Technology can play a role in evaluating your teaching.
When a teacher wants to evaluate their own performance in the classroom, information and communication technology (ICT) can provide valuable tools. You can examine how ICT can be associated with different stages of self-evaluation in this table designed by Lise St-Pierre for college network teachers enroled in the French equivalent of PERFORMA’s Master Teacher Program.
Awareness
A webcam allows colleagues to record and observe one other. A tablet can record as well and store written notes or even oral comments. You can use these resources to start a portfolio. A blog is a simple and versatile tool for capturing and sharing every step of this process.
Explanation
Video editing applications can be quite user friendly and editing sequences encourages introspective comments. It is possible to create a document presenting written comments and video clips.
This analysis can be shared with your pedagogical counsellor or even one or two colleagues who support you in your endeavours. These exchanges can be facilitated by the introduction of a virtual collaborative tool such as a wiki, or just with Google Drive. Teachers can evaluate their activities by linking them to teaching theory. As well, a discussion with a colleague can add a lot to the results of self-analysis, providing additional information and viewpoints that may not have been considered before.
Justification
Explore bibliographic applications such as Zotero, Mendeley or Biblioscape, which are simple ways to classify references that can sometimes paint a picture of beliefs and schools of thought that influence strategies. It is likely that you will not find all the influences on your teaching strategies on your own. Do you share common viewpoints with others in your discipline? Seek their opinions. Review elements to develop skills and practice scenarios that are discipline-specific, including how ICT can be integrated into your teaching.
Empirical and Theoretical Validation
The Profweb site can help you test your results. Reports and stories are formulated to mesh teaching theory with practical observations. You can find experiences similar to yours and see how they have been analyzed.
The portfolio is the perfect tool to advance this reflection. Present your findings in tables, give references and you’ll see that this information will help to explain and justify your upcoming classroom planning.
Analysis
This step requires the formal or informal help of a pedagogical counselor who will review your analysis. The links that you make between your practices and pedagogical theories may be shown with a concept map such as CmapTools and be shared with your colleagues in a collaborative space you have created in your blog.
Writing is the first technology that humans harnessed, but its new digital form allows us to revisit ideas that are sometimes lost on paper. Save your interactions with your pedagogical counselor and review these records to complete your reflections. These materials can trigger insights into the strategies that affect your teaching.
Self-assessment
Now you need to draw conclusions, make resolutions and adapt your practices. Take the opportunity to explore ICT tools for presentation and processing of information using spreadsheets or inserting hyperlinks to resources. Monitoring your changes allows your advisor to comment or offer evaluation guidelines and possible solutions. Researching discipline-specific sites and educational sites such as SPEAQ, APPAC, AEETÉE and AEESICQ will potentially yield criteria to guide the evaluation of your own teaching. Take inspiration from
Christian Barrette’s grid indicating proposed strategies for integrating ICTs.
Sharing Your Conclusions
Have you reached your goals? Are you satisfied with your educational activity? You should share it, reproduce it, justify it with colleagues! Suggest a story or a report in Profweb; your pedagogical counselor will assist you, examining your approach and the theoretical basis of your strategy. Remember to place your results on a discipline specific site for teachers. Share with colleagues and seek their comments. Making constructive comments and justifying your results will enrich the expertise of other teachers.
All teachers practice reflective approaches at various levels, which contributes to their professional development. Have you considered ICT to help you in this process?
