sự cảm nhận của giáo viên và người đánh giá giáo viên về việc đánh giá giáo viên và các tiêu chí trong bản đánh giá giờ dạy của các giáo viên hiện nay

With regard to the role of teaching evaluation, the teaching assessmentcriteria make a good contribution to the effectiveness of teaching English atschools in Hanoi.. In different grades

Boyd & Ronald (1989) identify two major goals of teacher evaluation, i.e.assessment of teacher competence and encouragement of teacherprofessional development

The present study investigates the perception of lower secondaryschool teachers in Hanoi about the teacher evaluation through the currentteaching assessment-criteria, which are used in Hanoi Surveyquestionnaires were collected from 30 teachers who are teaching English inlower secondary schools and 10 teachers’ evaluators from different districts

in Hanoi

The survey was followed by semi-structured interviews with 7respondents in an attempt to find out their thoughts about the currentteaching assessment criteria in terms of their objectivity, practicality andassessibility

With regard to the role of teaching evaluation, the teaching assessmentcriteria make a good contribution to the effectiveness of teaching English atschools in Hanoi However, more detailed indicators of the assessment sheetshould be designed and the peculiarities of the subject should be concerned

to make the teaching assessment more effective

Part A Introduction

1 Background

In Vietnam, English is now most widely taught throughout thecountry, and it is more popular in big cities such as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minhcity Teachers of English are said to find jobs easier than teachers of othersubjects because English is taught systematically at schools from grade 3.However, it is revealed that after ten years learning English at schools andeven after finishing the university, our students cannot be self- confidentenough to communicate with foreigners or to apply for a job that must dealwith foreigners without studying any further English courses

Therefore, the issue of quality in English language teaching inVietnam has been a matter of concern Teaching is often said to be an artrather than a science: hence it is not easy to judge it However, in all theschools that are said to be famous for their quality, the teaching must begood Good teaching is the result of good teachers There are many goodteachers of English in Vietnam, that is the undenying fact Good knowledge

of English is the first characteristic of a good English teacher and then theteaching methods In different grades there are different teaching methods.Many teaching methods and techniques have been applied by the secondaryschool teachers to develop their students’ learning ability Unfortunately theresults are not very satisfactory for various reasons.Teachers all have knownthat they must be patient with their students or they must be enthusiatic.However, they will get angry if their students do not finish their homework

or cannot answer their questions at the lesson They also understand thatthey need to be sensitive to their students through gestures, facialexpressions and should not dominate the lesson but they can hardly do it.Theoretically, there are teachers training programmes every year to improveteachers’ knowledge to make their teaching better and better However, afteryears of teaching in lower-secondary schools, teachers find themselvesunable to use English for day-to-day communication, one of the most

teachers cannot answer their students’ questions about the information in thetextbook although they all passed the “teaching assessment” every year andmany of them get the prize of “Excellent Teachers”

To meet the needs of socio-conomic, scientific and technologicaldevelopment, as well as the intergration of the country, the Ministry ofEducation and Training (MOET) requested to reform the teachingcurriculum for all national lower and upper secondary schools towardgreater emphasis on students ability or it is often called learner-centeredteaching Together with the curriculum changing, the teaching evaluationand teacher assessment have been renovated Based on the TeachingEvaluation Criteria of the Ministry of Education and Training; HanoiDepartment of Education and Training has applied the criteria to evaluateEnglish teaching as well as other subjects Twenty teaching evaluationcriteria in the observation sheet, which is mainly used for assessing teachersafter having one or two periods of class observation is so called teacherevaluation anually However, after 6 years of its application, the evaluation–criteria are somehow causing different oppinions

Theoretically, there have been lots of teaching evaluation modelsdesigned by native speakers and other nations around us such as Britain,America or Singapore Many research in this field have been done byuniversities or institutes in the world like the Research in Improving TeacherEvaluations with Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation by AmericanInstitutes or Guidelines for Evaluating Teaching by the University ofMichigan and others In Vietnam, there is not a standard tool of teachingevaluation system That explains why teacher evaluation has not achievedsuccess in teaching development and in teacher encouragement It is knownthat the MOET has been carrying out the experiment of the teachingevaluation for primary school teachers since 2003 and it is still in the firststage of being applied in the South For the lower secondary school teachers,the assessment for their teaching depends on their own district

