(1111)A PROPOSAL FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE COMPETENCES OFTHE FINAL MASTER THESIS IN AN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCEMASTER

摘要

The Official Masters Degree in Bio-agriculture, Rural Development and Agro-tourism of theUniversidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche is a one year program comprising 60 ECTS, distributed intwo semesters. 6 ECTS are assigned to the final Master thesis. In order to present the Master Thesisfor evaluation, the students need to have passed 75% of the ECTS and get tutor’s approval of thedocument. Once approved, the Master Thesis is evaluated by a 3 members committee, selectedbased on their expertise on the field by the coordinators of the program. Traditionally, the members ofthe committee evaluated the thesis based on their expertise and previous experience on theevaluation process. In the European Space of Higher Education, within the frame of the ECTS,students evaluation is defined under a new approach based on competence acquisition. Competenceevaluation should be an objective and transparent process. Students need to have access to whatcompetences are to be evaluated and how, by means of which tasks, and a detailed description of thegrading scales.This presentation deals with a pilot experience for establishing competence evaluation in a MasterThesis and it is supported by an education innovation project. Competences assigned to the MasterThesis are defined in the description of the program. The design of a rubric for the evaluation of thecompetences related to the Master Thesis yields a reference document which is not user friendlyenough for a daily use, so the need of translating the contents of the rubric into specific questionnaireswas planned to be developed as instruments for evaluation.The first stage for the development of the questionnaires was a survey among all master’s teacherswho were asked about a) what could be objectively evaluated by the committee during the reading ofthe manuscript and oral defense of the thesis, b) the grading scale for the evaluation. The secondstage was the agreement on the selection of 10 questions with 3 a points scale for grading. Suchquestionnaire was to be answered by the members of the committee after the reading and defense ofthe thesis. After few months of using the questionnaire several teachers suggested a 5 points scale forgrading, and questionnaires were accordingly changed. After 1 year experience on the use of thequestionnaires their suitability was evaluated.The questions selected were linked to the competences to be evaluated, and they did not cover allcompetences. Tutors should be involved in the evaluation of competences and their assessmentsshould account for a higher part of the final grade than the provided by evaluation committees. Asecond questionnaire for the tutors is was prepared in order to complete the evaluation of allcompetences related to the Master Thesis. With the proposed model 74 % of the tasks, regarding 75%of the competences are to be evaluated by the tutor and 26 % of the tasks, regarding 35 %competences by the committee. Some competences comprise tasks evaluated by tutors and otherevaluated by the committee. This evaluation proposal is a substantial change from traditionalevaluation in which 100% of the grade was given by the committee and no objective framework wasprovided to the students.