Is Test after Student's In-class Performance or Future Growth?

Emphasizing in-class performance and maximizing students' future growth both are worth to be considered as test objectives. In my opinion the statement should be "Testing emphasizes in-class performance to maximize students' future growth". In this sense, test ensures good quality of outcomes as it becomes a teaching/learning tool that carries many advantages for both teacher and student.

For teacher test, as a design, indicates how good his teaching is, if we agree that we test what we teach. It also helps teacher to identify his students' needs and abilities. In class test enhances teacher autonomy as he fully responsible for all three phases; pre-test, test and post-test. In terms of testing writing skills, teacher can observe how his students think and how do they produce and organize their ideas that help him in planning his teaching methods and activities. Test provides good deal of date to evaluate many issues in the class. These data might be used in evaluating content, teaching or learning.

On the other hand, it ,test, drives students to use their cognitive skills as they answer such as perception, logical thinking and reasoning, creativity … This independency in thinking and determining builds and increases students' self-esteem and make them confident in their abilities and decisions. Test encourages students in searching the information. Students will try to check their answer, before getting their scores, either by discussing the answers with peers or by searching resources e.g. the internet. Using test as a learning tool minimizes tension as students get rid of the worries of scoring.

At the end of the test, feedback provides both teacher and student with sufficient information about teaching/learning process. "The traditional feedback", which comes from the teacher to his students, helps them to get reliable correction for their mistakes. Peer feedback opens doors for students to think and find new techniques in taking test.

In short, using test as teaching/learning tool enhances students' in-class performance to help them on future growth. However, it needs hard work from the teacher in the all three phases of test.

Assessing Adequacy of Teacher-Training

-As part of a program evaluation, you want to assess the adequacy of teacher-training provision for teachers in the program. Discuss how you would approach this issue and procedures you would use.

Providing teachers with sufficient training is a must to keep pace with modern approaches and methodologies of teaching. This training can either be on-the-job-training by, for instance, getting benefit of senior colleagues or off-the-job-training by attending workshops or seminars. The provision of teacher-training should be assessed as part of the program evaluation to ensure its adequacy and efficiency. But how can we assess it? And what are the procedures that can be used? The answers of the aforementioned questions are interlinked somehow. i.e. we can assess teacher-training adequacy, for example, by taking in consideration teachers' point of view, as an answer of the how question; on the other hand, procedures of conducting this "survey" is the answer of, the what question.

 We can assess the adequacy of teacher-training in different ways. For example, observing teaching procedures in real teaching situations. This helps us to determine the efficiency of teacher-training in authentic settings. However, teacher may have more to present other than what he did while being observed. So we need to follow other procedure such as involving teachers in a workshop with a predetermine topics that help to measure their provision of training. For more reliable assessment we can expose teacher to a standardized test which is designed to find out their knowledge about specific aspects, in our case their training provision adequacy. Peer assessment conclusion should be taken in consideration as they know their peers much better. Designing the program in a way that takes teacher-training in consideration provides helpful information about the quality of given training. Evaluators can discover teachers' training needs by interviewing and/or making questionnaires and then analyze their needs.

Using technologies to assess teacher-training provision adequacy will facilitate the process as evaluators can take an enough sample of teachers with less effort and short time. Designing a web site that includes questionnaires, a space for teachers to write their needs and suggestions about the training programs, a video stream to help teachers upload their teaching and the possibility to build their own profile to list their training program; will help in saving both time and effort and reducing the budget of the assessment program.

As seen in the current training programs that are given by the general directory of educational training the teacher is given a certificate for each program that admits his presence. In my opinion, assessing teachers after each training program helps in making sure that they benefited and helps to determine what the next training program they need is.

ESOL Teaching Philosophy

Teaching English to speaker of other languages in school is more than teaching a linguistic subject or communicative tool. It is a way to discover the world and to get and produce knowledge. My job as an ESOL teacher requires linking English to learners' daily life, facilitate their communicative interactions, help them to build their perspective about life and knowledge and assess their learning for more improvement and feedback.

My five years experience enlightens me a lot about teaching especially after passing some courses in my M.Ed TESOL program. Helping students to grow intellectually is something worth to work on. With keeping in mind, that the process of this growth should be parallel with the general objectives and their needs. English teaching differs from other subject teaching as it touches upon all the other subjects due to the objectives and settings of a single lesson. i.e. as an English teacher I need to be up-to-date specially in relation to methodologies and other teaching issues.

In terms of teaching methods and other related aspects like planning, designing materials, evaluation…, in my opinion, integrating in every aforementioned aspects is the best way to fulfill learners' needs and society expectations. Integrative approach ensures continuity of teaching/learning process as feedback keeps flowing. However, electing approach might be my choice in some cases. On the other hand, teaching issues emerge from now and then and some of them draw my attention such as teacher's autonomy that encourages me to be independent in determining extra materials to facilitate teaching and learning.

My relationship with my students is a kind of partnership. They are not passive in teaching. They have knowledge that can be developed to help in peer or group discussion and evaluation. still, this knowledge needs a good deal of improvement, directing, assessing and correcting.