Q. 2. What do you mean by “monitoring instruction”? How can self-monitoring be of help in the professional growth of teachers who are already experienced?
Ask the teacher giving her the following hints:
Do you remember an instance when
● A weak student gave a brilliant answer?
● A bright student made a silly mistake?
● Something disturbed the class atmosphere when students were listening to you attentively?
And then a series of questions like
● What actually happened?
● Why do you think it happened so?
● What was your immediate decision or reaction to it?
The teacher will be able to recall the events and will remember and tell about the experience and also her plan of action in that case. She would have the picture of her response to the situation and what was the outcome of her responsive behaviour. Thus it shows that what she did as a result of some feedback or response was thoughtfully done and so it is still registered in her mind.
But since the switch in plan or change in direction was so quickly formulated in the subconscious that she cannot remember it immediately without being given any clues. Thus the unexpected is always there in the mind, but needs to be revived by providing clues of something unexpected happening only.
It will also be surprising for the teacher to know that the monitoring was done but without paying any conscious attention to it. Thus some of the plans of actions are pre-decided while others are a result only of the response. There are many such aspects of monitoring which are not consciously known to the teacher.
Teacher competence in assessing students’ skill levels and monitoring their learning progress is essential for effective instruction to take place. Robert Slavin, a researcher has said “Imagine an archer who shoots an arrow at a target but never finds out how close to the bull’s-eye the arrows fall. The archer wouldn’t be very accurate to begin with, and would certainly never improve in accuracy.” Similarly, effective teaching requires that teachers be constantly aware of the effects of their instruction.”
Thus, we will define monitoring as: a set of activities pursued by the teacher to keep track of the student learning for the purposes of making instructional decisions and providing feedback to the students on the their progress.
With more experience the job of the teacher becomes more habitual and routine work. It is important for teacher to learn from the experience and not only take his/her work as a habit or routine. Monitoring can help teachers to reflect on their experiences and thus make them more effective in classroom, especially for those students who are diverse learners.
