perception of our actions. In self1
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/self-assessment/12/03/2014/11:30
2
Spiller, D. 2012, Assessment Matters: Self-Assessment and Peer Assessment , Teaching Development|Wāhanga Whakapakari Ako 3
http://www.austincc.edu/hr/profdev/overview.php/12/03/12:15
4
Department of Education, 2013, New Definition of Professional Development and Standards for Professional Learning, New Jersey
1|Aleksandra Radoman-Kovačević, May 2014