District Institutes of Education and Training - Teacher Education

District Institutes of Education and Training: A Comparative Study in Three Indian States
4.2.5 Evaluation of teaching practice
The broad parameters of evaluation by the DIET staff in the three States are
mastery of subject content, questioning techniques, use of reinforcement, black
board work, student teacher interaction, use of teaching learning materials, a
trainee’s self confidence, communication and expression skills, class discipline, and
class management. Feedback in all DIETs tended to take the form of ticks against
set criteria, which helps a student see how s/he is measuring up against expected
criteria but not to reflect critically on practice. Instead of taking teaching practice
as a learning experience and an opportunity to practise and refine skills, students
across all DIETs reported that for them, it is as an exercise where what matters is
to perform well for the observer. This can be hit and miss:
PL Our lesson plans are checked on the spot. What kind of on the spot
evaluation do they do? The teacher comes into our class for 5 minutes.
In these 5 minutes, if we are not doing blackboard work or using TLA
and suppose we are talking with students, the teacher will write a
comment that st x was not using the blackboard, TLA etc. So those 5
minutes are crucial for us (MP/I/ 2nd yr st 26.12.99).
All States have external examination of teaching practice but in the sample DIETs
this was also reported to be cursory. The brevity of this visit reinforces students’
impression that
The internal lecturers play a major role. They influence the marking. How could the
examiner know in five minutes what the student is teaching? (Raj/UDR/1s yr. st)
Both Gujarat DIETs had made some changes to their evaluation procedures in
response to the demands of the curricular changes. In Surat DIET, the internal
marking system was changed so that students are continuously assessed throughout
the year, where previously they were evaluated only by a written test. The evaluation
process was changed to include an activity record card (containing information
about cultural, social and educational activities they have done during the year);
performance in internal tests (written and oral); and overall performance. Students
are assessed four times in the year through exams conducted by the DIET, and a
panel interview also checks their progress during the year. The Principal reported
that this procedure is not popular with some students, who are themselves not
entirely used to fair examination procedures. This is a reminder that, as various
comments cited in this chapter have shown, students themselves can be a
conservative force in bringing about educational change.
Surat DIET was the most proactive DIET in our sample with regard to its drive
to improve pre-set quality. This Principal – himself a former primary school
teacher – was the only one to stress pre-service activities, saying
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