Teaching File: Evaluations

The quality and sophistication of thinking embodied in your teaching file is one of the most important facets of your administrative responsibilities in the PGCE year. It is one of the main points of reference for external examiners in their visits, and is one of the principal bases for dialogue between the trainee, mentor and curriculum tutor. There is generally a strong correlation between the quality of a trainee's teaching file, and the quality of their classroom teaching. Two of the most important elements of the file are the learning objectives for lessons, and the evaluations of lessons. They provide insight into the quality of your thinking in terms of planning for learning.

This is what HMI reported in their comments on history trainees' record keeping after the last round of HMI inspections:

'Records varied in their usefulness. Some trainees kept records to meet their professional obligations- entirely understandable and justifiable- but failed to reflect on why they kept the records, or whether keeping them in this or that particular form was either the most efficient means or helped them and their pupils achieve thier ultimate teaching and learning objectives respectively. Those trainees who adapted and modified departmental practice in the keeping of records found the whole process of record keeping much more useful, informative and beneficial in shaping and informing their planning and teaching than did those who simply adopted and conformed to departmental practice.'

Baker, C., Cohn, T. and McLaughlin, M. (2000) 'HMI perspectives of current training issues', in Arthur, J. and Phillips, R. (eds) Issues in history teaching, London, Routledge

Why doing lesson evaluations is difficult:

Often doing evaluations becomes a tedious chore; you are tight for time and have other lessons to prepare, books to mark etc. Try to keep reasonably up to date if you can; there are few things more dispiriting than having to write up several days worth of evaluations on an evening, especially when you can't clearly remember much about the lessons by then. Do keep in mind however, that is sometimes interesting to delay the evaluation until after the next lesson with the class, or until after you have marked the pupils' work, so that you can gauge how much the pupils have learned from the lesson.

Over a long placement, it is difficult to ensure that your evaluations do not become repetitive and formulaic ('This lesson went quite well.... The pupils behaviour was quite good... They were on task for most of the lesson etc). Keep in mind the full breadth of the standards for QTS, and try to cover different aspects of the standards over time. If you have a template of paragraphs for your evaluations, always commnenting on the same things, this can make it harder to avoid repetition. (Some trainees experiment with different evaluation formats over the course of the placement). Do all evaluations need to be of similar length? Some lessons throw up more to think about than others. If you are beginning to think that doing evaluations is a pointless chore, it may be because you are not varying your thinking enough, and reflecting on the full breadth of the standards, and all the things there are to think about in your teaching.

To think about:

Is it obvious that it is an evaluation of a history lesson or is all the comment generic?

Is comment largely restricted to teaching and class/task management or are you covering the breadth of the standards over a period of time?

Are there any comments about the influence of subject knowledge issues on your teaching?

Are there any comments about assessment issues ?

Is there anything on able pupils?

Do you talk about the class as an undifferentiated whole or do you sometimes talk about groups or individuals within the class? (In how many lessons do all the pupils learn all that the teacher is trying to teach?)

Are your comments largely descriptive, or is there analysis and reflection on teaching and learning issues?

Is there a balance between reflecting on the behaviour, achievements and learning of the pupils, and your own learning in respect of learning to teach?

You might comment on such things as:

What you need to think about for the next lesson with the class in the light of this lesson.

How appropriate were the materials presented to the pupils?

What might be improved to improve the lesson?

To what extent were your learning objectives achieved? (Some pupils..., others...)

Now you know what they've learned, what do you teach next?

What was it that made it a good/bad lesson?

Which bits worked well and which didn't?

What was your exposition and questioning like?

How good was your introduction?

Did you draw things together and finish the lesson effectively?

Which of the standards are you making progress in and which are you struggling with?

Are you setting any targets for the next lesson? Are they genuine targets or just vague good intentions (Must do something about class management.) Do you reflect back on your aims and targets or are they lost in the ether?

There are hundreds of interesting and relevant things you might mention in your evaluations; don't waste time simply describing or reiterating things that you have already said, and already understand.

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