Three Colleagues Who Shared The Same Professional Experience Expressed The 'gap'

By Author: Alex Armas
Total Articles: 74
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We then analysed our personal diaries where we had recorded comments from trainees and our own queries and impressions. Common comments from trainees expressed operational constraints due to a particular school culture, methodological obligations to the cooperating teacher's style of teaching, and dissatisfaction with grades. This evidence made us ponder upon the issue with our colleagues. We discovered that they shared our discontent about the way that trainees' performance was assessed during the observation lesson. The feeling that prevailed among Replica Omega us was that, as experienced observers and assessors, we were able to provide an impressionistic value judgement of the trainee's performance. However, when we assessed the lesson according to the benchmarks on the assessment form, we realized that quite often there was a gap between the two results. Three of our colleagues who shared the same professional experience expressed the 'gap' as follows:

While observing I already formulate a grade in my mind. I know that this lesson does ...
... not deserve more than 80 percent, for example. At the end of the lesson I go over the assessment form and grade each item according to the weight allocated. If there are incongruities with my grading, I try to narrow the gap. I have enough experience to know immediately after the lesson what the grade is going to be. I personally don't really need the criteria and would have preferred to ignore them. However, as I am required to provide a detailed assessment record, I use it and I often get annoyed with the fact that I can't find the criteria that I would like to grade the student on, or I find some of the criteria irrelevant to the context and to my frame of reference. I have to admit that initially I determine the grade during observation or immediately after that. When I use the assessment sheet, I find that the grade is usually higher. I feel that I cannot take off all the points for a certain criterion and this leads to an accumulated higher grade.

These views reinforced our problem in accepting the reliability of assessment in the observation lesson. Taking into consideration the critical role of the observation lesson in the practicum and in students' professional careers, we felt that it was our responsibility to try and assess our trainees in a way that reflected their performance accurately, reliably, and transparently. In addition, we realized that the voices of the trainees concerning this issue were not considered and decisions on assessment were top-down. We believed that in order to construct a more Omega Replica Watches comprehensive view of the issue, it was pertinent to collaborate with our trainees and provide some space for their voices (Nunan and Bailey 1996). Moreover, new trends in current assessment demand active student participation in their assessment. This is reinforced by Shohamy (1996) discussing ethical testing and assessment, which sees a need for students to participate actively in the construction and use of tests and assessment systems.

Another problem is that despite each assessor having similar criteria against which to assess the lesson, their interpretation of those criteria is not always identical. Each lesson is assessed by three people: the cooperating teacher, the pedagogical counsellor, and the trainees themselves. However, the weight and the importance allotted by the college to the various assessors are not evenly distributed. Each of the three assessors makes significant contributions to the developmental process of the individual teacher.

In terms of the teacher's assessment for the purpose of accountability, the pedagogical counsellor undertakes most of the responsibility and has the final say in grading the trainee while the others can only slightly affect the grade. The observation lesson is considered a high stake test by the trainees and at times puts them under the tremendous pressure of a major test. It also entails conflicting decisions concerning whose theories to implement, their pedagogical counsellor's, their cooperating teacher's, or their own.