When it comes to evaluating the teaching of teachers externally, there are many challenges for everyone involved. However, a self-assessment tool can provide teachers with valuable feedback on the quality of their teaching without openly questioning their abilities. Elisa Reci, a doctoral student at the Department of Informatics Didactics at the University of Klagenfurt, has developed a platform for this specific purpose.
“We need clearly defined standards for different quality levels, and we have been working on these together with experienced teachers,” Elisa Reci tells us, offering a basic explanation of the tool she has developed as part of her doctoral thesis. These precise criteria have now been modelled and incorporated into an online tool that is available to all teachers. “We want to support teachers in reflecting on their teaching and making it even better. This means that the teachers learn: How good am I? And how good do I want to be?”, she goes on to explain.
Originally from Albania, Elisa Reci, who completed her Bachelor’s degree with distinction, came to Klagenfurt for her Master’s degree in Informatics. When she returned to her native country, she spent three years working as a lecturer at the university and as a computer science teacher at a secondary school. “I became very aware that we are struggling to get enough young people interested in computer science, both at school and at university”, Reci tells us. Elisa Reci attributes the hesitancy in choosing to study computer science to the quality of computer science teaching, among other factors: “Ultimately, how well the teaching goes depends on the teacher and their motivation.”
Elisa Reci originally designed her model for computer science classes. However, it soon became apparent that it was also very suitable for other subjects and could generally be a useful support for all teachers, whether they work at the university, in schools, in further education or in other educational sectors.
Elisa Reci returned to the University of Klagenfurt as a predoc scientist and doctoral student and has devoted the past four years at this university to her research. She has already presented her model and the platform at several conferences and in scientific journals, and it has generated a lot of interest. Her contract at the University of Klagenfurt recently came to an end. For now, Elisa Reci wants to stay in science: “I would like to continue my research as a postdoc scientist and am currently looking around to see what opportunities are opening up.”
Visit the self-evaluation platform: https://team-iid.aau.at/welcome
A few words with … Elisa Reci
What motivates you to work in science?
We can all hope for a better future if the generations of tomorrow are well-educated. This motivates me to seek out new ways to improve education.
Do your parents understand what you are working on?
Yes, they do.
What makes you furious?
Injustice.
And what calms you down?
A smile and a hug from someone with a good heart. Every kind gesture motivates me to fight for and demand a better world.
Who do you regard as the greatest scientist in history and why?
I think that every discipline has its important scientist, as each contributes to different areas of life. I would like to single out medicine, as it has the protection of human life at its core.
What are you looking forward to?
To keep working on what I love.
