WO2011004394A1

WO2011004394A1 - System for improving quality of teaching in educational institutions

Info

Publication number: WO2011004394A1
Application number: PCT/IN2010/000446
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sudhir Sinha
Original assignee: Sudhir Sinha
Priority date: 2009-07-10
Filing date: 2010-06-29
Publication date: 2011-01-13

Abstract

A system and method for improving the quality of teaching in educational institutions has been disclosed. The system (100) aims at providing corrective measures to improve the teaching-learning process from the point of view of 'Students' The system (100) stores a plurality of questions based on various teaching parameters in a first repository (104) and creates and displays a feedback form which is filled by the students. Each of the questions in the feedback form is assigned a pre-determined weight and pertains to at least one teaching parameter. This weight enables the system (100) to compute a score for teachers teaching parameter-wise, department-wise or educational institution-wise. Based on this score various color coded and color graded reports are generated by the present invention which enable the teachers to understand their strengths and weaknesses, to improve their teaching quality and the management to understand the overall performance of the educational institution to improve the institutions standard.

Description

SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING QUALITY OF TEACHING IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of Education.

DEFINITION OF TERM USED IN THE SPECIFICATION

The term "Color code' in this specification relates to assigning pre-determined colors to scores based on the ranges of scores to facilitate visual analysis of report.

The term "Color grade' in this specification relates to color coding a report based on the shades of pre-determined colors for specific scores. For instance, if a teacher has obtained 10 marks out of 10 for a particular parameter and 7 out of 10 for another parameter then 10 being a very good score will be color coded in bright green and 7 being good but an average score will be color coded in a lighter shade of green.

The term 'Educational institution' in this specification relates to any establishment imparting education.

The term 'Score' in this specification relates to total marks, average percentage, grade, aggregate percentage student-wise and overall percentage obtained by a teacher based on feedback provided by students.

The term 'Teaching parameter' in this specification relates to various factors which are taken into consideration for assessing a teacher's teaching performance and those which affect the learning by the students. .

The term 'Timestamp' in this specification relates to affixing a date and time to the reports generated by the present invention. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Education lays the foundation stone in an individual's personality. Right from elementary education to higher studies up till post graduation, education inculcates knowledge, righteous values, discipline and the power to differentiate between good and bad/ right or wrong.

Moreover, educational institutions are talent grounds that identify the latent talents in individuals and promote them by nurturing and encouraging individuals to pursue and enhance the talent. Later, these talents help in earning fame for a country and showcasing it in on the global map. Therefore, education has become one of the key focus areas for any government, as a literate and qualified population helps in rapid economic growth of the country.

Today, to meet the growing needs, many education institutions have come to existence, and imparting education has become more like a business. The centre of this business of education or teaching per se is 'Student'. Of late, there has been published a lot of news on students fearing to the take assessment tests due to the scare of failure. Also, many a times it is heard that students have committed suicide due to reasons related to academics. Now a days, students dislike going to school and a decrease is seen in attendance. All this raises concerns about the education system, as today, the school education system is seriously ailing as a result of students being subjected to suffering in the hands of teachers who remain unaware of students' pedagogy requirements and thereby the faults are being committed while teaching. This results in putting students under undue stress and making learning a boring and a painful experience.

Currently, the performance management of the teachers is done manually and it requires the management to give surprise visits and attend the lectures of the teachers to gauge the competency level of the teacher. However, with the increasing number of teachers and sections in an educational institute it is difficult to manually arrive at a competency score.

There are various attempts in the prior art to evaluate performance. Particularly, US 2009/0098518 discloses a system and a method to evaluate people at the top level in an organization based on the answers given to a questionnaire. Based on the scores of the identified people, their ability to perform the functions of the identified position is evaluated. The system identifies the key responsibilities of the people to be evaluated and accordingly prepares a questionnaire which is presented in the form of a web page, the answers are stored in a database from where they are scored using a specialized normative data table and later reported to the concerned personnel. The system consists of a computer configured to receive identification of the people to be assessed, determine the scores, receive the scores, compare the scores and report the scores.

However, the disclosure in patent application 2009/0098518 each time needs to identify the key responsibilities of the people to be evaluated and accordingly prepare a questionnaire. Based on the score received for the questionnaire the performance of a person or a group of people is deduced. The disclosure does not perform statistical analysis and does not help the people identify their strengths and weakness and focus on their areas of improvement.

