Vietnam National University, Hanoi
University of Languages and International Studies
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ NHUNG TEACHER SELF-EVALUATION IN THEIR OWN PRACTICE:
A CASE STUDY AT NHU VAN LAN HIGH SCHOOL

(Giáo viên tự đánh giá giờ dạy: Nghiên cứu điển hình tại trường
THPT Nhữ Văn Lan)

MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi, 2011


Hanoi, 2011 i
DECLARATION I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “Teacher Self-evaluation in Their Own
Practice: A Case Study at Nhu Van Lan High School” is the result of my own study to fulfill
the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi
National University, and that this minor thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any
other universities or tertiary institution.
The research reported in this thesis was approved by Doctor To Thi Thu Huong,
Vietnam National University of Hanoi.

Signature: Vu Thi Nhung
ABSTRACT

In the academic year 2010-2011, Haiphong Department of Education and Training
introduced self-evaluation to teachers. In an attempt to investigate the reality of teacher self-
evaluation at Nhu Van Lan high school, a case-study approach was adopted. The main
purposes of the research were to find out: (1) English teachers’ attitude toward teacher self-
evaluation; (2) English teacher self-evaluation in practice; (3) the main difficulties in
implementing teacher self-evaluation. The cases in the study were six English teachers at Nhu
Van Lan high school.
The findings were based on
semi-structured interviews with teachers,
triangulated with group discussion and document analysis.
The results of the study show that all of the teachers had a positive attitude towards the
necessity of teacher self-evaluation in teaching and learning. The implementation of self-
evaluation raised teachers’ awareness of their teaching practices and somewhat increased the
effectiveness of teaching and learning. However, they also identified some problems such as lack
of official guidelines or training for self-evaluation, the time-consuming factor involved, little
improvement in teaching and learning effectiveness and the subjectivity of teacher self-
evaluation, etc. These findings serve as the basis for several practical recommendations made
to encourage teachers to apply self-evaluation as a reflective process in teaching in order to
improve their profession and the teaching and learning effectiveness. The recommendations
are made to Haiphong Department of Education and Training, the leaders of Nhu Van Lan
high school and individual English teachers of the school.


v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration………………………………………………………………………………

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………
…
Abbreviations
……………………………………………………………………
Table of contents
… ………………………………………………………………………
List of tables
………… …………………………………………………………………
PART A.

5
5
6
6
7

7
8
10
12
13
14
14
14 vi
………………………………………
1.1. Teacher self-
evaluation… ………………………………………………
1.2. Teacher self-evaluation as a reflective process
……………………………………
1.2.1. Definition of teacher self-evaluation as a reflective process
…………………
1.2.2. Benefits of teaching reflection in practice
……………………………
1.2.3. The strengths and weaknesses of teacher self-evaluation as a reflective
process
……………………………………
1.2.4. Necessary conditions for self-evaluation as a reflective

I
III
IV
VI
I
IX vii
2.3.2. Data collection instruments and procedures
………………………………
2.4. Methods of data
analysis……………………………………………
Chapter 3. Results of data analysis and
discussions………………….………………
3.1. Semi-structured interviews
……………………………………………………….
3.2. Document
analysis………………………………………………… ……………
3.3. Group discussion
…………………………………………………………………
PART C.
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………….…
1. Summary of the
study………………………………………………………………….
2. Limitation of the research
………………… ………………………………………
3. Suggestions for further
study……………………………… …………………………
REFERENCES…………………………………………… ……………………


Pages
Table 1 ………………………………………………………………………… 19
Table 2 ………………………………………………………………………… 30
Table 3 ………………………………………………………………………… 31

1
PART A. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale

How can teachers move beyond the level of automatic
or reutilized responses
to classroom
situations and achieve a higher level of awareness of how they teach, of
the kinds of
decisions they make as they teach, and of the value and consequences
of particular
instructional decisions? One way of doing this is through observing and
reflecting on one's own teaching, and using observation and reflection as a way of
bringing about change.

