EDT 506: Self-Assessment Reflection

Based on the results of your self-assessment, on a scale from 1 to 6, with 6 being expert, where would you place yourself as an evaluator at this time? 

If I base the rating solely on how familiar I am with the content I’ve read thus far and the questions from the survey, I’d say somewhere between a 2 - 3 at this time. I think that’s low, but at the same time it’s accurate about my first impressions. Nothing jumped out at me and triggered prior knowledge, but sometimes for me it’s all about the wording. I believe based on my critical thinking skills and the way I think, once I learn more about “evaluation" and have it unpacked I will fall into the 4 category quickly. 

I’ll explain it more in my weaknesses below, but I often rate my initial thoughts or confidence in myself low when given lots of information all at once. But as it slowly chunked or unpacked, there was usually an “ah hah” moment in which I wish I had rated myself better from the start. 

What conclusions have you drawn from your self-assessment, where are you weak and where are your strengths?

I think certain words trigger my brain and overcomplicate it, then I flood it with anxiety about the complexities of the upcoming work. Things such as systematic, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods made my brain feel as if this was all foreign to me. My weakness is how quick I am to shut down to something I think I don’t know, because it’s not jogging prior memories. But once I find more real time examples, I am able to explain to myself easily examples in which I worked with say an open ended questionnaire (qualitative). 

Another weakness of mine will most certainly be working as a collective when it comes to evaluations, as differing backgrounds can make each individual prioritize things differently. I however work hard on reflective practices, so it keeps me grounded and ready to receive information from those with a different perspective. 

My strength I would say is I am data driven, yet very inclusive and empathetic. I am able to see results objectively and at the same time utilize it professionally to support the target audience. I did quite a bit of that in teaching and I am quite good at understanding variables. I’ve always been good at creating assessments for my own students that pull multiple points of data. Some of the data is easily placed into specific categories, well other types I specifically choose to leave open ended to humanize the process. I think that’s essentially my brain in a nutshell, understanding the variables that can skew data and remembering individuals can be similar, but never the same.

An example is creating data collection opportunities that play to everyone's strengths and weaknesses. A simple “Rate from 1 - 10” is the most commonly used, but I’ve also seen the benefits of a visual evaluation. I’ve had students evaluated with art or activities that seemingly just use their hands, but in fact paint a bigger picture on their current abilities. How a person interacts with steps to create, say a simple origami piece, can be very telling as an educator. It’s obviously far more subjective than most, to just sit back and watch, but still great in the building of the overall bigger picture. But when I evaluate students this way, the results are more natural and they don’t recognize they’re being evaluated on certain skills. 

Which of the competencies on the self-assessment surprised you as being necessary, and why did they surprise you?

I wouldn’t say anything really surprised me after looking it all over. I think cultural awareness is a huge thing we need to be aware of and things such as communication, collaboration and working with others is always a big part of evaluation. I think my biggest concern is there not being enough social awareness in the evaluation process and field. I don’t know enough about it, but when working with those that collect data in the past, there often seems to be groups or teams of people that don’t have a good understanding of who their audience is or a concern for their backgrounds. 

I suppose the one surprising thing is that there is emphasis on being inclusive/diverse, as from my own experience I don’t always feel the data collected from me is often the right kind of information. I hope that I can personally learn the relevancies of some of the collection techniques used and what “inclusive” evaluation really looks like in practice or in real time. 

Based on the results of your self-assessment, what actions might you take beyond this class to gain more competence as an evaluator?

For me it really comes down to my understanding of the process and evaluation at the end of this course. I think at this very moment, I might be confusing the role with a few others and getting mixed up when I try to relate it to previous experiences. But from what I understand of a program evaluator, I would love to learn more about the types of conflicts that arise from biases and lack of systemic issue awareness.

Similar to how I’ve spoken about my own struggles with ADHD in other courses and how it’s kept me from higher education for a long time. Are there largely those in this field that fail to properly serve the lower education communities properly, due to the nature of extensive schooling or experience needed for this position? I think having a better understanding of the role and connecting with those in that role will help me gain.