a1.10 Feedback

NEMP2:

For some administrators the feedback confirmed that they were performing well in their new role, reinforcing the skills and ideas that they had learned. Administrators who were aware of inconsistencies in their execution of the role also welcomed the reminders and reinforcement.

However, it was important that feedback was accurate in order to be meaningful. There were some situations where teachers felt that they were fulfilling certain aspects of their role that were subject to critical comment on their feedback sheets. However, even if they disagreed with the feedback given, it still served to focus the administrator's attention onto particular aspects of their role:

Learning is facilitated by regular ongoing feedback. Thus, feedback during training would enable teachers to develop and refine their competence with administrating before they are placed in the situation 'for real'. Research conducted on the role of experiential learning, especially in adult education (Dorn, 1989; Knowles 1977; Petranek, 1994) has shown that receiving feedback from different perspectives during participatory methods of learning helps to anchor content and transform behaviour. It also develops positive peer support through the group's sharing of experiences, positive comments and practical suggestions. Having had the opportunity to receive feedback from their tutors and their peers and to give feedback to others, may mean that administrators are better equipped to monitor their own performance and also to provide constructive feedback to their partner in the field. This may also help to alleviate some of the partnership issues between administrators.

After viewing the video from the first week of administrating, any feedback subsequently provided by NEMP staff to administrators would be easier to give, as administrators would be used to receiving constructive feedback by this point. It would be worth posting written feedback to the next school that the administrators are to work in, as suggested by one administrator. This would avoid the difficulties of not receiving mail that some administrators experience if they are working out of their area and do not return home at weekends

The proposal to put a phone call through to teacher administrators during their first week could produce results similar to the 'Hawthorne effect'. The Hawthorne effect refers to the phenomenon that mere attention to employees can increase the quality of performance. It was the result of a series of experiments conducted at Western Electric's Hawthorne Works, in Illinois, which found that attention given to workers (in this case by researchers) was perceived as respect and interest in their activities and performance. Consequently, their performance in their working role improved (Mayo, 1933). This effect has had various interpretations, but there is a consensus that human beings perform at higher levels when they are being attended to respectfully by a perceived 'authority'. The time spent on a telephone call to each administrator partnership may be time well spent if it produces similar effects to those recorded.

The need to be competent and confident with ICT equipment had been perceived by teachers as being important during various stages of the training and administration process (Sections 1.2, 1.3, 1.7). The use of ICT equipment is essential in NEMP assessment. Some of the assessment tasks are implemented using a computer, in order to provide variation in the delivery of tasks and in the way students respond to tasks. Many of the assessment procedures are videotaped so that data that can be analysed and marked at a later date. Teacher administrators must learn to use these technologies and incorporate them into their interactions with students. Learning the skills of using ICT equipment is seen as a priority by teachers, prior to commencing their training. This is shown in Figure 4, Section 2.

NEMP staff indicate that learning about and using the ICT equipment is always perceived by teachers as a challenge:

The other thing I would have liked was if there had been a role play. If the lecturers, our teachers as it were, if they'd actually done, right at the beginning, if they'd said, “Right we're going to look at the 1-1…” and actually showed us right from, “take the sticker out, stick it on that child's book”… if that could have been done for each area, I would have felt better. Rather than it being broken up into “now these are the task questions” and a couple of days letter “now this is the administration for that”… So I thought it could have been better put together. It would have helped me, anyway.

I'd have felt happier if I could have put all the pieces together, and given that a run through…that would have helped me.

Even better would have been one of the lecturers spending 5 or 10 minutes with each of us, if that was possible, use them as a student and then some feedback that said “well you could have done this…or I couldn't understand what you said”, you know. That would have been good, rather than waiting for the first week to go by and then looking at tapes… it might have been an idea to find some time to do that.

The administrator role was complex, requiring the interweaving of a number of new skills into those that the teacher already possessed. Several administrators had identified the need to role play the administrator role in order to develop a better understanding of the role and consequently to be more effective in implementing it. Role playing is practice; by doing something as though it were for real, the learner gets to think, feel and act at the same time, developing a comprehensive and global understanding of the situation (Shaw, Corsini, Blake & Mouton, 1980: 2). It is a technique that is used to provide learners with knowledge and skills by allowing them to experience a nearly real situation and providing them with feedback information, to better understand themselves and their behaviour and increase their effectiveness in various situations (Shaw, et al 1980: 1). It involves realistic behaviours under unrealistic conditions. When learners are asked to do something with the learning material that they have read or heard about they are provided with an opportunity to acquire a fuller knowledge and understanding of the new information. Role playing is now recognised as a valuable procedure whenever people need to understand a situation better or be more effective in dealing with it. One of the most important aspects of role playing is that it provides a simulated reality experience in which a complete skill can be rehearsed without hurting oneself or others through failure (Shaw, et al 1980: 2-8).

