Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Draft - Evaluation and quality

Why is evaluation important to you and how do you define it?
In the beginning of my long path as a primary teacher (over 20 years) we were always taught that evaluation was the last part of a lesson where you were to evaluate both yourself and the child and this was to dictate the form the next lesson was to take.
This in its simplest form is why evaluation is important.
How would I define evaluation? To use an analogy it is like doing back stitch. To move the stitch forward you must always go back first and revisit where you have just been...and when it is going well you check up less often!
What sort of evaluations mentioned on the presentation is familiar to you already and why?
Summative and Formative evaluation is very familiar as teachers we do it a lot and with the introduction of the National Standards even more. Also this has ‘appeared’ in other courses.
Why is quality important in eLearning?
As mentioned in the readings quality evaluation is important often the saying ‘blind leading the blind’ could be referred to many lessons I have seen.
You could look at value for money. Was the course etc expensive to create, resource and fund? Often this is where criticism from outsider will focus.
The eLearning Guidelines have ‘been designed for teachers, support staff and managers, and provide up-to-date, practical information and direction on e-learning.’ This I found an excellent tool when looking at quality. In line with my work place especially in terms of the teaching relationships four areas I found important: Sustainability (what would happen if staff leave – at present the knowledge has gone); Collaboration (sharing information – said, not recorded); Learner-centred (diversity of students – presently expectations not kept high); and Innovation (exploring new ways – does too much at once and badly).
In all those guidelines above quality is an issue.



4 comments:

  1. Hi Katie
    I think your description highlights the continuous informal evaluation that a skilled teacher normally does as part of reflecting on the lesson they have just given, and incorporating this into their planning and preparation for the next lesson. I don't really think the course has touched on this very much, well not that I have seen so far, as it seems to be more about formal evaluation processes.
    I think the difficult thing about quality is in clearly defining what it means in relation to what you are evaluating. The eL guidelines go some way towards this.
    Cheers
    Veronique

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  2. I agree about the role of informal and formal evaluation. Trying to get the balance is often the issue within my situation. I like the quidelines as a way of formatising them.

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  3. Hi Katie & Veranique
    As you both mentioned informal evaluation plays an important role in teaching career. For example, if students ask too many questions on how to go about things or do an activity then I know I did not make my instruction clear and modify them accordingly. Group discussions and students feedback after a session also give us valuable information. I usually encourage my students to keep journal entries for the lessons. Those who are shy and quiet in the class also open up in the journal and I interact with them on a one to one basis, encouraging and eliciting more thoughts from them. This is not only a very useful way of evaluation but it also helps to build rapport with students.
    Cheers
    Mareena

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  4. I agree Mareena with this statement 'if students ask too many questions on how to go about things or do an activity then I know I did not make my instruction clear and modify them accordingly' but I had a situation today with an 8 year old and his issue was confidence - other area with students that we must be aware of

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