In this situation, the researcher would like to focus on this field to findout a better approach to the evaluation of teachers including its purpose, therules and regulations that apply, the target group to be evaluated, thedomains to be covered, the procedures and methods to be employed, theinstruments to be used, the persons to be involved, and the types of reportsand feedback to be provided However, there is no one complete source forinformation on one’s teaching, and no single technique for gathering it.Moreover, the techniques need to be sensitive to the particular teachingassignment of the instructor being assessed or evaluated, as well as thecontext in which the teaching takes place Therefore, the reseacher uses aninvestigation of teachers teaching English in lower secondary schools inHanoi for this reseach through questionnaires and interviews as usual.

2 Aims of the study

Based on the needs analysis mentioned above, the study is aimed at:

- Finding out what teachers and teacher evaluators think about thecurrent teacher evaluation basing on the teaching assessment criteria of theobservation sheet in terms of their objectivity, practicality and assessibility

- Finding out the gaps, if any, between teachers and teacherevaluators’ perceptions of the evaluation criteria

- Exploring the extent to which the evaluation criteria encourageteachers’ creativeness in their teaching according to teachers’ perception

3 Scope of the study

Teaching is a complex and personal activity that is best assessed andevaluated using multiple techniques and broadly-based criteria

The study limited to the investigation of teachers and teacherevaluators’ comments on the current criteria for evaluating teachers’teaching These teachers and teacher evaluators are working within a district

of Hanoi city

The aim of this investigation is to find out space for improvement ofthe current teaching evaluation criteria Findings are used to inform

on teaching evaluation can be derived However, the study was not intended

to produce new teaching evaluation criteria Rather, it is just an attempt tounderstand the voice of teachers and teacher evaluators – the key consumers

of the current teaching evaluation criteria – about the question underinvestigation

4 Research method of the study

The qualitative approach, which involves survey questionnaires,interviews and document analysis, is employed combined with quantitativeone which data analysis will be processed by the level of agreement markedthrough the 4 options

The subjects of the study are a sample of 30 teachers teaching Englishand 10 teacher evaluators from 10 Districts working in Education andTraining Services in Hanoi

- Document analysis (the teacher evaluation criteria applied in Hanoi)

is the first stage of the study

- The survey questionnaire is the second stage and then 5 teachers and

2 teacher evaluators are chosen randomly and voluntarily for semi-structuredinterviews to provide an insight into the statistical findings made from thequestionnaire

5 Organization of the study

Three parts will be presented: Introduction, Development andConclusion In the introduction of the study the background of Englishteaching evaluation is presented and the aims, the scope, the methods andthe organization of the study are also mentioned Part B or the development

is the most important one with three chapters which show the nature ofteaching, the teaching evaluation and the study The final part summarizesthe findings of the study and some implications for further research are alsomentioned

PART B DEVELOPMENTChapter 1 - The Nature of Teaching

1 Teaching - a special work

Labaree (2000) indicates that teaching is an enormously difficult jobthat looks easy Generally speaking, the nature of teaching is the process oftransferring knowledge from the teacher-the former to the students-the latter,that makes the process of becoming a teacher not so complicated It is saidthat teaching is easy because teachers are the people who read materials firstand then repeat the things they have read to their students However, reality

is quite different Teaching, unlike other professions, requires teachers notonly good techniques in teaching but also an emotional relationship withtheir students; However, there is no guide book for how to accomplish this

Teaching is a dificult practice because students must be willing tolearn what the teacher is teaching, and students are only present in theclassroom because they are compelled to be there Like other practitioners inthe professions of human improvement, teachers have to work things out ontheir own, without being able to fall back on standards of acceptableprofessional practice such as those that guide lawyers, doctors andaccountants Although teachers have many curriculum materials to follow,the curriculum developers and others often have failed to take account of theteachers The roots of the gap between the reality and the perception ofteaching and learning to teach look easy is that teachers put themselves inpositions that dismish their own status and power in order to enhance thecapacity and independence of their students

In general, teaching is the specialized application of knowledge andskills designed to provide unique service to meet the educational needs ofthe individual and of society Teaching is special because teachers must havecharisma Good teachers are not like skilled craftworkers who know exactlywhat they must do and take pleasure in a job well done but quite separatefrom their enthusiasm Teachers are not only skillful workers but emotional

teachers to make it well but it looks easy for others Only best teachers candetermine the effects of practice in particular context They know not onlywhat they are doing, but why it is working and why it is likely to work inone kind of environment and not in an other Although best teachers mayhave some natural personality characteristics that support their success, theyalso work very hard at their teaching and continually try to improve That isreally not easy.

