Educational Evaluation Methods

Use educational evaluation techniques in the classroom for improving behavior and learning.

Educational evaluation methods are ideas put into practice as teaching strategies and tools for implementing effective modes of teaching. Educational evaluation methods give teachers achievable goals in the classroom and ways to perfect teaching strategies. There are many different educational evaluation methods used across schools today, but few of them are more effective than the others.

Lesson Plans

Create thorough lesson plans. A good lesson plan includes everything required for teaching a class. It has a project overview, complete material list, vocabulary list, educational standards covered, required steps for the lesson, test or project, and conclusion for the lesson. If there is a student with special needs, plan alternative methods for teaching the material to that student. For example, a student with poor eyesight or hearing can be moved closer to the teacher. The lesson plan should detail what the teacher does, what the students does and has a project or evaluation at the end of the lesson. Principals judge a teacher's educational skills by thoroughness of lesson plans, and their teaching skills.

Engage the Students

Develop engaging lessons. Interesting lessons prevent behavior problems before they start. Involve all the students by having them break into small groups. If the teacher is instructing the class as a whole, have the students take notes or work on solving problem(s) in the activity. Students have short attention spans, so design the lesson with more active, hands-on learning. A teacher's control over students' behavior is essential during an evaluation.

Learner's Ability Level

Challenge the learner's ability level. The brain is a muscle, and it needs exercise just like any other muscle. Thinking exercises the brain. Start by teaching one concept before moving to a more difficult task. For example, a student needs to know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide, before solving algebraic equations. Ask questions that make the brain work. Questions like, "Why is the earth spinning out in space?" make people try coming up with reasons. Don't expect an answer, but this sparks the brain into thinking. Don't be surprised if the student can answer this especially after he goes home and looks up the answer on the Internet, but that's all right as the brain muscle got exercised. Evaluate students on how they work, participate and understand materials taught during the lesson.

Fair Evaluation Methods

Form a fair evaluation method. Evaluation shows how much knowledge was gained by teaching the lesson. Evaluation lets the teacher know if the lesson was a success. Common evaluation methods include tests, quizzes, writing a paper or creating a project. Never test a student on content that wasn't addressed in the lesson. This wouldn't be fair to the student and may cause undue stress to him.

Reviewing Information

Review information before moving on to new concepts. When developing a lesson plan, include a review of past lessons that the new lesson builds on. This helps remind students of information taught earlier. Sometimes reviews take up a lot of class time, but have the students write a daily synopsis of information learned each day. Check the daily synopsis once a week, and make sure the students understand the information taught during the week.

References

• Planet Free Book: The Benefits of Information Technology
• Lavoisier: Strategies For Effective Teaching