A Study On Peer-assessment Of Micro-teaching By Masters Of Education In English

Graduate students of Education in English,as an indispensable part in future teachers'team,play a significant role in English teaching undoubtedly.So how to train them to become qualified teachers is an emergent problem.However,it is admitted that most teacher-training schools provide more knowledge in theories while less practice for the students of Masters of Education(M.Ed.)in English.Micro-teaching,as an inseparable part of teaching training,makes up for this problem to some degree.It consists of imitating teaching and assessment from different aspects,in which peer-assessment helps these students get more suggestions from their peers.There exist many researches related to peer-assessment nowadays,but more detailed analysis about the contents of it is limited,not to mention the kind of research aiming at Micro-teaching and the group of Masters of Education in English.This article aims at analyzing the contents of peer-assessment in Micro-teaching given by the Masters of Education in English,studying the distribution of typical types,clarifying significant features of this kind of assessment,and offering some suggestions for peer-assessment of Micro-teaching or even for M.Ed.candidates' English teaching.This study bases on the collection and text-analysis of data from "Design of Teaching Plan and Case-analysis",a professional class for M.Ed.in Central China Normal University which organizes Micro-teaching class for the M.Ed.candidates for one semester.And the analysis of peer-assessment goes on from four types:teaching instruction,course nature,classroom culture and other aspects.Through the analysis,the first feature is that M.Ed.candidates'peer-assessment focuses more on the type--teaching instruction in term of teachers and pays less attention to the other types,especially the classroom culture.Secondly,M.Ed.candidates'peer-assessment stops on the superficial analysis of the form of class and does not dig deeply in the core of class.Thirdly,M.Ed.candidates' peer-assessments are usually about the special elements appearing in Micro-teaching and are not comprehensive enough.Lastly,there appears high-frequency contents in peer-assessment in three parts,which are likes,suggestions and questions.These three parts include student teachers' worries about the formalization of class,the doubt about the application of Micro-teaching's contents in real class,the higher requirement of teachers and students' relationship,the demand for the cultivation of students' creativity and thinking patterns,the praise for professional characteristics of work,and the pursuit of various in-class experience.