Approaches to Teacher Assessment

                                    Approaches to Teacher Assessment

As there are difficult modes of teaching and learning, there are various approaches to assessment in language teacher education: assignments, examinations and professional action.

Assignments

          Assignments generally used in assessment include:

i.            Exercise: An exercise refers to an individual task carried out by the trainee drawing on content, studies and technique that he/she has been introduced to.

ii.            Presentation: The presentation is an individual task in which the trainee reads up material in a specific area and speaks about the topic before his/her group.

iii.            Essay: An essay is piece of writing which shows that the trainee has done certain reading in a specific area and is capable of a certain degree of analysis and judgment in that area.

iv.            Review: It means an individual task in which the trainee surveys and evaluates material available for teaching or learning a certain topic.

v.            Contact: It stands for an independent piece of work, the format and content of which are negotiated between the tutor and the trainee.

vi.            Project: The project indicates an independent piece of work that is more sustained than an individual exercise and demands more in the way of independent study on the part of the trainee.

vii.            Guided reading assignment: The guided reading assignment is a type of assignment in which the trainee has to answer questions concerning the reading already assigned.

Examinations

          Examinations are taken to achieve some particular objectives, that is, measuring the trainee’s ability to:

         

a.     understand, remember and discuss certain key information, concepts and skills that should be internalized as part of the trainee’s experience of the course.

b.     deploy his/her knowledge and skills under reasonable time pressure; and

c.      argue and discuss concisely and persuasively within certain reasonable limitations of time and circumstances.

          However, examinations may be organized and begun in a variety of manners. In the teacher education course which is attempting to develop the trainee’s powers of observation and reflection, it is often a good idea to use video and audio based materials.

Professional action

Professional action constitutes the trainee’s practical experience. Here the trainee has to exhibit his/her capabilities as a classroom practitioner. This type of action mostly concentrates on the trainee’s classroom performance. It also includes his/her ability to participate positively in the process of clinical supervision and hence his/her powers of self-evaluation.

          Professional action is formative as well as summative. Observation schedules should be devised not only to give a reliable and valid assessment of the trainee’s performance, but also to act as a diagnostic tool to improve that performance. As it is difficult to be both a collaborative supervisor and an assessor, these functions should ideally be carried out by different persons. If both functions have to be done by the same person, it should at least be clear to the trainee in which capacity the supervisor is operating.

          In many action supervisor programmes, there is a sequence of meetings, the earliest ones being formative and generally supportive and the late ones summative. In some situations, it is normal for the assessor of professional action to drop in on the trainee unannounced and to assess him/her on how he/she really teaches.