Therefore, not so as it is understood, teaching is not simply a process

of transfering the knowledge from the former to the later It is a special workthat is like an art The teacher will get success only when he/she actswonderfully before his/her students

2 Teaching - a creative work

Despite the difficulties inherent in teaching, the profession is generallyseen to be relatively easy even among teacher candidates because of manyreasons that teachers have spent a great deal of time as students observingteachers practise their trade The time of observation shows them a lot aboutwhat teachers do and the perception of substantive skills and teacher’sknowledge is thoroughly ordinary A good teacher is the person who makesher/ his business unnecessary that means he/she can make his/herempowering learners learn without the teacher’s help

Teachers have a right to participate in all decisions that affect them ortheir work The educational interests of students are best served by teacherswho exercise their professional judgement.Teaching, like any forms ofcreative invention, is situated in person, and professional growth is anintensely private affair In a landscape without bearing, teachers create andinternalize their own maps Although curriculum designers aim to createparticular kinds of learning experiences for students, they can anticipate onlypartially what particular children will bring to instruction and how easilythey will learn Teachers necessarily select from and adapt materials to suittheir own students Curriculum materials are seen to be a guide but to be aconstraint and control both knowledge and teaching, limiting students’

opportunities to learn Teachers who invent lessons are said to be creativeand imaginative Their invention will make the lessons more interesting thanthe textbook itself Therefore, good teaching involves more than the simpletransmission of information and includes motivating students and creating apossitive classroom environment as well.

3 Effective teachers

During the past 50 years the debate over effective teaching has movedfrom a dicussion of technical, classroom skills, or process skills as they havebeen called, to a focus on skills necessary to make the subject matterunderstandable to the student From the Cornell Center for Learning andTeaching, recent work on teacher effectiveness has yielded the followingobservations which support an integrative model that is both process-andcontent-based:

Teachers promote learning by communicating to their students what isexpected and why Effective teachers not only know the subject matter theyintend their students to learn but also know the misconceptions theirstudents bring to the classroom that will interfere with their learning of thatsubject matter Besides, effective teachers are clear about what they intend toaccomplish through their instruction, and they keep these goals in mind both

in designing the instruction and in communicating its purpose to thestudents They make certain that their students understand and are satisfied

by the reasons given for why they should learn what they are asked to learn.Effective instruction provides students with structured opportunities toexercise and practice independent learning strategies

In addition to that, effective teachers create learning situations inwhich their students are expected not just to learn facts and solve givenproblems but to organize information in new ways and formulate problemsfor themselves Such learning situations include creative writingopportunities in language arts, problem-formulation activities in

mathematics, and independent projects in science, social studies andliterature.

Moreover, effective teachers should continuously monitor theirstudents’ understanding of presentations and responses to assignments Theyroutinely provide detailed feedback, but not necessarily in the same way forall students And they must realize that what is learned is more likely to beremembered and used in the future if it serves students’ purposes beyondmeeting school requirements

Although teachers are human, not machines; effective teachers shouldtake time for reflection and self-evaluation, monitor their instruction to makesure that worthwhile content is being taught to all students, and acceptresponsibilty for guiding student learning and behavior Effective teachershould talk less and teach more Students always believe in the teachers who

both start and end the class on time It is important to note that effective

teachers should condition students to respond to their arm motions from dayone and be specific when giving instructions…short, concise information.Teachers have different perspectives, approaches and objectives to achieve.However effective teachers should not speak in generalities and shouldnever work too long on the problems of one section or one structure On theother hand, they must know when to practice complete passages vs.practicing “spots” in the reading lesson and be consistent in correcting theirstudents’errors and faults One more important is that teachers should usethe blackboard (whiteboard) to clarify problems Nowadays, some of theteachers are not used to using blackboard They prefered modern facilities

Finally, students are very sensitive about criticizing Therefore,teachers should be careful when giving criticism or praise Effective teachersknow how to criticize and when to do it They should never criticize orpraise the same students And their students must always believe that eachday is new day with them

