Sunday, January 27, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
I-Search Research: Teacher Evaluations
For my project, I decided to expand the idea of students being responsible for their own learning. I am creating teacher evaluations for each student to fill out at the end of each quarter. This questionnaire will be less about what the student thinks about the teacher, but how the teacher can modify his/her teaching style to fit to the student's learning style. To make sure that the teacher uses this feedback to modify the curriculum for the students, I planned on showing these evaluations to the department head, who would make sure that a change is made.
When I first presented the idea to Mr. Fischer, we decided we could use our B-Block Public Speaking class as a test-run. I created the evaluations asking specific questions and have yet to distribute it to the class. Once I do, I will put the data together to see if many students agree with the same thing. I plan on then showing it to Mr. Fischer and finding out whether or not there is anything we can change to benefit these student's learning style.
When I presented the idea to Ms. Burchenal, however, she was a bit skeptical at first. She told me that she thinks that showing these evaluations to the department heads would be threatening to most teachers, and she's not sure that many would want to be put under that kind of pressure. Instead, she said, I could gather the data and discuss the ways that the teacher could change his or her style to benefit the students. In future times, this could be a colleague (who discusses the evaluations) that the teacher is close with, and feels comfortable sharing that kind of information with.
Apart from the conversations I had with the two teachers, I also did some research of my own. I found out that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a project very similar to mine. The goal of that project is to define measures that could consistently identify effective teachers.The Measures of Effective Teaching study tracked 3,000 teachers over three years, and found that three measures – student test performance, classroom observations and student surveys – accurately predicted which teachers would produce the most successful students. Although this study is finding which teachers would produce the most successful students, it still shows that student surveys are incredibly important and should be a part of the curriculum.
When I first presented the idea to Mr. Fischer, we decided we could use our B-Block Public Speaking class as a test-run. I created the evaluations asking specific questions and have yet to distribute it to the class. Once I do, I will put the data together to see if many students agree with the same thing. I plan on then showing it to Mr. Fischer and finding out whether or not there is anything we can change to benefit these student's learning style.
When I presented the idea to Ms. Burchenal, however, she was a bit skeptical at first. She told me that she thinks that showing these evaluations to the department heads would be threatening to most teachers, and she's not sure that many would want to be put under that kind of pressure. Instead, she said, I could gather the data and discuss the ways that the teacher could change his or her style to benefit the students. In future times, this could be a colleague (who discusses the evaluations) that the teacher is close with, and feels comfortable sharing that kind of information with.
Apart from the conversations I had with the two teachers, I also did some research of my own. I found out that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a project very similar to mine. The goal of that project is to define measures that could consistently identify effective teachers.The Measures of Effective Teaching study tracked 3,000 teachers over three years, and found that three measures – student test performance, classroom observations and student surveys – accurately predicted which teachers would produce the most successful students. Although this study is finding which teachers would produce the most successful students, it still shows that student surveys are incredibly important and should be a part of the curriculum.
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