Further, US 2009/0089154 discloses a web-based evaluation process provided with manager, peer and employee feedback system. The employees are assessed with respect to every aspect of the job requirements, their performance is tracked and educational and professional development needs are identified. The above disclosed method can be used in institutions and organizations having multiple staff members that are required to be trained, maintain proficiencies, assimilate new skills and submit compliance reports.

However, the disclosure does not give a comparative and color coded analysis of the strengths and weakness of the employee.

There is therefore, a need for a system which can assist the institutions especially educational institutions to become a centre of excellence and achieve great results by taking feedbacks from students / pupils. Also, there is a need for a system which will help the management of the institutions to gauge the competency level of their teaching staff and statistically diagnose the weaknesses and strengths of each of the teachers and thereafter help them to improve upon their pedagogical skills through expert counseling and focused in-service training.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide an efficient system which will give a statistical measure of the teacher's performance and/or competencies.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system which will enable the management of educational institutions to gauge the quality of teaching provided in their institution.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a time efficient system which will eliminate the manual time consuming and error prone process of assessing the teaching quality.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an accurate system which will assess the teachers and advise them for overcoming their weaknesses and leveraging their strengths.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a system which will give periodic quantifiable feedbacks to teachers so as to make them compete against their previous feedback.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a system which gives feedbacks to the management of educational institutions on the overall performance of the teachers and the educational institution at large. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a system which identifies the exact areas where the educational institution needs to put efforts to enhance the overall teaching quality of the educational institution.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention envisages a system for improving quality of teaching by conducting a 360° assessment and providing corrective measures to improve the teaching-learning process from the point of view of students, wherein the system comprises the following components:

• an educational institution repository for storing details of teachers including their names, subjects taught by them and classes in which a particular subject is taught by that teacher;

• a first repository for storing a plurality of questions pertaining to a plurality of teaching parameters, wherein at least some of the questions are of the multiple choice type and each choice is assigned a pre-determined weight;

• collation means co-operating with the school repository adapted to randomly collate questions from the first repository for each of the teaching parameters to create and display a feedback form for a specific subject, teacher and class;

• receiving means adapted to receive and recognize the choice selection on a filled set of feedback forms for the specific subject, teacher and class;

•^■ validation means adapted to receive and validate the choice selection and segregate sets of valid filled feedback forms for the specific subject, teacher and class;

• a second repository to store said sets of valid filled feedback forms;

• aggregation means adapted to aggregate the weights corresponding to the choice selection from sets of the valid filled feedback forms for specific subjects and prepare discrete time-stamped data sheets for each of the teachers for the respective classes; • a third repository to store the data sheet;

• score computation means adapted to receive the discrete data sheets from the third repository and compute a score and further adapted to append the computed score to the data sheet in a pre-determined manner; and

• an analytical engine adapted to receive discrete appended data sheets and based on the data in the data sheets generate discrete teacher advisory reports and performance reports for the education institution.

Typically, the receiving means includes an optical mark reader to recognize the choice selection on a filled set of printed feedback forms for the specific subject, teacher and class.

Alternatively, the receiving means includes a web based user interface to receive and recognize the choice selection on a filled set of online feedback forms for the specific subject, teacher and class.

Preferably, the appended data sheet displays information including the name of the teacher, the subject, the class, the list of teaching parameters and marks obtained by the teacher corresponding to the weight assigned to the choice selected by the students of that class, total marks, percentage and grade obtained by the teacher for each of the teaching parameter, aggregate percentage obtained by the teacher student-wise and the overall aggregate percentage achieved by the teacher, in a pre-determined manner.

In accordance with the present invention, the analytical engine includes:

• a comments repository having:

o a first table to store overall single comments based on the overall score received by a particular teacher;

o a second table to store sets of specific comments for a particular teaching parameter based on the scores obtained for a combination of teaching parameters; and • a comments selection means co-operating with the comments repository adapted to select the overall single comment and the set of specific comments for the teacher advisory report based on the score obtained by the teacher.

Preferably, the teacher advisory report displays information including the name of the teacher, the subject, the class, the grades received by the teacher for each of the teaching parameters for that subject and advisory comments listing the advice for the teacher for a particular teaching parameter in a pre-determined manner.

Further, the analytical engine comprises color code generation means adapted to assign pre-determined unique colors to fixed ranges of scores and color code, color grade and color fill the discrete teacher advisory report and overall performance reports for ease of visual analysis.

