Teacher Self-Evaluation in Their Own Practice A Case Study at Nhu Van Lan High School = Giáo viên tự đánh giá giờ dạy Nghiên cứu điển hình tại trường THPT Nhữ Văn Lan

These findings serve as the basis for several practical recommendations made to encourage teachers to apply self-evaluation as a reflective process in teaching in order to improve their

VŨ THỊ NHUNG

TEACHER SELF-EVALUATION IN THEIR OWN PRACTICE:

A CASE STUDY AT NHU VAN LAN HIGH SCHOOL

(Giáo viên tự đánh giá giờ dạy: Nghiên cứu điển hình tại trường

VŨ THỊ NHUNG

TEACHER SELF-EVALUATION IN THEIR OWN PRACTICE:

A CASE STUDY AT NHU VAN LAN HIGH SCHOOL

(Giáo viên tự đánh giá giờ dạy: Nghiên cứu điển hình tại trường

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “Teacher Self-evaluation in Their Own Practice: A Case Study at Nhu Van Lan High School” is the result of my own study to fulfill the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University, and that this minor thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or tertiary institution

The research reported in this thesis was approved by Doctor To Thi Thu Huong, Vietnam National University of Hanoi

Signature:

Vu Thi Nhung

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr To Thi Thu Huong, from Vietnam National University, Hanoi, University of Languages and International Studies for her thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable guidance and precious corrections on my writing

My sincere thanks also go to Assoc Prof Dr Le Hung Tien and all the staff members

of the Faculty of Post–graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting and informative lectures that have provided me with useful knowledge of teaching methodology

I am also indebted to the teachers of English at Nhu Van Lan high school for their enthusiastic assistance during the process of collecting data and information for my study

Last but not least, I am greatly grateful to my husband and my family for their support and encouragement in completing this minor thesis

ABSTRACT

In the academic year 2010-2011, Haiphong Department of Education and Training introduced self-evaluation to teachers In an attempt to investigate the reality of teacher self-evaluation at Nhu Van Lan high school, a case-study approach was adopted The main purposes of the research were to find out: (1) English teachers’ attitude toward teacher self-evaluation; (2) English teacher self-evaluation in practice; (3) the main difficulties in implementing teacher self-evaluation The cases in the study were six English teachers at Nhu Van Lan high school The findings were based on semi-structured interviews with teachers, triangulated with group discussion and document analysis

The results of the study show that all of the teachers had a positive attitude towards the necessity of teacher self-evaluation in teaching and learning The implementation of self-evaluation raised teachers’ awareness of their teaching practices and somewhat increased the effectiveness of teaching and learning However, they also identified some problems such as lack

of official guidelines or training for self-evaluation, the time-consuming factor involved, little improvement in teaching and learning effectiveness and the subjectivity of teacher self-evaluation, etc These findings serve as the basis for several practical recommendations made

to encourage teachers to apply self-evaluation as a reflective process in teaching in order to improve their profession and the teaching and learning effectiveness The recommendations are made to Haiphong Department of Education and Training, the leaders of Nhu Van Lan high school and individual English teachers of the school

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration………

Acknowledgements………

iv

v vii

1.2.5 Approaches to teacher self-evaluation as a reflective process………

1.3 Criteria of effective teaching judgment

IV VI

I

IX

2.3.2 Data collection instruments and procedures

………

2.4 Methods of data analysis………

Chapter 3 Results of data analysis and discussions……….………

3.1 Semi-structured interviews

………

3.2 Document analysis……… ………

2 Limitation of the research

……… ………

3 Suggestions for further study……… ………

REFERENCES……… ………

APPENDICES Appendix 1 Guided questions for semi-structured interviews………

Appendix 2 Guided questions for group discussion……… ………

Appendix 3 The instructions for teacher self-evaluation provided by MOET……

Appendix 4 The instructions for teaching assessment sheet provided by HDOET

Appendix 5 Group discussion transcripts and translation…… ………

LIST OF TABLES Pages

Table 1 ……… 19

Table 2 ……… 30

Table 3 ……… 31

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

How can teachers move beyond the level of automatic or reutilized responses

to classroom situations and achieve a higher level of awareness of how they teach, of the kinds of decisions they make as they teach, and of the value and consequences

of particular instructional decisions? One way of doing this is through observing and reflecting on one's own teaching, and using observation and reflection as a way of bringing about change

