Teacher Evaluation to Enhance Professional Practice - Essay Example

College: Research and practice development is one of key the components in education of modern times; it is critical for the improvement in the quality and standard of education. If properly developed, it leads to improvement in application of evidence-based practice. In order to develop this among students, there is a need to evaluate students on a regular basis and closely engage with them to ensure this is achieved (Ginny & Forrest, 2000). Evaluation is important because it enables one to know if the student is improving in the area that is under scrutiny. Evaluation is a process that examines a program in a critical manner (Danielson & McGreal 2005). Evaluation includes things such as looking for information and criticizing that information to ascertain the program activities and the results of those programs. The reason for evaluation is to identify whether a program is effective and if not, you look for areas where you can make improvements (Stephanie, 2010). Evaluation also helps when making decision about the program; it is often a synonym to assessment, but evaluation is more important because it enable the tracking of the student’s performance, hence informing of the need to change the approach of the current methods applied and having no positive results in students (Danielson & McGreal 2005). Evaluation is also a means of gathering information for the improvement of learning opportunities for the child. Research and practice development can therefore, be effectively disseminated to students through evaluation. It is effective to disseminate through evaluation because evaluation involves close monitoring and tracking of students. It also makes it easier to identify an area of weakness among the students hence making it possible to make corrections. Through evaluation you can make judgment on whether research and practice development is working out well with the student through constant examining (Danielson & McGreal 2005). You can judge the quality of student’s learning experience through rigorous evaluation strategies in various ways (Ginny & Forrest, 2000). This rigorous evaluation strategy is strict and it is a rigid evaluation of students to check their consistency. The process is meant to give the evaluator the feedback that will convince him beyond any reasonable doubt that the students have actually made progress (Danielson & McGreal, 2005). The student’s learning experience is an area that must be improved if learning has to be effective at any level and standard. Student learning experience will determine if a student will be able to learn effectively and be able to improve in its area of study (Macdonald 2002). Good learning experience is equal to good motivation for the students. Through a rigorous evaluation strategy, one will be able to examine the progress of the student at certain stages. These stages have a certain time limit so that after a certain stage, you can examine the progress of the student before going to another stage (Danielson & McGreal, 2005). It has to be rigid so that too much time is not wasted and that student knows that at a certain stage he will be evaluated. The rigorous evaluation also helps in comparing the progress of a student with previous students and drawing comparisons (Macdonald 2002). First, as a mentor, one should be fully aware of the role because it is them who determine whether a student will be registered as a nurse or not (Macdonald 2002). Student performance should be monitored continuously on the day-to-day basis. To ensure students are learning, mentor has to build confidence within the students themselves. They also have to develop a very good and professional relationship with the students. As a mentor, one should also be able to within a stipulated period, be able to provide feedback that is true, and always suggests for students where to make improvement (Ginny & Forrest, 2000). Mentor should provide the best supervision and being able to assist students in planned learning experience. They should also be aware of student’s learning program of study and practice. As a mentor one ought to closely observe the student’s practicing skills under the appropriate level of supervision, he should also be able to asses keenly the competence of the student together with the safety of the patient (Ginny & Forrest, 2000). It is a requirement of the NMC mentor standards that each mentor undergo a review of their performance as a mentor after every three years in order to remain on the local mentor register (Macdonald 2002). This is for one to compare its teaching and learning experience with the latest standard of NMC. A mentor should also regularly meet with the members of NMC visiting to come and check the progress and for self-evaluation a mentor should also be reading journals and newsletters that touch on best practices and latest innovations (Danielson & McGreal, 2005). One should also develop a well arranged and organized mentor guide. This is possible through annual update sessions which are directed to those who have taken formal mentor preparation (Ginny & Forrest, 2000). Mentors should also set part of their time to be completing daily mentor updates, which include key among them, independent reading, dedicate time to mentorship portfolio updates (Liz & Paula, 2011). He should also ensure that he can evaluate student’s performance in relation to NMC standard and also be able to review progress of the students. He should also be well versed with nursing curriculum and be aware of issues in practice in education currently. A mentor should also participate in practice learning teams (PLTS). In such forums, he can met with nurses from different diversities’ who they can share experience with and information involving practice (Liz & Paula, 2011). Self reflection is also key to personal development and evaluation which a mentor should always put into consideration. The face-to-face meeting also enables mentors to discuss challenges together pertaining to assessment issues (Macdonald 2002). The face-to-face meeting also includes sharing of challenging supervision issues. There should be recording of such meetings as evidence that they actually took place, in order to support a triennial review. The benefits include the ability to share experience for mentoring among clinicians and the exposure to a greater diversity of practice and teaching styles (Gordon, 2001). Good communication is good if anything is to be implemented, but if there are communication barriers, the road to success becomes rougher and it becomes so hard to achieve success. A mentor should be able and willing to work with others, through meeting regularly with them to share the latest NMC requirements, and exchange of mentoring guides in order to check whether what they have is of the standard (Ginny & Forrest, 2000). One must also be up to date with the NMC curriculum so as to be able to guide the students in an appropriate way so that they can come out qualified therefore ensuring that the safety of patients in the places they are working at for example hospitals and other places is guaranteed. References Danielson, C & McGreal, TL 2005, Teacher evaluation to enhance professional practice, ASCD, Harvard. Gordon F. S, 2001, Mentoring: How to Develop Successful Mentor Behaviors, Cengage Learning, Ohio. Ginny W. H & Forrest C. P, 2000, Career and Calling: A Guide for Counselors, Youth, and Young Adults, Geneva Press, Geneva. Liz A & Paula H, 2011, Successful Mentoring in Nursing: Post-Registration Nursing Education and Practice?LM Series, SAGE, London. Macdonald, R 2002, Academic and educational development: research, evaluation and changing practice in higher education, Routledge, New York. Stephanie G, 2010, The Learning Mentor Manual, SAGE, London. Read More