4 Effective teaching

Effective teaching is the basis of successful learning Effectiveteaching identifies and builds on prior knowledge, makes real-lifeconnection, develops deep understanding and monitors and reflects onlearning

Although many people believed that good teaching is impossible todefine in any general way, many others suggest that certain characteristicsare associated with good school teaching as viewed by students, otherteachers and administrators Ebro(1997), presented in a study of winners ofthe Alumini Distinguished Teaching Award at Ohio State somecharacteristics of effective teaching which are based on traits of effectiveteachers such as

The teachers got right down to business

They began class promptly and were well organized

They taught at an appropriately fast pace, but stopped regularly tocheck student comprehension and engagement

They used a variety of instructional strategies rather than lecturealone

They focused on the topic and their instructional objectives and didnot get sidetracked

Their explanations were clear

They used humor that was in keeping with their individual styles They practiced good classroom management techniques, holding theattention and respect of the group

They interacted with sudents by providing immediate answers toquestions or comments and corrective feedback when needed

They praised student answers and used probing questions to extendthe answers

They provided a warm classroom climate by allowing students tospeak freely and by including personal humor or other attempts to relate to

They used nonverbal behavior, such as gestures, walking around, andeye contact, to reinforce their comments

Effective teaching is not the same with all the grades Effectivecollege teaching that emerge in Joseph Lowman (1996) are the two main

dimensions: interllectual excitement which consits of enthusiasm,

knowledge, inspiration, humor, interesting view-point, clarity and

organization, and interpersonal concern or effective motivation which

emerges in concern, caring, availability, friendliness, accesibility,helpfulness, encouragement and challenge They are also the marks of theeffective teacher

Besides, a number of writers Grasha (1996) and Lowman (1996) haveobserved differences in styles among teachers They classify them according

to a number of dimensions that represent how teachers approach theirstudents, the way in which they think learning takes place, and personalstrengths and preferences Examplary teachers are those who are highlyproficient in fundalmental sets of skills: the ability to offer presentations inclearly organized and interesting ways or to relate to students in ways thatcommunicative positive regard and motivate them to work hard to meetacademic challenges Effective teaching is together with teacherdevelopment A key element in the process of teacher development isfeedback The most effective teachers employ information on their teachingfrom students Individual teacher will naturally exhibit different style, andthere are many ways to make her/him do effective teaching However, agood teacher always makes questions to herself/himself “why you are heretoday” when entering class As it is said above that teaching is not right orwrong, good or bad, effective or ineffective in any absolute, fixed ordetermined sense On the contratry, some characteristics of good teachingare defined and in common way quality teaching is that activity whichbrings about the most productive and beneficial learning experience forstudents and promotes their development as learners In the material

Teaching Assessment and Evaluation Guide of York University (2002), all

students, faculty and administrators agree that quality teaching consists of

five main characteristics: establishing a positive learning environment;motivating student engagement; providing appropriate challenges; beingresponsive to students’ learning needs; and being fair in evaluating theirlearning

Besides, the atmosphere throughout the whole lesson was friendly,informal, and personal, giving each other a kind of relaxation and feelingfree to state and venture any oppinion The result is a greater sharing of ideasand debate concerning lessons topics, which are only positive According tothe Report of the Ad Hoc Senate Committee on Teaching Quality,Effectiveness and Evaluation, published on May, 1999 there are sevenprinciples for effective teaching taken together with the exemplary practices-Those standards are: to set clear goals and interlectual challenges for studentlearning, which actively helps students to accomplish goals and meetchallenges as defined in the course outline; to employ appropriate teachingmethods that actively involve learners such as encouraging appropriatestudent participation; to communicate and interact effectively with studentslike using fair and reasonable methods of evaluating learning; to attend tointerlectual growth of students like providing and discussing with students orreviewing students’ progress in achieving interlectual goals and learningoutcomes; to respect diverse talents learning styles of students as inrecognizing and accommodating different learning styles ; to incorporatelearning beyond the classroom, which helps students to apply their learning

in a variety of ways; to reflect on, monitor and improve teaching practicessuch as seeking regular students’ feedback on teaching effectiveness,regularly revise and update course content, teaching strategies and createteaching dossiers and other activities

The standards shown above not only reflect many aspects of the higheststrategy teaching at University of British Columbia but also the conclusion

of the effective teaching

5 The role of the teacher in the language class

Teachers are said to play a very important role in teaching It is saidthat good teachers will give good students Teachers in language classes arenot the exception Teachers at different levels have the different roles withstudents In elementary schools teachers are supposed to be surrogate parentsfor students They instruct students steps by steps and must always take care

of them As the students get older, the roles teachers play change Educationitself moves to the forefront, and students try to fill their minds with facts,dates, and ideas as they prepare for high schools and colleges Teachers are

no longer their mothers, but their guider or counselor Students needsomeone to listen to them and tell them everything would be okay In thelanguage class, the teacher is like her/his students’ friend The learners want

to break out the mole and use language for themselves They may not beaccurate but they use language as it should be used to say something or tocommunicate The notes of encouragement the teacher give them play animportant role in motivating them to study In colleges or universities, boththe educational and pesonal impact of the teachers are brought to a higherlevel Students work with teachers in their chosen field, getting to knowthem as both instructors and as people Experienced teachers can maintaindiverse roles in their relationship with students and educate their love for thelanguge they are studying besides their mother tongue

Generally speaking, the first role of the teacher in every class is the

“gatekeeper” of knowledge, the person of authority in front of the room Thesecond role of the teacher in a language class is to make her/his students asactive as possible in expressing their own ideas in the new languge andfinally, the teacher must do is assessing her/his students’ progress and givingthem opportunities to share their views of things People often said that goodteachers were born, not made Some certain characteristics, such as humorand interpersonal skills seem to come easily to some people but not others.Besides, teachers are human, not machines They have so much time and

energy, and they have their life beyond their work, which has its owndemand; If teaching is to be adequately rewarded as a valued activity andcontribution to the education, the degree to which teachers contributed to itfar more better.

Teachers are always the people who retain the choice of acting on orignoring their students’ input The teacher is always in control throughoutthe entire process of organizing his/her class activities and discussion Ingeneral, the role of the teacher is quite different in different grades butalways important to the students – he/she is the soul of his/her students inboth sides knowledge and emotion

Chapter 2 – The Teaching evaluation The Teaching evaluation

1 Teacher evaluation

Teacher evaluation is a complex process It is a series of activities andactions that are interconnected and relate to a specific purpose Many yearsago, the researchers found that since teachers deal with complex problems,they should be evaluated as professionals which means that their standardsshould be developed by their peers and their evaluation should focus on thedegree to which they solve professional problems competently Theemphasis of their evaluation should be on their teaching and not on them asindividuals, and take into consideration the involvement and responsiveness

of others involved in the education process

The evaluation process usually involves preparation, observation, datacollection, reporting and follow-up Both formal observations and informalobservations are considered Many unannounced visits usually prove to bemore effective than a few announced visits However, there are limitations toclassroom observations as an assessment method They reveal little about thecoherence of the curriculum, the depth and breadth of content covered, therange of teaching techniques used, the quality and variety of materialsemployed, the types and frequency of students’ assignments, the quality ofinstruments used for student assessment, the kinds of feedback studentsreceive on their work or their appropriateness of these techniques forindividual student and for the classroom context as a whole

Teacher evaluation should be a small but significant part of the largerstrategy for school improvement which would see staff development takeplace prior to evaluations Although agreement on a clear set of criteria onwhich a teacher’s performance in class can be assessed has been elusive,most current evaluation methods seem to be characterized by an allegiance

to a rational or scientific approach to inquiry In this approach, theobserver’s judgement of teaching behaviours takes precedence, while little

or no consultation with the teacher or reflection on the teacher’s andstudents’ interpretations of their classroom experiences, is considered.