At Nhu Van Lan high school (NVL), in the 2010-2011 academic year, basing

on the suggestion of the expert of Haiphong Department of Education and Training (HDOET), the administrators asked the teachers to feedback their teaching by noting down some remarks after each teaching session Lesson plans had to be modified in order to be suitable for the characteristics of each teaching class In other words, teachers should self-evaluate their lessons to find out what needs to be changed This indicated that HDOET and the administrators at NVL paid attention to the importance of TSE in developing teacher professionally However, how teachers self-evaluate in reality, how many ways a teacher could use to self evaluate their teaching, based on what criteria, how he/she could take advantages of the self evaluation result to improve teaching and learning effectiveness were questionable In addition, there have not been any researches on teacher self-evaluation conducted at NVL

All the above-mentioned reasons encouraged me to conduct the research entitled

“Teacher Self-Evaluation in Their Own Practice: A Case Study at Nhu Van Lan High School” in order to find out what are English teachers’ attitudes towards TSE, how they applied teacher self-evaluation in their teaching practice, what problems they encountered when self-evaluating and how to encourage them to make use of self evaluation for teaching and learning effectiveness

2 The study aims:

With the above rationale, the main aims of this research are:

- To find out English teachers’ attitudes towards TSE

- To examine how English teachers at NVL apply self- evaluation as a reflective process in their teaching in reality

- To investigate the difficulties arisen when English teachers use TSE in their teaching

On the basis of the findings, the author recommends some ways to encourage English teachers to apply self-evaluation as a reflective process for effective teaching and learning and ways to overcome the difficulties as well

3 The research questions:

With the aims stated above, the researcher proposed the following research questions for the study:

1 What are English teachers’ attitudes towards TSE?

2 How do English teachers self-evaluate in reality?

3 What difficulties do English teachers have in applying self-evaluation in their teaching?

4 How to encourage English teachers at NVL to apply self-evaluation for effective teaching and learning?

4 The method of the study:

The research was conducted as a case study The qualitative method and quantitative method were used to analyze the implementation of TSE as a reflective process of English division at NVL The specific methods used in this study were semi-structured interviews, document analysis and group discussion

5 The scope of the study

The study focuses on investigating English teachers’ attitudes toward TSE, teacher self-evaluation in practice, the obstacles preventing English teachers at NVL from carrying out self-evaluation as reflective process Then, some suggestions will be recommended to encourage teachers to apply self-evaluation as reflective process in teaching in order to improve their profession and the teaching and learning effectiveness as well

PART B RESULTS OF DATA ANALYSIS

1 Semi-structured interviews

Teachers’ attitudes toward self-evaluation

With regard to the teachers’ attitudes to self-evaluation, all of them agreed that teacher self-evaluation is necessary for their professional development and the improvement of teaching and learning effectiveness This indicated that English teachers had positive attitudes toward self-evaluation and realized its importance in teaching

The implementation of teacher self-evaluation

Concerning the implementation of teacher self-evaluation, all of the teachers said that they self-evaluated their teaching lessons regularly right after each teaching session as the administrators required them to do However, the teachers all stated that they were not trained to self-evaluate their teaching when they were at university as well as they did not receive any official guidance for teacher self-evaluation documents They were just asked

to do without specific guidance Teacher 2 told me that:

“We started to self evaluate our teaching lesson only when they were evaluated by the expert of Haiphong Education and Training Department in October 2010 Before that time, we were not required to self-evaluate though,

as a teacher, we often consciously or unconsciously evaluate our daily

teaching performance After each teaching session we can feel how successful

or unsuccessful the lesson is, how we are satisfied with it Nevertheless, we normally do not note down but keep it in mind.”

