Teaching Young Inspectors

OULGOUT Abdelouahed · Number of posts: 6 Registration date: 2009-01-16

One of the best ways to improve one’s way of teaching is the action taken to globally evaluate our performance in class during the whole year. Evaluating one’s way of teaching and reflecting on it provide the teacher with a precious opportunity to notice his or her points of strength as well as the areas that need improvement. Yet, the way the global evaluation of our performance is done is not authentic or even real. It is usually inspector-dependent and surrounded with instantaneous official statements and protocol, passing heavy judgments on us without any sense of objectivity or enough data to rely on. Consequently, the inspector-judge falls into making up false testimonies on the teacher observed just to cover certain, often personal, administrative requirements. I herby say:”students can notice what theories and theorists fail to”.

First, inspectors, at least in our educational system, can’t provide authentic remarks about the teacher observed, simply because their visits are brief and seldom. This is to say that there is no way to objectively estimate one’s general performance in the classroom until the person carrying out that estimation is always present on the scene where the action of teaching takes place. A short visit to the field doesn’t guarantee any objective outcome. It happens that the teacher might be under unprecedented bad circumstances, which made him confused even well prepared, and surprised by the observer visit at that hour. Imagine the situation!!! Would the inspector half-an-hour visit per a year or half a year be sufficient to recognise the teacher’s skills, potentialities, and philosophy of teaching?

Second, even if the observer had been able to daily attend your sessions, would he have, again, been able to provide an authentic estimation of your performance? Of course not. The observer couldn’t have been so, because your teaching messages are not directed to him, but to your students. Then, the one(s) who is supposed to provide his or her feedback about what you teach, how you teach, and the effects your teaching results in is the student himself. If teaching was a matter of dry techniques and structures, then the observer would ever be the best one to supply objective observations. Yet, teaching is more than that; Teaching, or rather learning is a question of meta-cognitive and affective factors operating inside students. These factors determine how students feel whenever a lesson or even a quick and brief teaching action is performed. Satisfaction or discontent, understanding or misunderstanding is to be expressed by the one(s) who is targeted, undergoes the action, and always present in the field: the student.

Third, students can notice what theories and theorists can’t. This is one of the basic outcomes I came up with when I conducted an open survey including thirty questions about my performance in teaching this year. My students answered the questions, expressing their feelings and opinions, and I was really astonished at their feedbacks. They drew my attention to many things I didn’t pay attention to, or I simply didn’t consider so crucial. For instance, some of the students complained about allocating a special test to the fliers in my classes. They consider this as a sign of discrimination and injustice among my students, and they suggested to me to be just and look at them as equal. Another wrote that I hurt her feelings when I laughed after her answer to a question. Others argued that the space of my voice is too fast, and my handwriting on the board is a bit small though beautiful…etc.

These remarks are undoubtedly authentic and INNOCENT, for they reflect what students feel and experience in their depth and, therefore, address me to make the necessary modifications to meet students’ expectations and learning preferences. These facts would never come to existence if the evaluation was left to the inspector alone, and students-actors were not involved in the feedback process.

Abdelouahed OULGOUT
E-mail: oulgout@gmail.com
forum: www.4truth.ecoleforum.com

If you have never sat alone and asked yourself who you are and how you came into being, then take it for granted that you still don’t exist. Until you develop your own independent thought, speak out your mind, and establish your kingdom; you will never find a way to freedom and self-actualization. I have been undergoing awkward ...

[ Full reading ]

Cultural diversity has fueled a hot controversy more than ever before. The world has become such a small castle because of several rampant scientific revolutions diffusing all over the world and making communication so complex, fuzzy, and multi-dimensional.

In regard to this brea...

[ Full reading ]

One of the best ways to improve one’s way of teaching is the action taken to globally evaluate our performance in class during the whole year. Evaluating one’s way of teaching and reflecting on it provide the teacher with a precious opportunity to notice his or her points of strength as well as the areas that need improvement. Yet, the way the gl...

[ Full reading ]

Many of the norms people are used to were a set of abnormal beliefs and practices. The tendency to hold power, status, and fame was and is still one of the most predominant triggers of society’s irrational mind. The later beco...

[ Full reading ]

Though culture changes through time, norms may not. They drive us to behave this way and not that one. Our behaviour, then, is cultural but not necessarily a correct one. Virginity of woman, for instance, is necessary, otherwise society would reject her; even it was the force of circumstance that was the cause behind losing it. What abou...

[ Full reading ]

Instead of tackling other points on the issue of equality between woman and man, we're still in conflict with each other,thinking of who is right and who is wrong. we're still in doubt whether woman has the right to behave as a human or should be treated as doing with animals. Isn't she one of God's creatures? Don't we recall His...

[ Full reading ]

While a person dreams of becoming someone else, norms drive hi...

[ Full reading ]

How to Be a Student

Introduction

The typical college campus is a friendly place; but it is also a competitive environment. The education you receive there, and the attitudes you develop, will guide you for the rest of your life. Your grades will be especially important in landing your first job, or when applying to graduate school. To be a successful student requi...

[ Full reading ]

Here is the full list of winners at the 81st Academy Awards, which have been held in Los Angeles.
Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader

Sean Penn shook as he used a scrap of paper to th...

[ Full reading ]