Teacher evaluations should be dialogical rather than hierarchical.Evaluators should know the subject matter, pedagogy, and classroomcharacteristics of the teacher being evaluated, as well as take intoconsideration the fact that experienced and excellent teachers are capable ofpedagogical performances that educational theory and research can neitherexplain nor predict

For many young teachers, the teacher and students take on “artificialroles” that they believe to be appropriate to the occasion when the class isbeing observed; For many experienced and tenured teachers, yearlyevaluations have been more a matter of pride than a job security whichcauses evaluation to become an empty, time-stealing ritual However, there

is general agreement among education writers that teacher evaluation mustsatisfy two competing individual and organizational needs One is theprocess of control and surveillence performed hierarchically; the otherdevelops the educational community into self-knowledge

Teacher evaluation can determine whether new teachers can teach,help all teachers to improve, and indicate when a teacher can or will teacheffectively Personnel decisions of retiring, tenure, promotion, demotion, anddismissal are greatly influenced by it

Evaluators competence is probably the most difficult aspect of theevaluative process Administrators, whose background may be in widelydifferent fields are forced to rely on simplistic measures such as checklists.The degree to which administrators “slip into mindless activity by followingthe structure of the evaluation instrument to control their sight andawareness” makes worse the problem of expertise Some principals makesevaluations only after 20 minutes of observation Some principals gaveoutstanding evaluations to teachers who dozed in class because the teacherwas a friend This affects the soundness and fairness of the evaluation

Generally speaking, any system of teacher evaluation howeverreliable, must first and foremost be faithful to teaching Any effort to definestandards for teaching and to operationalize them in an evaluation mustreach beyond the judgement of academic experts Therefore, we need a form

of evaluation that will reflect a more enlightened view of teaching, that willinspire teacher educators to aim higher in creating their curricula anddesigning their programs in implementing teaching process

2 Teaching evaluation

Evaluation in Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languagessettings is a process of collecting, analysing and interpreting informationabout teaching and learning in order to make informed decisions thatenhance students achievement and the success of educational programs.Variety of forms evaluation can take in TESOL settings throughoutexamples implemented by researchers Evaluation can focus on differentaspects of teaching and learning respectively Assessment for formativepurposes is designed to stimulate growth, change and improvement inteaching through reflective practice Evaluation, in contrast, is used forsummative purposes to give an overview of a particular instructor’s teaching

in a particular course and setting

Informed judgements on teaching effectiveness can best be madewhen both assessment and evaluation are conducted In this study, teachingassessment and evaluation of the lower secondary school teachers are thefocus of interest through reporting the results of the assessment criteria

Just as there is no simple system for evaluating the quality of research,there is no simple system for evaluating the quality of teaching However, bythinking carefully about the purposes of evaluation, and by crafting multiplemethods of evaluation that suit those purposes, one can devise evaluationsystems that are reliable, valid, and fair Equally important, the process ofdiscussing and crafting evaluation systems focuses attention on the practice

of good teaching and helps to create a culture in which teaching is highlyvalued

Some principles of teaching evaluation should be considered Themost important consideration in teaching evaluation, both for improvementpurposes and for personnel decisions, is the use of multiple methods ofteaching evaluation involving multiple sources of data Evaluation systemadopted is credible and acceptable when faculty members have a strong hand

in its development Before departments and schools adopt teachingevaluation system, the faculty members should determine their criteria foreffective teaching Departments and schools can then take responsibility fordeveloping their own evaluation methods and evaluation criteria Differentdisciplines require different methods and criteria for evaluation Teachingevaluation systems can be flexible to accommodate diversity in instructionalmethods for example lecture, discussion, lab, case study, small groupinteraction, etc

Effective teaching evaluation must be individualized A uniformedsystem discriminates against some individuals, so a plan sensitive toindividual variation should be developed

Teaching evaluation has its central element the assessment of thequality of classroom instruction Since teaching includes activities broaderthan classroom instruction, evaluation of teaching must assess more thanclassroom performance There may have different teaching activities;however, some of the following items may be assessed:

1 Clear explanation of the objectives for the lesson;

2 Good instruction for group interaction and individual studentinteraction and encourage class discussion;

3 Relations with students; advising students in the major;

4 Reasonable board presentation;

5 Appropriate use of teaching equipment to the lesson to be taught.Students, observations, colleagues and teacher self-reflection are the

for personnel decisions and teaching improvement; However, student ratingresults should be considered in personnel decisions only when most of thestudents in class have the same ideas of the special technique.

