Self-assessment of transversal competences in engineering students

Abstract

This study show the results of a self-assessment’s competences in engineering students from two Spanish universities, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the University of Girona (UdG), carried out last year. The objective is to contribute to the discussion by reporting the results of the students' self-assessments. For our research group, it is important to understand the use of self-assessment not to evaluate competence otherwise announcement that describe the behavior of everyday and understandable work activities. It is an efficient method for personal development, to clarify roles and to compromise the objectives of a project. We focus on transversal competence, understanding these as those that explain the difference between a professional and an excellent professional when both have the same training. To carry out this study we have used the Cycloid tool as a part of an ICT platform called Evolute, working with 30 transversal competences that have an important relationship in UPC and UdG. This application evaluates competences trying to make students as if they were project managers. In this case, their project is to pass and finish their Degree. The methodology of this tool starts making 120 questions or affirmations that are linguistically evaluated trying to answer the current level and at the target level. The differences between the two levels indicate the need to develop their skills. The competences are divided in the main group as a personal and social competences. This partition can be divided in other level as a six different groups: self-knowledge, self-management or self-control, cognitive skills, self-motivation, social awareness or empathy and social skills. This study compared the differences between the students of this two universities based on current state, goal state, and creative tension, showing the gap between a student's feeling of the current reality and the goal that they wanted for the future. The analysis of the test results demonstrated the possibility of using this application to evaluate and self-evaluate. The comparison identified commonalities and some significant differences between the two university groups