Teach English in Clarkes Beach - TEFL Courses

teacher self analysis (12). How useful is a student's evaluation of a teacher in teacher self analysis? teacher self analysis requires that a teacher assesses how well he or she has taught a particular topic, how effectively the time allotted for teaching and teaching materials were used during lesson times and it involves the identification, on the part of the teacher, of other teaching areas that require improvement. This is needed so as to improve students' learning of various topics. To carry out teacher self analysis a range of methods are available to help the teacher analyze the quality of his or her teaching. Some of these methods include self-monitoring, audio and video recordings of lessons, continuous research into better teaching methods and students' evaluation of the teacher. The method this article focuses on is students' evaluation of a teacher and how successfully it helps the teacher self analyze his/her teaching. Students' evaluation of a teacher is usually carried out through questionnaires and focus group interviews. In the following paragraphs, the effectiveness of these two particular means in teacher self analysis will be assessed using my personal experience. At the end of each academic year while completing my B.A degree, my fellow classmates and I were given a teacher evaluation questionnaire. This contained consistent questions concerning how our teacher taught the course. It was required that we rate the teacher‘s effectiveness using a scale of quantitative scores and we were also asked some open-ended questions concerning the improvements we thought the teaching of the course required. Personally, I believe my completion of the questionnaire did not successfully aid the teacher in self analysis because I wasn't fully aware of the appropriate way the subjects should be taught so my answers to the questions of the questionnaire were not fully informed. I also remember myself and fellow students grading teachers we liked with high scores. This may have affected the accuracy of the answers to the questions meaning that the teacher was provided with inaccurate information to assess the teaching done. Therefore, for students' evaluation of a teacher to be useful in teacher self analysis the information given for the analysis must be truthful and accurate. When I worked as a primary and secondary school teacher in Ethiopia I made use of focus group interviews to obtain students' evaluation of my teaching. These were effective in helping me analyze myself because I obtained the information directly from my students and in detail. This meant that I was able to see how they felt about a particular teaching method. It also allowed me to address any grievances the students had with me. However, I asked for these evaluations from my students only once year and at the end of it meaning the students may not have remembered certain areas of my teaching that needed to be addressed and according to experienced teachers, teacher self analysis should be a continuous effort to be most effective. In conclusion, certain conditions must be met for students' evaluation of a teacher to be useful in teacher self analysis. First of all, a student needs to be informed on the appropriate way a course should be taught so that he/she can give useful answers to the questions on questionnaires and during focus group interviews which in turn help the teacher to better analyze his/her teaching. Furthermore, it must be stressed to students the importance of being honest when writing answers on the questionnaire so the teacher is working with truthful information when analyzing the teaching he/she has done. Focus group discussions are useful in teacher self analysis in that the information required for improvement is obtained directly and in detail from the students. However, to be fully useful such interviews should be held frequently for example once a month so teachers can begin to make improvements as soon as possible.