At Nhu Van Lan high school (NVL), in the 2010-2011 academic year, basing
on the suggestion of the expert of Haiphong Department of Education and Training
(HDOET), the administrators asked the teachers to feedback their teaching by noting
down some remarks after each teaching session. Lesson plans had to be modified in
order to be suitable for the characteristics of each teaching class. In other words,
teachers should self-evaluate their lessons to find out what needs to be changed. This
indicated that HDOET and the administrators at NVL paid attention to the
importance of TSE in developing teacher professionally. However, how teachers
self-evaluate in reality,

4. How to encourage English teachers at NVL to apply self-evaluation for effective
teaching and learning?
4. The method of the study:
The research was conducted as a case study. The qualitative method and
quantitative method were used to analyze the implementation of TSE as a reflective
process of English division at NVL. The specific methods used in this study were semi-
structured interviews, document analysis and group discussion.
5. The scope of the study.
The study focuses on investigating English teachers’ attitudes toward TSE, teacher
self-evaluation in practice, the obstacles preventing English teachers at NVL from carrying
out self-evaluation as reflective process. Then, some suggestions will be recommended to
encourage teachers to apply self-evaluation as reflective process in teaching in order to
improve their profession and the teaching and learning effectiveness as well. 3
PART B. RESULTS OF DATA ANALYSIS
1. Semi-structured interviews
Teachers’ attitudes toward self-evaluation
With regard to the teachers’ attitudes to self-evaluation, all of them agreed that
teacher self-evaluation is necessary for their professional development and the
improvement of teaching and learning effectiveness. This indicated that English teachers
had positive attitudes toward self-evaluation and realized its importance in teaching.
The implementation of teacher self-evaluation
Concerning the implementation of teacher self-evaluation, all of the teachers said that
they self-evaluated their teaching lessons regularly right after each teaching session as the
administrators required them to do. However, the teachers all stated that they were not
trained to self-evaluate their teaching when they were at university as well as they did not
receive any official guidance for teacher self-evaluation documents. They were just asked
to do without specific guidance. Teacher 2 told me that:

control over their own evaluation process and reinforcement their perceptions of their
teaching. As a result of engaging in self-evaluation, and the subsequent modifications to
their reported teaching activities, the teachers have noted significant outcomes for
themselves in both their professional and teaching area. Teacher 2 stated that she is now
more conscious of giving clearer instructions. Teacher 3 has noted a modification to his
body position in relation to the learners, especially when writing on the board, she stated:
“With regard to writing on the board, my instruction has changed. Before,
when writing on the board, I used to write on it and face while explaining and
covering half of the words. Therefore, in the classroom my voice is not being
projected to them, it's being lost. But I learned to write on the board first, and
then explain it."
Teacher 4 now incorporates more learner feedback into each of her lessons, to assist her
with her own evaluation. She seeks more input and participation from them. She finds this
approach to be more effective for herself and for her learners.
Teacher 5 identified improved organizational skills. She stated:
“With my lesson planning, it helped me organize my tasks better. It also helped
make me more aware of the objectives of my lesson so that now I ask myself

5
more often, what do I want the students to achieve by the end of this lesson and
how am I going to do that? How am I going to get there? What task is
relevant, what task is not? By being more organized, I am being more aware of
my students' needs."
Teacher 6 discovered that she spoke too much in the classroom. She stated:
“I felt that I was talking too much and that I could afford a little engagement of
the students. After all, I have tried to do more communicative work within the
limitations I have. Sometimes I am able to do more communicative work when
the level balances out."
Then teacher 6 has tried to speak less in the classroom. She has a goal to shift from a
primarily teacher-centred methodology to one that is more communicative and student-

majority of the teachers felt that they needed the appropriate training regarding the self-
evaluation approaches and techniques. As stated before, the teachers only self-evaluated their
lesson when the expert of HDOET came to NVL and suggested teachers to carry out this
new technique. However, what and how to self-evaluate was not introduced clearly. Teacher
1 complained that: “We are forced to do and examined, but teacher self-evaluation is a newly
and broad concept. We do not know how to self-evaluate if the expert of HDOET does not
give us the adequate guidelines”
In addition, self-evaluation is often subjective; therefore, teachers could not realize all
their shortcomings when teaching. Teacher 4 claimed that sometimes she thought that
students understood the lesson, they took part in the lesson enthusiastically and gave the
correct answers for all the exercises, but, in fact they did not because the answers had been
written in the old textbook.
The last obstacle was that though self-evaluation brought back the improvement in
teaching and learning, the effectiveness in teaching and learning was not much. TSE must
help teachers to identify areas of improvement and lead to the preparation of individual
improvement plans (including professional development)
. Without a link to professional
development and teaching effectiveness
, the self-evaluation process is not sufficient, and
as a result, often becomes meaningless. All the teachers reported that teacher self evaluation
results brought back little improvement in teaching and learning. Teacher 2 stated that
teaching depends on a lot of factors in which teacher’ role is guidance not a decisive factor.