Rating forms should include open-ended questions so that students canwrite their own comments Written comments are particularly helpful inimproving classroom performance

Feedback from students throughout the term is also helpful forteaching improvement purposes Teachers may ask students to provideinformal assessment of their teaching effectiveness at mid-semester byinterviewing some excellent or bad students or through the use of studentrating forms, especially ones that include open-ended questions If we want

to know whether students find our explanations of a topic clear, or whetherstudents find our teaching exciting or dull, who else could possibly answerthese kinds of questions better than the students themselves? Among thesources of information described here, students are the best source forunderstanding the immediate effects of our teaching, that is, the process ofteaching and learning

Moreover, evaluation of student learning is particularly useful inimproving teaching Faculty members may act as “classroom researchers”,gathering measures of student learning in order to provide examples ofstudent learning as evidence of their teaching effectiveness for personneldecisions As the intended beneficiaries of all teaching, students are inunique position to help their teachers in the evaluation process

Colleagues who have expertise in the discipline being taught andtraining in what to observe can provide important evaluative informationthrough classroom visits and review of course materials and instructionalcontributions The evaluation process is enhanced when the syllabus andcourse-related materials are reviewed by colleagues and course goals andclass objectives are discussed with the instructor In addition, discussionamong colleagues about the effectiveness of teaching can lead to a bettertechniques on teaching and learning

Self-reflection or self-monitoring is what people do automatically and semi-consciously whenever they teach Most of theirmental activity is concerned with making the presentation or leading thediscussion But one portion of their mental attention is concerned with “How

semi-is it going?” ; “Are they with me?”; “Am I losing them?” “Are theyinterested or bored?” The first value of this is that is immediate andconstant You do not have to wait a week or a day or even an hour to get theresult It happens right away Hence adjustments are possible right away.The second value is that this information is automatically created in termsthat are meaningful to the teacher because it is the teacher who creates theinformation It is the teacher, not someone else, who looks at the situationand says “This is what is happening.” This does not mean that teachersalways knows why it is happening, or what to do about it if it is somethingthey do not like But they do have their own sense of what is happening Ithappens all the time while they are teaching They may only take a mentalpause every few minutes to size up the situation But by comparison with theother sources of information discussed, this takes place continuously.However, the strength of this source is also its weakness, because thisinformation is created by the teacher and for the teacher Sometimes theythought their students understood their lesson, or they looked interested but

in fact, they didn’t We all have our own blind spots and lack completeobjectivity This means that, at times, we are going to misread the responses

of students to our teaching To avoid this possibility, it is essential to giveteachers the knowledge and skills needed to evaluate their students – toprepare them to use textbooks as sources for creative learning In this waythe potential of teaching can be developed

Evaluation of teaching is not a science; there is still much to learn.However, as indicated above, there is already a considerable body ofknowledge about teaching evaluation In order to reward teachingadequately, a better system for evaluating it should be crafted

3 Observation as a tool of teaching evaluation

3.1 Advantages of observation

It is said there are many benefits from classoom observation First ofall, classroom observation is not only an educational and pleasant experiencebut also a collaborative learning opportunity which enabled teachers andobservers to learn from each other

Teachers will get much from classroom observation becauseclassroom observation helps teachers to know their weakness from otherpeople, which is sometimes very difficult for them to find by themselves It

is an effective way in improving teachers’ work and let they know wherethey are

Especially, classroom observation is quite useful for some youngteachers, for they seldom learn how to teach, why to teach, and how toorganize the class, and they need experienced teachers’ help They needobservations to find out how well they can teach and in which way they canimprove Observation of experienced teachers has always played animportant role in teacher education It is proved by young Chinese teachers

in the research about self-development through classroom observation (QunWang and Nicola Seth, 1998) that first of all they did not expect to benefit

so much from the classroom observation they were involved in, but thenthey realized the value of classroom observation help them much Theyenjoyed the post-lesson discussion most Through the discussion andfeedback sessions, they were brought in front of a mirror to look atthemselves carefully and thoroughly The observers helped them find out theproblems and bring up suggestions and advice which are very constructivefor future teaching And they wished to have more classroom observation inthe future (ELT Journal Volume 52/3 July 1998)

Traditional views of observation argue that through observing howteachers conduct their lessons, solve problems of classoom management, andinteract with students, novice teachers can apply good techniques in their

own teaching Besides, observation of students’ work habit and theirinvolement in instructional activities, their patterns of errors, their strategiesfor communicating with limited linguistic knowledge, and the questions theyask about the content could provide an insight into problems withinstructional plans This can lead to changes in instructional purposes and /orplans so as to make instruction better suited to the students.

