Evaluation of Students for Seminar Activities

This chapter is mainly focused on the curricular innovations of methodological subjects for acquiring the teacher’s competences at undergraduate education where students as prospective chemistry teachers serve as a target group. As the role of the teacher is changing, teachers will increasingly find themselves challenged to become reflective about their core pedagogical values and beliefs. In addition, constructivist models of teaching and learning are promoting new criteria for successful teaching – criteria that rely heavily on teacher’s self-assessment and decision making about their own work. The descriptive empirical method is used by students for self-evaluation of the quality of seminar tasks defined in a DCEM subject module. On a regular basis, topical didactic concepts have been considered in the redesign of the seminar as a crucial curricular form. The organisation, methodology, and evaluation of seminar work are the main areas of research into its ideal performance.

These three model parameters serve to implement student seminar activities in accordance with Bologna teachers’ competences. The student's assumption of defined functional roles with innovative elements represents the key organizational goal of the seminar work. It goes without saying that the renovation of any seminar is based on the consistent consideration of topical didactic principles.

Using the descriptive empirical method for students’ self-evaluation of seminar work defined in methodological subject module of three subjects (Didactics of Chemistry, Experiments and Natural Activities-Mentroship) some eforts in betteringthe competence mastery over.

The scope of the self-evaluation of these activities ranges from the implementation of functional roles (The Task Owner, Coordinator, Evaluator, Student Record-Keeper), through the acquired experience of the student as the bearer of the seminar work and the participant's autonomy, as well as the seminar results of the performer, to potential improvements.

Evaluation of organizer’s and coordinator’s knowledge and skills is implemented by colleague while assessment of student evaluator’s and student record-keeper’s competences is admitted to teacher-trainer.

In addition to the student's great engagement in the implementation of the student's varied seminar activities and his/her autonomy, it is also necessary to highlight the teacher-trainer's role in the articulation of seminar tasks and preparation of students' reports.