Abstract:

Practice-Teaching is a crucial phase in the Pre-Service Teacher Education programme. Continuous and rigorous observation and monitoring of the progress of Student-Teachers performance at the practicing schools are directed through the curriculum guidelines of each university. In the revised curriculum of Teacher Education practiced since 2004-05 at University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India; a student teacher must take a minimum of 40 lessons in their concerned optional subject. Observation of each class by the Mentor is advised. As the mentor has to guide more than 20-25 Student Teachers at a time distributed in 6 to 7 practicing schools, such a continuous observation is practically impossible. The local subject experts at the practicing schools also failed to pay the required attention in this direction.
The process of Peer Review introduced in the Physical Science Faculty of Mar Theophilus Training College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala (where this author is serving as the Mentor-in-Charge of Physical Science Student-Teachers) is an attempt to overcome this crisis. During Peer Review each class of a Student-Teacher will be observed by a fellow Student-Teacher of the same or different optional subject as per their availability. The peer is entrusted to give written observation on the strengths and area of improvements to the observed Student-Teacher. After a year of observation of the peer review process there was a strong feeling that some systemic modifications and procedural innovations must be brought in to make the exercise much more meaningful and motivating. The Colour Coded Peer Review Wheel (CCPRW) designed incorporating inputs from Student-Teachers (2009-10) was a maiden, innovative attempt of this kind in Kerala. The author wishes to showcase and share CCPRW experience to the general academicians and practitioners though the proposed poster at ICERI2011.

Keywords:

Teacher Education, Peer Review, Colour Coded Peer Review Wheel, CCPRW, Mentoring, Pre-Service Teacher Education, Innovative Practices, Practice Teaching.