The process of internal evaluation as a tool for improving peer supervision

Peer supervision is a method which enables the counselors to be involved in a continuous learning process throughout their professional career and not only when they are in training. It is a personal way of learning in which a pair or a small group of colleagues gives supervision to one another. In this article some advantages, potential pitfalls and conditions or ``guidelines' that should be followed to ensure the most effective peer supervision experience are discussed. An effective evaluation can greatly improve the process of peer supervision and can successfully minimise potential obstacles and pitfalls. Hence, in the second part of the article we describe the internal evaluation of the peer supervision process and illustrate it with some results of final evaluations from four peer supervision processes.     

Photovoice as an evaluation tool for student learning on a field trip

Background: Photovoice is one method that enables an educator to view an experience from a student’s perspective. This study examined how teachers might use photovoice during an informal learning experience to understand the students’ experiences and experiential gain.

Design and methods: Participants in this study consisted of six students, three male and three female, ranging from ninth through twelfth grade at a rural Ohio high school, who attended a field trip to a biological field station for a four-day immersive science experience. Students were provided cameras to photograph what they believed was important, interesting, or significant during an immersive four-day science trip to a biological field station, individualizing their observations in ways meaningful to them, and enabling them to assimilate or accommodate the experiences to their schema.

Results: Analysis identified five positive benefits to use photovoice as an evaluation tool: teachers were provided qualitative evidence to evaluate student interaction on the field trip; teachers could evaluate the students’ photographs and captions to determine if the field trip met the learning objectives; students were empowered to approach the goals and objectives of the field trip by making the field trip personally relevant; students assimilated and accommodated the new observations and experiences to their own schema; students automatically reflected upon the learning experience as they captioned the photos.

Conclusions: Through photovoice, the teachers were enabled to qualitatively assess each student’s experience and learning from the field trip by illustrating what the students experienced and thought was significant; providing the teachers a method to evaluate all participating students, including those who are secretive or do not normally contribute to class discussions.     

Using developmental evaluation as a design thinking tool for curriculum innovation in professional higher education

This paper argues for the use of ‘developmental’ evaluation as a design-based research tool for sustainable curriculum innovation in professional higher education. Professional education is multi-faceted and complex with diverse views from researchers, professional practitioners, employers and the world of politics leaving little consensus about the nature of educational ‘problems’, let alone educational ‘solutions’. Developmental evaluation is an emerging approach to evaluating innovations and/or organisations that are in a continuous state of change; it asks the evaluators to not simply appraise a final design, but to work with designers through processes of rapid reconnaissance, mapping the territory and emergent modelling. This paper provides an account of how the adoption of the dispositions and approaches of developmental evaluation increased the trustworthiness of decision-making in the design of a new post-graduate teacher education degree in Australia. The principles of developmental evaluation as a design thinking approach have application in other complex curriculum settings.     

The design,use and evaluation of hypermedia flashcards as a teaching tool

TechTrends - We find h-cards to be a popular and versatile addition to a wide variety of introductory and advanced courses. The use of client-side JavaScript means that you can use hcards...     

Using mid-semester course evaluation as a feedback tool for improving learning and teaching in higher education

The way in which mid-semester course evaluations are structured, administered and reported is important for generating rich and high-quality student feedback for the enhancement of learning and teaching. Mid-semester evaluations usually contain open-ended questions that trigger more elaborative feedback about what is going on in a class than that from end-of-semester evaluations with Likert scale-type questions. The anonymity of the process for students and the confidentiality of the process for instructors make the process more reflective for students and less stressful for instructors. This study describes how the mid-semester course evaluation process can be used as a feedback tool for improving the quality of teaching and learning at an institutional level. Through a longitudinal analysis of 341 mid-semester course evaluation reports, positive areas and areas of concern with respect to learning and teaching were identified, and changes in student evaluations over the years were examined meticulously to make an overall evaluation of the quality of learning and teaching at a non-profit Turkish university. This research showed that the value of mid-semester course evaluations can go beyond course-level if we use open-ended questions and are able to gather the reports together to make some comprehensive analysis at university level.     

Organizing evaluations for use as a management tool

The theme of this journal issue - evaluation as an educational management tool - is critical and timely. Today's administrators face a dual challenge: to demonstrate how well their school systems are performing and to take greater responsibility in that demonstration.     

Peer-group mentoring as a tool for teacher development

Peer-group mentoring (PGM) is a new model designed to support the professional development of teachers in Finland. This study examines the experiences of mentees participating in PGM and potential differences in the experiences of teachers in general education and vocational education. It also addresses the mentees’ perceptions of the results of PGM with regard to the professional, personal and social dimensions of professional development. Quantitative research methods were used. An online survey was completed by 69 teachers in general education and 47 teachers in vocational education (n = 116). The results showed that the participants saw PGM as an important tool for professional development throughout the entire teaching career. In general, there were few significant differences between vocational teachers and their colleagues in general education in their perceptions of PGM. The study further suggests an alternative conceptualisation of professional development based on the following components: development of skills and knowledge, strengthening professional identity and self-confidence, and development of a work community.     

