«Keep it Simple.
Do not get carried away by the group process. Stick to the single principle. Then you can do good work, stay free from chaos and conflicts, and feel present in all situations.
The superficial leader cannot see how things happen, even though the evidence is everywhere. This leader is swept up by drama, sensation, and excitement. All this confusion is blinding.
But the leader who returns again and again to awareness -of-process has a deep sense of how things happen. This leader has a simple time of it. The sessions flow smoothly, and when the group ends, the leader is still in good spirits»
«This is Nothing New.
This way of living and leading groups is easy to understand. It is easy to do. But not many leaders understand this approach. Very few use it in their work.
Frankly, it is too simple and ancient to attract much attention. As a rule, the greatest interest goes to the greatest novelty. The wise leader, sticking to the single principle of how everything happens, does nothing new or original.
The wise leader appears to a very few followers, to those who recognize that traditional wisdom is a treasure which often lies hidden beneath an ordinary appearance»
John Heider. The TAO of Leadership. (p.69, 139)
Understanding of testing – importance is a long and creative process, the teachers have been working out for the whole period of their professional time. Some of them recognize questionnaires process as a methodical means they have to follow during their teaching foreign language as the most useful activity for the sake of competent teaching and professional satisfaction. Usually the aims are high from intellectual, ethic and moral position, oriented to personal recognition by those taught the positive results of their own learning. Among the teachers there are many creative ones, ready to share the results of there testing – experiments with colleagues in order to make the process of foreign language teaching more interesting, effective and innovative. So, one of them is Nadezda Rosholdova, who offered teachers a practical tool for evaluating their teaching. The proposals according to testing methods have much in common, but there are some new ones in the very thoughts concerning organization of the whole questionnaires process, when it gets features and orientation to Self-evaluation.
Psychological approach to testing at all stages is maximally effective. It starts in early period of communication of those teaching and taught persons in- auditorium and out-auditorium classes (Universities’ conferences with reports in English, independent tests for readiness to professional practice or military exercises with purpose of special texts’ translation, excursions on historical and cultural places in English (Peterhof’ Palaces and fountains), etc.) The testing – process is a start -up to understanding yourself as adapted and understandable self-evaluation, when every moment of working becomes a moment of education. The comfortable sphere of a teacher and students’ communication on interesting and deep questionnaires does not press participants of the process but and allow them to open new abilities to continue to grow mentally, intellectually and psychologically.
Mental and sensible items in the process of intellectual development are essential meaningful. Coming back to Nadezda Rozholdova from Bratislava, Slovakia’ testing proposals, mention some of them as the most available for using in teaching practice and psychological adaptation of the students to solving the hard educational tasks in the line not hard control, but friendly atmosphere of understanding and support. A teacher explains the approaches to testing by the word “FOR”. And this is very clear approach. She has started to take learners’ needs and expectations more into consideration. Then she has started to think what kind of communicators her learners are in general in order to choose the right activities for them. She has begun to subordinate all activities to the key targets of the lesson. She noticed that the questionnaires pressed her to take action immediately. Normally she thought of what would be good to do, but she had to leave it for later. The questionnaires have highlighted some areas she did very routinely. It has revealed she often put exercises together arbitrarily without any kind of connection. Before, she never though enough about timing of activities. She just had some more in reserve if there was time left. Normally, she did not inform learners what she was going to teach them. She just continued with the next lesson in the coursebook. It has make her listen to learners’ wishes better. There are some moments that should be taken into account as possible in the process of testing and getting specific results, not always expected. So, teacher must be ready, tat knowing what went wrong did not help them to solve the problem. Nadezda is sure that sometimes more spontaneity is better than too much planning, and teaching aims are set for teachers by the coursebook. Research is a luxury nowdays, and Nadesda’s advice as a super teacher is in demand today.
The witty quality of tests is in its prolonged ability is important for learners to repeat their experience, to discover the advantages of all the coursebook units.
The communication itself is activity of groups, less or more being united by concrete tasks, aim and goals of communication, cooperation and integration, more or less being reflected in questionnaires of different levels of complication.
As a result, the students are able to answer the questions like these ones:
- What I have learned from the lesson
- What I want to improve or change
- What materials might help me
- What I can do immediately and what I need to plan over time
- What are any additional skills I may need
- What different strategies I could use to manage change
This plan is sustainable and ordinary for present practice, but very productive and interesting for students.
In preparatory stage of our experiment we asked our students to compare their school testing impressions and memories with university’s ones. The questions proposed were like these:
- I believe it is important for me to participate in school activities.
- I do poorly in school.
- I think I am a good student.
- I believe education can offer many achievements.
- Schoolwork is uninteresting.
- I am happy to be a student.
- Schoolwork bores me.
- I believe school is challenging.
- Grades are not important to me.
- I take pride in my progress and performance in school.
- I enjoy volunteering answers to teachers’ questions.
- I dislike answering questions in school.
- Success in extra-curricular activities means very little.
- I feel depressed when I don’t complete an assignment.
- I feel good when I am able to finish my assigned homework.
- I believe it is my responsibility to make the honor roll.
- School offers me an opportunity to expand my knowledge.
- I do well in school so that my parents can be proud of me.
School testing is a very effective stage of preparing and logically forming the testing structural tool in University. Now it’s name is “Pilot Testing and Evaluating a Questionnaire”. It’s satisfaction scale is very interesting and appreciated greatly by students. There are some questions, the most illustrative ones for describing the picture of learner’s working sphere in auditorium. Let us enlist them for discussing with the students and analyzing psychological and mental position of the learners in University space. So,
1. Do you ever feel like skipping this class? 2. Do you like this class? 3.How much do you feel you have learned in this class? 4. Are you glad you chose or were assigned to be in this class? 5. Do you always do your best in this class? 6. Do you like the way this class is taught? 7. Does the teacher give you help when you need it? 8. Do you find the time you spend in this class to be interesting? [1, p. 234, 236].
During constructing the pedagogical experiment structure and components, we take into account the level of available understanding of problem “What makes a Personality as a Professional?” The students answered the questions:” Were you given special instructions about Personality and Professional (leader-specialist)? How different was your study and work experience from school? From University? What did you get from your study (work) experience? Did you get any other comment to offer? (According to our experimental Programme? Was the whole experience of studying and working visual to you? [2, p. 45].
The meaning of testing sometimes is above all possible effective other methods of teaching. It learns students to appreciate their own possibilities, abilities, talents and adapt to difficulties of penetration through life obstacles in a professional sphere, emotional space, intellectual zone of making decisions in conditions of uncertainty. In resume on results and findings educational values even on the stage of the experiment running on, the students stressed many positive moments like these ones: “Testing consider yourself a success. Make decisions. Love (or, better, like) yourself. Respect yourself and others. Complete what you start. Watch what you hear. Be patient”. It is a good and useful activity, and it is worth of being developed and described by educators and students during their communication for the sake of intellectual progress. “Quod est animal, id motu cietur interiore” (То, что одушевлено, движется внутренней силой).