Typically, the analytical engine generates the overall performance reports in the form of tables, charts and graphs.

The analytical engine may timestamp the generated discrete teacher advisory reports and performance reports.

Preferably, the overall performance report displays information including the scores of all the teachers in each of the teaching parameters arranged as per their departments, the score of the department in each of the teaching parameters, the overall score of the department, the score of the educational institution for each of the teaching parameters and overall score of the educational institution, in a pre-determined manner.

Furthermore, the analytical engine includes:

• rank generation means adapted to generate ranks parameter- wise, subject- wise and class-wise for each of the teachers of the educational institution based on the score obtained by the teachers; • a fourth repository to store generated time-stamped discrete teacher advisory reports and time-stamped performance reports for the education institution; and

• a performance comparator to compare stored teacher advisory reports for each of the teachers and/or stored overall performance reports for the educational institution for a pre-determined period and provide a monthly / quarterly / annual performance report.

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method for evaluation and improvement of teaching quality of educational institutions, the method comprising the following steps:

• preparing a feedback form for evaluation of teachers via a questionnaire having questions pertaining to a plurality of teaching parameters, wherein at least some of the questions are of the multiple choice type and each choice is assigned a pre-determined weight;

• conducting two feedbacks per teacher one from the lowest class/section taught by the teacher and the other from the highest class/section;

• receiving the filled feedback forms for a specific subject, teacher and class;

• aggregating the weights corresponding to the choice selection from sets of valid filled feedback forms for specific subjects and preparing discrete time- stamped data sheets for each of the teachers for the respective classes;

• calculating the score and entering it in the teacher's data sheet;

• generating teacher advisory report and overall performance reports; and

• discussing the teacher advisory report with the teacher highlighting his/her weakness and strengths.

The step of receiving the filled feedback forms may include the steps of recognizing the choice selection on a filled set of feedback forms for the specific subject, teacher and class and validating the choice selection on the filled set of feedback form. Typically, the step of calculating the score for each of the teachers includes the steps of selecting pre-determined weights in the teachers' data sheet for each of the teaching parameters, calculating the score based on the corresponding weight for each of the teaching parameters and appending the calculated score to the data sheet.

Preferably, the step of generating teacher advisory report for the teachers includes the steps of generating automatic individual comment based on the overall score obtained by the teacher, generating sets of specific comments for each of the teaching parameters based on the score received for a combination of teaching parameters and color coding, color grading the report for ease of visual analysis.

Further, the step of generating overall performance reports includes the steps of generating tabular, chart based and graph based reports for displaying information including the scores of all the teachers in each of the teaching parameters arranged as per departments, the score of the department in each of the teaching parameters, the overall score of the department, the score of the educational institution for each of the teaching parameters and overall score of the educational institution, in a pre-determined manner and color coding, color grading the reports for ease of visual analysis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

Other aspects of the invention will become apparent by consideration of the accompanying drawings and their description stated below, which is merely illustrative of a preferred embodiment of the invention and does not limit in any way the nature and scope of the invention.

FIGURE 1 illustrates a schematic of the system for improving teaching quality in educational institutions in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 illustrates a portion of the evaluation feedback form which will be filled by the students in accordance with the present invention; FIGURE 3 illustrates a sample data sheet showing feedback collated for a teacher in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 4 illustrates a sample advisory report generated from the collated feedback data for a, teacher in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 5 illustrates a portion of the overall performance report generated for the aggregate % department-wise for all the teachers and parameter-wise for the whole educational institution in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 6 illustrates the overall ranking generated for all the teachers belonging to a particular educational institution in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 7 illustrates a bar graph showing teaching parameters average % achieved by a particular educational institution in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 8 illustrates a pie graph showing the distribution of teachers' grades in a particular educational institution in accordance with the present invention; and

FIGURE 9 is a flowchart showing the steps to be taken by the educational institution for improving the overall teaching quality of the educational institution in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention envisages a system for improving the quality of teaching by conducting a unique 360° assessment consequent to which the system provides corrective measures to improve the teaching-learning process from the point of view of the 'Students'.

The genesis of the present invention is that the students' feedback on their teachers, in major aspects of classroom teaching, is what ultimately leads to the process of improving the teaching-learning process. The present invention aims at improving the quality of teaching-learning process of any educational institution so as to make the educational journey most satisfying and productive for both the students and the teachers.