In addition to that, classroom observation both helps to train theobservers/evaluators and the teachers According to Peter Sheal (1985), whohas worked in staff development for the past six years, and is at presentsupervisor of Staff Development, responsible for training English languageteachers in a Middle East oil company, the author of two English languagetextbooks: Advanced Writing Skills and Advanced English Course,classroom observations have traditionally been conducted by administratorsand senior teachers mainly for the purpose of teacher evaluation… However,administrators and senior teachers want to know how to combine staffdevelopment with evaluation and it can be done only when the feedbackprovided useful to teachers That also raises some important questions aboutthe role of supervisors of teachers, and discusses the need for training insupervisory skills (Classroom observation:training the observers ELTJournal 1989, Volume 43, Number 2 p.92)

Generally speaking, classroom observation serves the purposes ofdeveloping teachers; helps the teachers understand that they have aresponsibility for their own development; helps them have a clearerunderstanding of their own classroom experiences; introduces the teachers to

a more developmental approach to teacher training; helps the teachers build

a more supportive and trusting relationship with their colleagues and torealize the mutual benefits that would accrue from this Moreover, it alsohelps to train the observers in their way of observation and in givingfeedback to the teachers

3.2 Limitations of observation

Since observation appears to be relatively simple activity to arganizeand one that offers immediate tangible benefits, it is not surprising that itplays a core role in many teacher education programmes However, what wecan expect to gain from observation is dependent upon how we understandthe nature of teaching It is important to recognize that any of observation isjust a “snapshot” of one or two hours within a whole semester’s interaction

by the teacher with the students, and therefore there may not be enoughaccurate reflection of their overall contact with them For this reason, it isbest to have two or three observations of the teaching with different groups

in order to ensure the validity of their actions Classroom observation hasacquired a bad reputation in the ELT profession because of its subjective,judgemental, and impressionistic nature Many teachers resent beingobserved at short notice by “important people” who judge their performanceaccording to their own, not necessarily appropriate criteria, and makeunwelcome “suggestions” for change It seems as if these observers have thelast word on whether their work is good or bad, right or wrong

The presence of the observer in the room may affect the behavior ofboth the teacher and the class The teacher may put on a special show thatleaving the students very impressed, but leaving the observer with very little

to comment upon regarding improvement On the other hand, some teachersare so nervous that students do not want to make questions even thoughthey do not understand the lesson very well

In some cases, even very good teachers may be unnerved during aformal observation session Sometimes they break off their lecture to explain

to the observer what they are doing and why They waste time on givingmore details of the lessons than usual that they do not have enough time forother necessary activities

Observation will be valid only when teachers do not appear to beunduly affected by the presence of an observer as the purpose of observation

is purely for personal feedback

It is easy for an observer to form an initial impression based on thefirst few minutes of a session and then allow that impression to color theirview of subsequent events as they unfold For example, a good introductionmay mask a less- than-ideal session structure Similarly, a tentative start mayhave the observer looking for further evidence of presumed impendingdisaster Therefore, it is very important for the observer to view each action

in each segment as objectively as possible This objectivity may be aproblem for an inexperienced observer to achieve, and it is suggested thatthe use of a checklist constructed of those characteristics considered to be

“indicative of effective teaching’, and it is also one way of injectingotherwise fairly subjective process

A classroom observation for teaching improvement purposes suggeststhat there are many limitations to the effectiveness of the process if schoolcolleagues or supervisors are used However, trained, experiencedinstructional advisers are able to provide behaviorally focussed feedback andare able to draw the attention of teaching actions to other teaching strategieswhich may be not popular in his/ her school It is also suggested that theobservers who view the teaching process should encourage teachers using agreater variety of teaching techniques Although the subjectivity inherent inclassroom observation is a distinct limitation of its use for school evaluativepurposes, this same subjectivity can become a strength in the hands of askilled instructional development specialist for raising the awareness ofteaching activities to these more varied approaches to teaching and learning

Observation is often based on the assumption that acquiring skill inteaching involves learning how to do things - that is the mastery of specifictypes of behaviors – and that these are observable in the lessons of goodteachers Examining what teachers do in the classroom is also the good way

to effective teaching Despite this, we still have some limitations in classobservation which influence teachers’ teaching we must overcome