What is a teacher evaluation and why is it important? Examinations and assessment tests have always been a key part of the education curriculum to test and reinforce students’ knowledge. Different possible ways for effective assessment of students have been much talked about. Nevertheless, it is equally important for educational institutions to evaluate teachers on their teaching skills. Especially today, when most institutions have shifted to online teaching, it is all the more important to do so as many instructors are new to and unfamiliar with online teaching, which demands a slightly different set of teaching skills than those required to teach in a traditional classroom.
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So, how can educational institutions evaluate the efficacy of their teachers especially in a virtual setup? Before answering this, we must take a look at a few research-backed, key skills instructors need to encourage student learning while taking an online class on any teaching app. These may be of value in analyzing teacher performance and will help ease the teacher evaluation process.
Define the Teaching Goals
An instructor must have well-planned and explicit targets for students as well as himself. He must adhere to certain standards while instructing his students as standards-based teaching leads students towards a lucid, tangible learning objective such as gaining mastery over a particular lesson or learning how to apply a concept perfectly and unambiguously.
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Student Engagement and Assistance
With a drastic shift from traditional classrooms to online teaching, a teacher’s role has also shifted towards being more of a guide and facilitator rather than a traditional educator. An online teacher must be able to draw students’ attention and keep them engaged through personalized attention, encouraging class participation, promoting collaborative learning through study groups & discussion boards, maintaining a proper communication channel with each student and his guardians, and holding students accountable for their learning objectives and goals.
Adaptability
In the age of virtual classrooms, it is essential that teachers not only welcome this paradigm shift in education with open arms but are also prepared to go the extra mile to keep themselves abreast of new technology and teaching methods.
Having talked about the key elements to enhance student learning outcomes, we now move on to discuss the key indicators that help in evaluating Teachers’ performance and indicate the likeliness of their success in their chosen career as an online teacher.
Encouraging Questions
It is well known that curiosity has been the sole propeller responsible for the advancement of humankind and the reason behind much of the knowledge which we have amassed over generations. A good teacher always encourages inquisitiveness in his students and tries to resolve all their queries and predicaments. Thus, it can be a good indicator of teachers’ performance.
Student Feedback
Timely feedback is important in motivating students towards learning. A student should receive regular and timely feedback regarding his class performance from his instructor or at least he must be made aware of when he will receive the feedback which is due. Similarly, anonymous feedback from students about their teachers comes in handy while arriving at an opinion about a teacher’s performance.
Classroom Environment
A teacher should extend full support towards their students and make all efforts to ensure that every student is comfortable in his class and is not hesitant in communicating with either his instructor or his peers. A teacher should promote an active learning environment in his class, which has been known to help in increasing student learning outcomes.
These are some criteria that might be useful in teacher evaluation and helps in determining the effectiveness and efficiency of teachers.
It is important to bear in mind that there is always time for improvement and if you feel like you lack any skills or qualities, just spend some time on bettering yourself.
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