Reviews for Supervision for Learning: A Performance-Based Approach to Teacher Development and School Improvement

The average rating for Supervision for Learning: A Performance-Based Approach to Teacher Development and School Improvement based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-08-18 00:00:00 Eduardo Braun The book starts with brief summary of assessment situation in higher schools and the problems of it within test-approached assessment. In general, the first 4 chapters are like an introduction and preparation to assessment topic. One of the problems mentioned is lack of faculty work in this topic. While last chapter is totally dedicated to faculty teamwork, importance of it in this process to get major and effective result in the scale of higher schools, not only in the boundaries of classroom are stressed not only in the first and last chapters. Writer puts a stress on it continuously in every chapter. Writer defines assessment as a process which not only gather, but also discuss information from various sources with students to understand what students have comprehended and their ability to do something with that of knowledge as a result of their educational experiences, which are practiced numerously with continuous feedback throughout the course. Moreover, assessment is considered completed, when its results are used to improve subsequent courses. What does writer mean by emphasizing "discuss"? According to the book, teacher isn't information giver but researcher partner to a student. The reason why we teachers know things better is that they prepare and research the topic that they are going to teach students in depth. When teachers simply transmit information to student, they are passively accepting the information in the level of surface. However, students should also obtain information by graving to depth. In other words, they should learn information as teachers do while teacher facilitate and couch. When students acquire both knowledge and experience deeply, they and teachers achieve intended learning outcomes determined by teachers or sometimes together with students. Intended learning outcomes should be practiced through the assessment tools over and over not only during the course, but whole study year and university period. They are in alignment at the course, academic program and institutional levels. Assessment tools should be identical with the last summative assessment tools. Feedback as an assessment tool are mainly prioritized by the writer. Because assessment shouldn't only judge as standardized tests, but improve learning and experiences. Variety of techniques of getting feedback from students are presented, namely they are divided as Classroom Assessment Techniques such as "The minute paper" ,"Email minute" ,"Direct pharaprasing", "Application cards" and Continuous Quality Improvement Techniques such as "Two way Fast Feedback", " The Learn Model". These techniques measure both the quality of lesson and how students grasped the topic. These are followed by the way how a teacher can interpret these feedbacks correctly and use effectively in order to improve learning process. Two assessment tools are illustrated separately in two different chapters: rubrics and portfolio. Rubrics: I have seen this technique to be mentioned in many books however this book has opened a whole new chapter for me regarding rubrics. It analyzed how to use, form, which questions to use while forming rubrics, elements of developing useful rubrics. Besides important details that rubrics should be consisted of rows which are "levels of mastery(for example, good,excellent,poor), "dimensions of quality"(critical qualities of the work), "commentaries"(definition of the qualities), one specific and noteworthy detail was "descriptions of consequences". Within this detail, teacher describes for students the likely consequence of performing at that level of quality in a real-life setting. This would encourage students to think what would happen in this case in real life and ,moreover, helps them to understand significance of certain level of mastery (good,excellent,poor) and why they are valued with them. Such description of consequences prepares students to "after graduation". Author points out that these rubrics should be used in "ill-defined" problems meaning there is not only and correct answer, in fact variety of solutions by different individuals are considered valid as in real life. Their usefulness in learning compared to ready-made and ready solution problems. University textbook problems doesn't usually depicts real life problems accurately. Because in real life problems or "ill defined problems", three types of knowledge (Declarative, procedural, metacognitive*) are used in solving these kinds of problems, which influence critical thinking and problem solving skills positively, whereas university textbook problems can only involve declarative and procedural knowledge. *Declarative knowledge- knowledge that are accepted from information giver Procedural knowledge- knowledge that are accepted during experiments and projects. Metacognitive knowledge- knowledge about one's own cognition. 2nd useful assessment tool is portfolios, not only as a document in which students describe how they learn, but as a document to teach students to analyze the knowledge by writing (writing in learning is shown as useful here) and choosing which works to include with metacognitive knowledge. In addition, gathering documents/works in portfolios assists to assess the quality of teaching and learning in the faculty level within the benefit of hindsight every past year. Discussion of the works included by students into the portfolios should be held between a teacher and a student in mentally safe environment where students don't feel threatened. Other stakeholders (for instance employers) can also participate in this discussion to present variety of ideas, perspectives and reality. Students can in this way review themselves in a broader framework of the world outside in the institution. However, in final assessment other stakeholders should be given rating scale based on well-defined criteria in order to be accurate. Finally, with help of portfolios, self-assessment also forms in this way progressively as students themselves take the ownership of their learning while deciding what, why to write in portfolio works and include into the portfolio. Another remarkable feature of the book was ideas in "Try something new" and "Making connection" boxes in order to relate information in the book to a real life classroom and institutions by actually trying them.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-04-05 00:00:00 Mauricio Ibanez Class requirement - useful info and easy to read, but getting outdated