The present invention seeks to achieve mutual accountability in the educational process and as well as strengthens the educational relationship between the students and the teachers. In addition, the present invention with the active and responsible participation of students exercises corrective measures concerning the students' own learning process.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the students' feedback on the teachers is collected on OMR (Optical Mark recognition) forms/ questionnaires and further given to an OMR reader. Alternatively, the feedback can also be collected through an online questionnaire on a web based interface.

The questionnaire lists various questions based on a plurality of teaching parameters including explanation, knowledge, enthusiasm, teaching aids, doubt clarification, student interest, patience, confirmation, class control, correction work, punctuality, pace, speech- clarity, speech-pace, BB (Black Board)-writing, BB-usage, personal attention, assignments, strictness level, leniency level, being harsh, preparedness level, regularity, and the like for assessing a teacher's performance. The teaching parameters selected by the present invention are based on crucial aspects which affect how the students learn. For instance, 'Explanation' has been selected as a teaching parameter, as this parameter enables the management to know how well a teacher explains a lesson. Additionally, 'Explanation' gives insight on the ability of the teacher to make students comprehend the lesson/concept which s/he is explaining. If students can comprehend the course matter then they can easily remember and recall the lesson/concepts after due practice or preparation. Thus, there is no pressure in the children's mind as the course contents are within their grasp. Hence, the teaching parameters have been selected by the present invention keeping the key parameters which affect the learning process in view.

Each of the teaching parameters are judged based on a pre-determined scale having at least two options. For instance, for assessment of teaching parameter 'Explanation', students will typically rate the teacher based on the scale having options '(A) Excellent', '(B) Good', '(C) Satisfactory', and '(D) Poor'. The scale is further assigned a weight for e.g. option (A) is assigned a weight of ten, option (B) is seven, option (C) is four, and option (D) is zero. Using these weights, the present invention calculates the total score, average % and grade for every teacher for each of the teaching parameters. An overall aggregate percentage, an average percentage and grades for each of the teaching parameters are calculated by the present invention and color codes, grades, color grading and grey shading based on the percentage band in which the average, the aggregate percentage and grade of the teacher appear are assigned, as seen in Table 1, for ease of analysis. The color codes, color grading, gray shading and grades help the management to quickly identify the teachers which have excelled (green) and the poor performers (red). The cells which are the variants of colors green and red and do not contain any shading patterns indicate that these teachers are the ones whose performance meets the expectations. If the color is a brighter shade of green then the teacher has performed excellent and if the color is a lighter shade of red, almost pink it indicate that the teacher's performance is fair. Thus, looking at the overall shades of the reports i.e. either towards green or red the management can take corrective actions to improve the teaching quality of the educational institution. The color coding and grading will make it easier for the management to identify and gauge the level of performance.

Percentage Bands Grade Color Code/ Grade Indicator Shading

Color Grade

90% and above Excellent Bright Green

89.99% to 80% Very Good Dark Green B

79.99% to 70% Good Light Green

69.99% to 60% Average Pink D

59.99% and below Below Average Red

TABLE 1 - Color Codes, Grades and Grey Shading patterns based on the

Percentage Bands Based on the average percentage received by all the teachers an overall average percentage in respect of each teaching parameter for a particular department and educational institution is calculated. This average percentage gives an insight on the overall teaching quality of the institution.

Different reports are generated by the present invention to represent the overall teaching parameter average of the institution and grades of all the teachers. The reports also provide insight on the quality of teaching, parameter wise, subject wise and also department wise. The management of the educational institution, apart from getting a true statistical picture of the teaching quality of their institutions, also get a statistical feedback on every teacher by means of various reports generated by the system. The feedback enables the management to assess the teachers' performance for promotions and/or up-gradation. The feedback is handy to the management for taking corrective measures and organizing training programs for teachers to overcome their weaknesses and improve the quality of education. In accordance with the present invention, all the reports are color coded to enable the management to quickly identify the weak areas as well as the below average teaching staff at a glance.

In addition, advisory reports are generated for each teacher mentioning their grades along with comments which highlight the teachers' weaknesses and strengths and provide teachers with pointers to improve their teaching skills.

