Reviewing, evaluating and looking to the future.

As a trainee teacher, it is important to constantly review and evaluate your practice in order to improve your teaching and ensure that your students are receiving the best education possible. There are a number of different ways that you can review your practice, including using questionnaires and surveys to get information from learners, gaining feedback from learners, and engaging in reflective practice. By reviewing your practice and planning for the future, you can identify areas where you need to improve and take steps to develop your skills as a teacher.

Using questionnaires and surveys to get information from learners

One way to review your practice is to use questionnaires and surveys to gather information from your students. This can be a useful way to identify areas where you may need to improve and to get feedback on what is working well in your teaching. You can ask your students to provide anonymous feedback on various aspects of your teaching, such as your delivery of lessons, your use of resources, and your communication skills. According to a post on Education Week, using student feedback can be a powerful tool for teacher improvement. There are a number of online tools that you can use to create and administer questionnaires and surveys, such as SurveyMonkey and Google Forms. These tools can be used to create both closed and open-ended questions, and the results can be easily analyzed to identify areas for improvement.

Gaining feedback from learners

In addition to using questionnaires and surveys, it is important to gain feedback from your learners in a more informal setting. This could be done through one-on-one meetings with students, small group discussions, or even whole-class feedback sessions. By asking for feedback in a more personal setting, you can gain a better understanding of the specific areas where your students feel you need to improve. This can be especially helpful if you are teaching a subject or topic that is particularly challenging for your students, as you can get more specific feedback on how to better support them. According to a post on Edutopia, gaining feedback from students can help you identify patterns and trends in their learning that can inform your future instruction.

Positives and negatives of self-evaluation

Self-evaluation is another important tool for reviewing your practice. While it can be a helpful way to identify areas for improvement, it can also be difficult to be objective about your own teaching. It is important to strike a balance between recognizing your strengths and being willing to identify areas where you need to improve. Self-evaluation can be especially helpful when used in conjunction with feedback from your students or colleagues. By comparing your own self-evaluation with the feedback you receive from others, you can get a more complete picture of your teaching and identify areas where you need to focus your professional development. A post on the Harvard Business Review suggests that self-evaluation can be a valuable tool for personal and professional growth, as long as it is done in a thoughtful and strategic way.

What is reflective practice?

Reflective practice is a way of thinking about your own teaching that involves critical analysis of your own actions and decisions. It is a process of self-awareness and self-assessment that can help you to identify areas for improvement in your teaching. Reflective practice involves reflecting on the teaching experience, identifying the strengths and weaknesses, exploring alternative strategies, and taking action to improve the experience. According to a post on TeachThought, reflective practice is an essential component of teacher professional development, as it allows teachers to identify areas where they can improve their practice.

Further reading

Academic Articles:

1. Brookhart, S. M. (2018). How to give effective feedback to your students. ASCD. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/how-to-give-effective-feedback-to-your-students

2. Hativa, N., & Marincovich, M. (1994). Are student evaluations of teaching effectiveness valid for administrative decisions? The Journal of Higher Education, 65(2), 190-212. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2959963

3. Kember, D., McKay, J., Sinclair, K., & Wong, F. K. (2008). A four-category scheme for coding and assessing the level of reflection in written work. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(4), 363-379. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602930701293399

Online Articles:

1. Edutopia. (n.d.). How to get better student feedback. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-get-better-student-feedback

2. Harvard Business Review. (2019). How to get better at self-evaluation. https://hbr.org/2019/01/how-to-get-better-at-self-evaluation

3. TeachThought. (2017). The importance of reflective practice in education. https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/the-importance-of-reflective-practice-in-education/

Videos:

1. Edutopia. (2015, June 23). Teacher practice: Self-reflection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULSxsTJc87g

2. The University of Edinburgh. (2014, March 24). Reflective practice: A tool to enhance teacher learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzZ5FMjI5w

3. Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2016, April 14). Using feedback to improve teaching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwvBleKjS10