picture album page 4 - the 7th meeting of 2006
(pictures of the December meeting below)
October
"The course evaluation or student ratings of instruction began in US in 1920s and became popular in 1960s. Do SRIs (Student Ratings of Instruction) help us measure teaching effectiveness? Are they reliable and consistent? Are they valid? Are they biased? Do you wonder what students are thinking when they fill out those end-of-semester course evaluation forms?.."
"Since the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology mandated the administration of course evaluation forms in 1996, their use in Japan has sharply risen. In other countries, use of course evaluation forms is widespread, if still controversial. Since Japan has newly adopted this approach to teacher evaluation, we feel it is important to be clear what such instruments tell us, and what they don't tell us."
Guest speaker: Christine Winskowski and Susan Duggan
Date: October 21st, 2006
Title: "What did you think of the course? - Understanding Students' Course Evaluations"
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Place: AIU (Akita International University)
Room: B-103
10 people attended.
The talk first covered the history of the use of this technique for teacher evaluation starting in the 1920s. Then they reviewed the literature on its validity and reliability. Then pointed out how many teachers were required to dumb-down their classes in order to receive a higher evaluation. Next they explained how they decided to find out what students are thinking by interviewing 10 students as they filled out their evaluation forms. Following a recent line of research, they asked students to explain their understanding of the items' interpretation, and the reason for their ratings. While their findings are still at the pilot phase, it is very clear that students interpret items differently from one another, and base their ratings on different criteria (some of which seem only loosely connected to teaching effectiveness). These results reinforce the notion that course evaluation forms are at best low-precision instruments. After discussing in detail the thought processes of the students and pointing out the many surprising interpretation they offered, the talk ended with a lively question and answer period. The teachers in the audience explained some of their own feelings about these surveys.
|
AKITA JALT meetings in 2006
picture album page 4 - the 8th meeting of 2006
(pictures of the October meeting 2006 above)
December
"Becoming proficient in English as a foreign language (EFL) is a challenging task for many students in Japanese universities. Plagued by negative appraisals, low motivation and an inability to direct and sustain learning efforts, students' progress is often slow..."
"The interventional study was designed to foster positive changes in students' beliefs about learning English and to enhance their motivation for learning. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of allowing students in four EFL classes opportunities to explore various learning resources, identify their personal learning preferences, experiment with language learning strategies, and set short-term learning goals..."
Guest speaker: Terri Lee Nagahashi (Akita University)
Date: December 9th, 2006
Title: Fostering Positive Changes in Students' Beliefs about Learning English
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Place: AIU (Akita International University)
Room: B-103
11 people attended.
|
more pictures
go to JALT photo album 43
go to pictures of the meetings in 2005
go to pictures of the meetings in 2004
go to pictures of the meetings in 2003
go to pictures of the meetings in 2002
go to pictures of the meetings in 2001
go to pictures of the past meetings (1998 - 2000)
Akita JALT
| "GENKI" English education homepage by Takeshi Suzuki Read My Diary 4(from January 1, 2003)  go back to "genki" homepage index |