Assessment of Teaching towards Perfection

Similarly, evaluation of class room teaching helps in understanding the teaching competence of the teacher. The evaluation of teacher’s teaching, guides in understanding the success or failure of the lesson being taught. We have to wait for the result of exams conducted but it is essential to know how far a teacher has successfully related the learning experiences with the content taught and has provided the required conditions for the success of the lesson taught in the classroom.

This helps to analyse and improve instruction, for the benefit of the teacher as well as students. It helps to –

• Decide the qualities of teaching to evaluate.
• Change to an appropriate assessment method.
• Make changes to further improve your teaching.

The five qualities students expect from a teacher in the classroom are –

• Well organised presentation of lessons.
• Respect for students.
• Co-relation to daily life.
• Readiness to give extra time to answer the queries of students.
• Sense of humour.

The analysis of lesson planning is equally important for a teacher-

• Have I planned to use appropriate Teaching-Learning techniques?
• Have I planned to use relevant resources?
• Have I presented the data logically?
• Have I communicated ‘why’the learning of the concept is important?
• Have I removed unnecessary information to avoid confusion in the students’ minds?
• Have I included appropriate information and specified the objectives.

It is good to note down in a diary a few ideas how to carry forward the concepts and what was the result of it. It helps to track the progress and plan for the future. Things like student participation in class room activities, attendance of students, teacher feelings, etc. are a few clues in every day teaching environment that can help you to identify issues in the classroom instruction.

The evaluation of classroom teaching can be done in many ways-

• Self-evaluation, which means evaluating the performance by the teachers themselves. It helps the teacher to understand how far he or she is successful in achieving the objectives set for the lesson and imparting knowledge to the students. The teacher can use a self-rating scale to measure the amount of success achieved in teaching a lesson. The rating scale consists of self-evaluation questions which are to be answered by the teacher in an unbiased way. For example each question in the self-evaluation sheet can be followed by three answers-If yes(3m), if ?(2m) and if no(1m).If the teacher agrees, tick yes; if doubtful, tick ?; and if disagrees, tick no. This self-evaluation scale for individual evaluation will certainly improve the teaching efficiency of a teacher.
• Students as evaluators, classroom assessment techniques help the students and teachers to co-operatively improve learning. Small exercises can be done at the end of every lesson or concept, which help to identify points of difficulty in teaching.

  Students can be given a sheet and can be asked to write their response in the following way without mentioning their name or roll number.

  1. 1. Write what was the interesting or a new concept he or she learned in the session.
     2. Write down the points which were not clear. (This helps to identify the points which have to be explained again)
     3. Questions students have at the end of the session.
     4. Frame two or three relevant questions of the concept which can be discussed.
     5. Summarise the key points which gives an idea to the teacher about the depth of students’ understanding.

  The technique of involving the students directly is vital for any teacher; she has to take it with a positive attitude and bring in changes for the benefit of students as well as the teacher. It is commonly believed teachers are continuous learners.

• Class observation by the Section In-charges or Heads of the Department or External auditors helps in providing a critical analysis of the lesson taught by the teacher in the classroom. Observation of classroom teaching encompasses observing the entire process of teaching and learning in the classroom. It helps in providing constructive criticism to the teachers and helps them improve further in their classes.

Observation sheets are provided to the observer and after observing the class they fill in the comments or give rating based on the given rating scale. They meet the teacher and give personal feedback of strengths and areas of improvement to the teacher. Further, second round of observation can be done in the next term of the same academic year to check the improvement and application of the given suggestions towards improvement.

A check list or rating scale is prepared based on certain criteria. For example, a 5 point scale A,B, C, D and E is used which depicts 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 marks. The observer has to observe various points from the beginning to end of the session and see that one area of observation should not influence the other areas. Each parameter is either a strength or a weak point of the person.

These are a few criteria for evaluation of the Teaching – Learning processes for better understanding and learning.

Videotaping yourself as you teach is also one of the simple techniques to check yourself and further enhance your instruction. Recording the instruction gives the teacher an accurate picture of what happened in the classroom and can be one of the best evaluation tools, too.

Sometimes we observe that in a test, most of the students have given some incorrect answer to a particular question.This shows that there is need to bring in immediate remedial teaching of the same topic in a different way so that right learning takes place.

These are a few criteria for evaluation of teaching-learning processes for better understanding and learning. Self-Assessment will definitely lead to improvement. If teachers begin the evaluation process, they come to know in which areas they can improve.

What can I do to become a more effective teacher? Look at the concepts with which your students struggled and see what you can do to assist them in grasping a more complete understanding of that particular concept. It gives satisfaction and happiness to the teacher as the students are able to learn better, and thus, results in best understanding and learning in the students.

Surekha Nayani, M.Sc (Chemistry),B.Ed has fifteen years of teaching experience in CBSE schools and has been teaching Physics and Chemistry to secondary school students.

Presently, she is working as Head of the Department of Science and also as CBSE Co-ordinator in Delhi Public School, Nacharam, Hyderabad. As HOD she trains teachers in teaching-learning processes like developing and presentation of content, preparation of worksheets and question papers, designing CCE etc. and also conducts workshops on various aspects of teaching science.

She has written articles on teaching science by focusing on creative methodologies which arouse interest in the subject. She strongly believes that every teacher should emphasise proper planning, preparation and effective presentation of subject matter, every day and in every class with commitment which influences and empowers student learning.