Development of a model for accounting for expert assessments of students in aviation specialities: retrospective study

INTRODUCTION. In modern conditions, one of the pressing issues in flight crew training is assessing the level of professional preparedness of future flight specialists given existing resource constraints. When solving practical problems related to assessing the success of flight training, one has to deal with a large number of criteria for evaluating training success. There is a need to identify the leading criterion for the success of pilot training.

OBJECTIVE. Justify the relevance and significance of the proposed method of expert assessments as a component of professionally significant qualities of future flight specialists, aimed at identifying problem areas in the process of flight and students’ simulator training.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The study analyzed data from 2,363 people studying aviation specialties in their third and fourth years. The experts were specialists with 20-35 years of flight and teaching experience who provide flight and simulator training. There were 70 experts participating in the study. Expert assessments of training success were based on evaluations of professionally important qualities that ensure successful completion of simulator and flight training, developed on the basis of professional profiles for specialties and compiled by expert groups.

RESULTS. In the group of the best students, expert assessments increase by the fourth year. In the group with average performance, it was found that some of the expert assessment indicators increase, but some indicators decrease. In the group of the worst performers in the 4th year, expert assessments of learning indicators do not change. Identifying changes in the dynamics of expert assessments of trainees allows us to identify problems in the mastery of ground training and flight programs among trainees.

DISCUSSION. An analysis of descriptive statistics on the success of flight training showed that fourth-year students had higher scores than the average external criterion score for third-year students. The training process also revealed an increase in the importance of qualities related to preparation for simulator and flight activities. This, in turn, reflects the specifics of training in each of the courses and allows for a comprehensive assessment of the level of flight skills development. Accordingly, in the 4th year, there is a higher level of development of pilot’s professionally important qualities and the formation of flight skills.

CONCLUSION. The proposed approach allows expert assessments to be used as a generalized indicator that solves the following tasks: assessing the quality of professional training of flight specialists during flight and simulator training; identifying problems in students’ mastery of ground training and flight programs; determining factors that influence student assessments; forecasting and correcting the success of the training program based on the results obtained.

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