During the fall of my first year of teaching I learned that our superintendent Mr. Evans would be visiting my classroom the next day. On the assumption that a quiet, orderly classroom was an indication of good teaching, I advised my 7th grade students to be on their best behavior when Mr. Evans was in our room. Fortunately, the students heeded my advice and when the visit was over, I was convinced that the superintendent had a favorable impression of me as a teacher. If however, the visit had been unannounced, the findings may have been quite different. I recall many days when my learning activity was not passive and the noise level was pretty high. For the past several years there has been an increasing focus on student learning and how to measure it. While observation of a teacher and students is one way, it only tells part of the story.
In the coming year we will be developing assessments that will be used to measure student learning. Using before and after tests for this purpose is a standard part of good teaching, but it has not been formalized in this way. Recently, I read of using student surveys as a way to measure teacher effectiveness and by extension learning. I feel that the use of perception data from students about their teacher although open to potential measurement errors, should be one of several indicators to consider when determining teacher effectiveness. The Tripod survey (developed by Ron Ferguson) gathers information on the seven C’s that researchers have deemed important to determine how well teachers teach. They include: care, control, clarify, challenge, captivate, confer and consolidate. I realize that surveys can be onerous; the Tripod Survey however, may be a nice compliment to our evaluation system and to the slew of quantitative data that is headed our way. We need to do more in this realm, our current practice of gathering student feedback on their teachers is far too passive and rarely used.
Measuring teacher effectiveness through student surveys
During the fall of my first year of teaching I learned that our superintendent Mr. Evans would be visiting my classroom the next day. On the assumption that a quiet, orderly classroom was an indication of good teaching, I advised my 7th grade students to be on their best behavior when Mr. Evans was in our room. Fortunately, the students heeded my advice and when the visit was over, I was convinced that the superintendent had a favorable impression of me as a teacher. If however, the visit had been unannounced, the findings may have been quite different. I recall many days when my learning activity was not passive and the noise level was pretty high. For the past several years there has been an increasing focus on student learning and how to measure it. While observation of a teacher and students is one way, it only tells part of the story.
In the coming year we will be developing assessments that will be used to measure student learning. Using before and after tests for this purpose is a standard part of good teaching, but it has not been formalized in this way. Recently, I read of using student surveys as a way to measure teacher effectiveness and by extension learning. I feel that the use of perception data from students about their teacher although open to potential measurement errors, should be one of several indicators to consider when determining teacher effectiveness. The Tripod survey (developed by Ron Ferguson) gathers information on the seven C’s that researchers have deemed important to determine how well teachers teach. They include: care, control, clarify, challenge, captivate, confer and consolidate. I realize that surveys can be onerous; the Tripod Survey however, may be a nice compliment to our evaluation system and to the slew of quantitative data that is headed our way. We need to do more in this realm, our current practice of gathering student feedback on their teachers is far too passive and rarely used.