Although trainee administrators may appear to have an understanding of the administrator role from reading and discussion, there is often a difference between 'knowing that' and 'knowing how'. Shaw et al (1980: 8) suggest that there is often a discrepancy between what a person knows and how they behave. Role playing can be helpful in encouraging changes in behaviour, either through the opportunity for practicing a new behaviour or through the use of feedback. Administrators acknowledged the need for feedback to enable them to modify existing behaviour to accommodate the new role.

Role playing also puts the emphasis on personal concerns or problems. Often training procedures can be too abstract or too general, or they focus on hypothetical or typical problems. Through role play relevant, personal concerns can be identified and addressed through feedback and reflection (Shaw, et al 1980: 21). This was certainly acknowledged by the administrator who commented, “And had we not done that we wouldn't have asked the sort of questions. Until you're put in a situation… you have a feeling…if it's just read or you read through it, you don't see some things until you get down and actually do it” (TA8-8).

Risko, Yount and McAllister (1992) have suggested that viewing video tapes enables learners to acquire mental models of authentic situations which helps prepare them for entering similar situations themselves. However, in order for video to be an effective part of a training programme it is important that it is selected with particular learning outcomes in mind that help progress towards the programme's goals (Brophy, 2004: x). It has been suggested by R.J. Spiro that video tapes are best viewed in relatively short clips, often as short as one to three minutes (Spiro and Jehng, 1990: 163-205). However, the clips are repeatedly viewed and discussed, attending each time to a different feature or perspective of the situation being viewed, for example, physical layout, questioning by the teacher, encouraging student response. The permanence of video allows the trainer to select a particular focus of attention knowing that the opportunity to return to other issues is there. Brophy also emphasises the importance of scaffolded group discussion after viewing a section of video tape in order to allow trainees the opportunity to reflect on pertinent issues from the clip (Brophy, 2004: 296 & 303). This allows exposure to a variety of comments, questions and opinions, creating a richer experience for trainees than they would have had from viewing the clip alone. Viewing in isolation, without the assistance of a facilitator, means that viewers are limited in what they take from watching a clip by their prior personal knowledge and experiences. Viewers can also react judgmentally to what is seen, judging a performance as either good or bad. Facilitated viewing can shift the focus from generic judgmental responses towards more analytical discussions of what is viewed.

The administration process affected teachers' perceptions of their role in a number of ways: it reinforced their initial perceptions of the need to be organised and to have developed a good rapport with students (Section 1.8). It focused administrators on the importance of the role of ICT equipment in implementing the tasks, on the need to focus on students' efforts and not their performance and on the importance of the methods of administrating the tasks (Section 1.7). Administrating also caused teachers to discover areas that they had not perceived to be significant in their administrator role, such as the need for flexibility and the importance of a good collaborative partnership (Section 1.8). It caused a conflict in their perceptions through the need to be able to question and prompt students when instructions were not fully understood, without compromising the assessment process (Section 1.10) Participating in the administration process enabled teachers to identify ways in which the training could have better prepared them for the role, such as using video scenarios and role play (Section 1.12).

Teachers' perceived that working with NEMP would be an opportunity for professional development in the area of assessment, enable them to develop their knowledge and understanding of assessment practices (Section 1.0). It was noted that the majority of teachers chose to apply for the position of administrator because they were interested in one or more of the curriculum areas being assessed (Figure 1). Responses to the three questionnaires monitored teachers' perceptions of their understanding of assessment before and after training and on completion of administrating. It was apparent that teachers felt they developed confidence in their knowledge and understanding of assessment. This corroborated the findings of Gilmore's research on the benefits of NEMP as professional development for teachers (1999). She found that the majority of teachers in her study had gained general ideas about assessment, gained confidence in methods of assessment and had developed their repertoire of approaches to assessment (pp. 30-33).

Figure 13 below shows teachers' confidence about their knowledge and understanding of assessment before and after training and at the end of administrating.