ENGINEERING STUDENTS' SELF-ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING OUTCOMES IN THE CONTEXT OF TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

Students' self-assessment of their learning is an essential and recognized part of the study process that helps improve motivated studies. The aim of the study was to outline the components of transformative learning, the role of educators, students and learning environment, and to analyse students' self-assessment of the learning outcomes at the Latvia University of Agriculture. The theoretical study was focused on the analysis of transformative learning and conception of learning outcomes. The method of questionnaire was used to investigate the students' self-assessment of their learning outcomes. The results of the study were obtained from the first-year and third-year students of agricultural engineering, machine building, forest engineering, construction and information technologies fields of the Latvia University of Agriculture (LLU). There were compared the data and their difference of significance got from the first and third year students data. Therefore, the questionnaire results serve as a means of the students' and educators' understanding of the quality of the process of teaching and learning, and thinking transformation. As the self-assessment of learning outcomes for a vital number of the first and third year engineering students is only on a middle or even low level it is necessary to include the themes on transformative learning in further education programmes for educators and to persuade them to use more learning from experience by means of critical reflection through rational discourse. So, the transformative learning allows the students to use the contexts of their formal learning experiences to construct and reconstruct personal meanings.