Comparison of distinct features observed in Class Critique between pre-service and in-service teachers

Abstract

Class critique is recognized in South Korea as a method for class observation and research to improve conventional class observation and instructional practices based on modern views on education and objective instructional design as well as to seek new instructional practices. The study takes interest in class critique texts, one type of output of class critique. These texts usually represent the connoisseurship of those who write class critiques, detailed description of the observed classes, their interpretation and evaluation of the classes, and their reflection and contemplation on the classes in the case of writing of critiques by in-service teachers on their own classes. From the perspective of research, these texts reflect the connoisseurship of class observers on the classes, and thus enables the analysis of the similarities and differences among pre-service teachers, newly appointed teachers, and in-service teachers as well as among those who deal with different subjects, showing the variations based on diversified factors. The study is intended to analyze class critiques written by two groups (pre-service teachers, in-service teachers), figure out their similarities and differences, and draw the implications of class critique activities on professional development in teaching. NVivo 10 is used to conceptualize and categorize class critiques of the two groups, leading to the creation of five categories such as‘writing format,’‘distinctive class phenomena,’‘analysis and assessment,’‘main subject in class observation’and‘reflection,’as well as major features of and differences between the two groups. Discussion was then made on the changes of connoisseurship on class observation, educational functions of class critique, and writing of class critiques, to elicit the implications of class critique activities on professional development in teaching.