7
In short, through the interviews with the teachers, the researcher understood more
about their attitudes and implementation of self-evaluation in practice. It is also indicated
that the teachers experienced some difficulties in applying self-evaluation in their teaching.
2. Document analysis
As stated before, after collecting data from the interview, the researcher continued to
analyze English teachers’ lesson plans in order to explore the teachers’ self-evaluation in

administrators by cutting down the teaching time. The teacher’s schedules were consumed
with 12 to 15 teaching lessons and eight to ten extra-lessons per week, time required for
lesson planning, along with other personal commitments. They were too busy at work which
was not corresponding to their rather low salary. If teaching time could be reduced, they
would do self-evaluation better
.
In addition, one teacher suggested reducing evaluation time.
Instead of self-evaluating right after each lesson, teachers could summarize their strengths
and weaknesses after each unit (five lessons).Besides, the teachers expressed a need for positive environmental conditions including
contextual support for teacher growth and development. If the workplace encourages
reflection and self-evaluation activities; TSE entails performance-based career advancement
and/or salaries, bonus
pay,
then teachers are more likely to do at their best.
Finally, teachers still want supervisory evaluation to be a part of the evaluation process.
Teachers were not comfortable basing the analysis of their teaching effectiveness solely on
their own evaluation feedback. Teachers felt that they needed additional feedback from
their expert and supervisors. Several teachers also suggested that teacher self-evaluation
needs to be combined with other traditional evaluating techniques such as evaluation from
their colleagues or from students. This need for additional feedback in the evaluation
process is important; after all, self-evaluation doesn't replace but complements the
evaluation process.
 Suggestions to the individual English teachers of the school
Firstly, the teachers should take primary responsibility for doing evaluation. It is the
teacher who is the final arbiter of the effectiveness of his/her teaching. Self-evaluation is
inherent in teaching. It must be a task of teacher life-long career. It is one of the key skills
necessary for the teacher to be a professional. Self-evaluation is necessary for the teachers 10
PART C. CONCLUSION

Research on effective teaching over the past three decades has shown that effective
practice is linked to inquiry, reflection, and continuous professional growth. Reflective
practice can be a beneficial form of professional development. By gaining a better
understanding of their own individual teaching styles through reflective practice, teachers
can improve their effectiveness in the classroom. Self-evaluation is a confidential personal
device to help teachers analyze their overall performance and to set goals for self-
improvement. The study aims at investigating the application of TSE – a new technique at
Nhu Van Lan high school.
In the first place, the study provides theoretical background which summarizes some
researchers’ various views on definitions of teacher self-evaluation, benefits of TSE in foreign
language teaching and learning, approaches and criteria to self-evaluate.
In order to achieve the expected objectives of the study, the data from the interviews
with the teachers, the analysis of teachers’ lesson plans and a group discussion were analyzed
thoroughly to find out what are teachers’ attitudes toward self-evaluation, how the teachers
self-evaluated in practice and the problems that the teachers had to cope with when
implementing this newly introduced technique. The results of the study show that all of the
teachers had a positive attitude towards the necessity of TSE for their profession
development and the effectiveness in teaching and learning. The implementation of self-
evaluation raised their awareness of their teaching practices and somewhat increased the
effectiveness of teaching and learning. However, upon engaging in self-evaluation, teachers
had to face with some difficulties. On the basis of the problems arisen, some proposed
recommendations for improving the teaching and learning at NVL are presented specifically.
The recommendations are made to HDOET, the leaders of NVL and an individual English

gives meaningful result. Last but not least, teachers need to modify their teaching basing on
self-evaluation result for the teaching and learning effectiveness, which is the most significant
aim of self-evaluation.

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