This is the reason why, when I asked them about the criteria basing on which teachers used to self-evaluate their lessons, their answers were different Teacher 1 said that:

“I often give the criteria to evaluate the teaching lesson on my own such as:

the knowledge needed to obtain in the lesson, students’ understanding,

students’ participation in the lesson, etc.”

Teachers 4 and 6 often self-evaluated basing on the criteria for evaluating a good teaching lesson issued by Haiphong Department of Education and Training (HDOET) and paid more attention to the content of the lesson, teachers’ organizing activities and the

effectiveness of these activities than other aspects of teaching Meanwhile, the rest of the interviewed teachers often based on the standard of knowledge and skills for each teaching session published by Ministry of Education and Training in which the teachers cared more about students’ acquisition then considered their teaching techniques

Regarding the approaches to evaluating the lessons, most of the teachers evaluated by comparing the teaching lesson with criteria they have set and writing down some notes at the end of their lesson plan such as what needs to be changed or supplemented for the next lesson Besides, some teachers observed their colleagues’ lessons then learned from their experience

self-The implementation of self-evaluation in teaching brought back more effectiveness

in teaching and learning That was an agreement of most of the teachers Various responses

on the interviews indicated that TSE raised teachers' awareness of their effectiveness as teachers, improve teaching practices resulting in improved learner outcomes, give teachers control over their own evaluation process and reinforcement their perceptions of their teaching As a result of engaging in self-evaluation, and the subsequent modifications to their reported teaching activities, the teachers have noted significant outcomes for themselves in both their professional and teaching area Teacher 2 stated that she is now more conscious of giving clearer instructions Teacher 3 has noted a modification to his body position in relation to the learners, especially when writing on the board, she stated:

“With regard to writing on the board, my instruction has changed Before,

when writing on the board, I used to write on it and face while explaining and

covering half of the words Therefore, in the classroom my voice is not being

projected to them, it's being lost But I learned to write on the board first, and

then explain it."

Teacher 4 now incorporates more learner feedback into each of her lessons, to assist her with her own evaluation She seeks more input and participation from them She finds this approach to be more effective for herself and for her learners

Teacher 5 identified improved organizational skills She stated:

“With my lesson planning, it helped me organize my tasks better It also helped

make me more aware of the objectives of my lesson so that now I ask myself

more often, what do I want the students to achieve by the end of this lesson and how am I going to do that? How am I going to get there? What task is

relevant, what task is not? By being more organized, I am being more aware of

my students' needs."

Teacher 6 discovered that she spoke too much in the classroom She stated:

“I felt that I was talking too much and that I could afford a little engagement of

the students After all, I have tried to do more communicative work within the

limitations I have Sometimes I am able to do more communicative work when the level balances out."

Then teacher 6 has tried to speak less in the classroom She has a goal to shift from a primarily teacher-centred methodology to one that is more communicative and student-centred

Professionally speaking, these teachers felt that they were more aware and enlightened about their teaching practices Lessons modified as a result of self-evaluation were often taught smoothly, teaching activities were flexible, students were more active, etc The teachers increased confidence in teaching

Whereas, teacher 1 did not report on significant modifications to his reported teaching activities, stating that change takes time He felt he needed more time to adjust the teaching practices to meet these changes consistently and successfully

When being asked about the way to keep self-evaluation results, the teachers all used their lesson plans to store the results Teacher 4 explained that she would modify her lesson plans in the next academic year based on what she learned from the last experience

With what the teachers said about their implementation of self-evaluation after each teaching session, the researcher found that all English teachers at NVL seemly were aware

of the importance of self-evaluation and somewhat gained the improvement in teaching and students’ learning as well though self-evaluation was newly introduced and the teachers themselves had not much experience and knowledge about it

The difficulties in applying self-evaluation

When asking about the difficulties that the teachers encountered in applying