The concept map as a research and evaluation tool: Further evidence of validity

This study sought further evidence of the concurrent validity of concept mapping as a research and evaluation tool in science education. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which differences exist in the concept maps of advanced college biology majors (N = 25) and beginning nonmajors (N = 25) in the domain of mammals. Furthermore, it explored whether these differences are reflected in the way subjects assign class membership as revealed in a card sorting task. The results indicate that concept maps of biology majors are structurally more complex than those of nonmajors and that differences in the structural complexity and organizational patterns depicted in concept maps are reflected in the underlying dimensions used to assign class membership. Together, these findings suggest that the concept map provides a theoretically powerful and psychometrically sound tool for assessing conceptual change in experimental and classroom settings.     

A competence-based constructivist tool for evaluation

Abstract

Recently the educational system in general, and the university in particular, have suffered a transformation in the way learning, teaching, and subsequently, evaluation are considered due to changes in the European context, including the Bologna Declaration and the constructivist view of learning. There are several adjustments required to implement successfully traditional university teaching practices, such as the use of new technologies in teaching, new ways of tutoring, different groupings, the teaching of competencies and social skills, and, as a result, new forms of evaluation, which constitute the object of this paper. Thus, we show an objective alternative —or complement—to traditional evaluation: a very exhaustive tool for evaluating oral and written presentations which includes four sections: general aspects, contents, questions concerning design and layout, and psychological aspects concerning general competencies. Throughout the paper, the constructivist notions of learning, teaching and evaluation are substantiated and validated with the use of this tool for group or individual presentations or end-of-degree dissertations.     

Developing a scale for using Facebook as a learning tool

This study investigates the development of an instrument to explore the views of student teachers in Turkey towards using Facebook as a tool for teaching and learning. A five-point Likert-type scale was developed for a sample of 687 student teachers from various fields in Adiyaman, Mustafa Kemal, and Inonu Universities. The sample included 445 participants in the first application and 242 participants in the second. A literature review, students’ comments, and relevant Facebook research results were considered in order to establish the items for the scale. A comparative analysis of previous studies and instruments yielded an original 33-item pool, and experts’ judgments were consulted to confirm the content validity of the scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine the factor structure of the scale, revealing 17 items that could be grouped under three general factors. A Cronbach’s coefficient (α) was employed to determine the internal consistency coefficients for the whole scale and its subscales. Results indicate that this learning scale (FLTS) is a valid and reliable instrument to investigate the use of Facebook as a learning tool.     

Gender theory as a tool for analyzing science teaching

This study examines to what extent experienced teachers are aware of gender issues in the science classroom. It also explores how an introduction to gender theory might alter this awareness. Teachers wrote their reflections about a real classroom situation. They were then asked to analyse the same situation after having read texts that discussed gender theory concepts. The fourteen teachers' understanding about gender and society were challenged. Some teachers were able to analyse the case differently by applying gender theory, others discussed the case on a more general level, while one teacher showed signs of resistance regarding gender theory.     

My career chapter as a tool for reflective practice

The career assessment and counselling procedure My Career Chapter is presented as a tool for reflexive self-awareness within career counsellors. To demonstrate application of the procedure as a method of self-supervision, this paper presents a study in which the participant studies himself. Results indicate a reflexive consciousness for the career counsellor that extends his self-awareness as a professional into his personal, non-professional life. Implications are presented with a focus upon the scope of self-report in qualitative research and collegial supervision.     

Assessment in Statistics Courses: More than a tool for evaluation

The current assessment reform movement in statistics encourages instructors to think more broadly about cognitive measures which assess student learning. In response, statistics instructors have begun incorporating innovative methods of assessment into their courses, the most common of these procedures being authentic assessment, performance assessment, and portfolio assessment. This paper will discuss areas to consider for assessment, problems with typical assessments, and statistical authenticity for understanding student learning.     

Theory-based assessment in environmental education: a tool for formative evaluation

This article reports on the development of a theory-informed assessment instrument for use in evaluating environmental education programs. The instrument involves coding learners’ brief reflective writing on five established educational and social psychological constructs that correspond to five important goals of environmental education: promoting learners’ perceived relevance of environmental content, sense of personal and collective responsibility for sustainability, knowledge of environmental content, readiness for environmental action, and identity exploration around environmental questions. The article describes the development of the instrument and its use for coding the reflective writing of 242 early adolescents who participated in a large-scale environmental education program.