In accordance with the present invention, the system performs periodic teacher evaluation to provide feedbacks to the teachers to help them overcome their weakness and leverage their strengths so as to make them compete against their previous feedback, thereby, improving the teaching quality and the overall academic standard of the institutions.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, FIGURE 1 shows a schematic of the system 100 for improving the quality of teaching in educational institutions. The system 100 maintains an educational institution repository 102 for storing details of the educational institution including names of teachers, departments of the educational institution, subjects taught by the teachers and the classes in which the subjects are taught by those teachers. These details are utilized by the system 100 to generate feedback forms for a particular teacher, class and subject combination and to store the respective reports for each of the teachers, departments and the overall educational institution.

Additionally, the system maintains a first repository 104 which stores a plurality of questions pertaining to a plurality of teaching parameters including explanation, knowledge, enthusiasm, teaching aids, doubt clarification, student interest, patience, confirmation, class control, correction work, punctuality, pace, speech-clarity, speech- pace, BB (Black Board)-writing, BB-usage, personal attention, assignments, strictness level, leniency level, being harsh, preparedness level and regularity. These parameters enable the assessment of various aspects of teaching from the point of view of the students.

In accordance with the present invention, some of the questions contained in the first repository 104 are of the type 'multiple choice' and each choice is assigned a predetermined weight. A collation means 106 randomly collates questions from the first repository 104 pertaining to each one of the teaching parameters and creates and displays a feedback form. In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, the feedback forms are created for a particular teacher, class, and subject combination by using the details stored in the educational institution repository 102. Also, the feedback form contains space at the end of the form for students to mention any additional observations or information in terms of feedback to the management regarding a teacher.

These forms are typically OMR based and can be printed from the system using specialized printing techniques and paper. Alternatively, the forms can be filled and the feedback can be collected online. In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, the students from typically, class six upwards fill this feedback form which covers all facets of teachers' classroom teaching. The students are briefed beforehand in detail regarding the purpose and modus-operandi. Preferably, two feedbacks of each teacher are taken, one from the lowest class and similarly the other from the highest class the teacher is teaching.

FIGURE 2 illustrates a portion of the students' feedback evaluation form generated by the present invention. Typically, the form captures questions based on at least twenty two teaching parameters. However, the form can be designed to capture any number of questions in accordance with the present invention. Each parameter in the feedback form generated by the present invention is quantified and judged based on a fixed scale. In accordance with the present invention, the scale consists of at least two or more weighted options like '(A) Excellent', '(B) Good', '(C) Satisfactory', and '(D) Poor'. Each of the options is assigned weights as follows:

• ' 10' if it is 'A'

• '7' ifit is 'B'

• '4' if it is 'C

• 'O' if it is 'D'

The students give their feedback by selecting only one option out of the options provided on the form. In addition, the students are given the provision to specify, remarks, if any, on the teacher's teaching techniques and/or behavioral aspects in a few lines at the end of the form. Preferably, these remarks appear unadulterated on the data sheet collated for the teacher. These remarks cover other aspects about a particular teacher which are beyond the purview of the questions based on the teaching parameters.

The filled forms are then passed to a receiving means 108 which can be an OMR (Optical Mark Reader) reader to receive and recognize the choice selection on a filled set of printed feedback forms for a specific subject, teacher and class or alternatively the receiving means 108 can include a web based user interface to receive and recognize the choice selection on a filled set of online feedback forms for a specific subject, teacher and class.

The receiving means 108 gives the recognized sets of the forms to a validation means 110. The validation means 110 accepts the recognized sets of forms and checks if the forms are correctly filled i.e. only one choice is selected by the students out of the two or more choices provided on the feedback form for each question. The validation means 110 discards the forms which are incomplete or have two or more options selected per teaching parameter or if the options are not highlighted as per the requirements or if the student has mentioned his/her name on the feedback form and the like. The validation 110 means segregates sets of valid feedback forms and forwards the set to a second repository 112 for storage.

The second repository 112 receives the sets of valid feedback forms and stores them in a sorted manner, typically, sorting is done first subject- wise followed by teacher- wise and then class-wise.

This sorted data is given to an aggregation means 114 which aggregates the weights corresponding to the choice selection from sets of the valid filled feedback forms for specific subjects and prepares discrete time-stamped data sheets for each of the teachers for the respective classes. These data sheets are stored in a third repository 116.

A score computation means 118 receives the discrete data sheets from the third repository 116 and computes a score and further appends the computed score to the data sheets in a pre-determined manner as seen in FIGURE 3.

In accordance with the present invention, the score computation means 118 selects weights for each of the teaching parameters from the data sheet for e.g. (A) is assigned a weight of ten, (B) a weight of seven, (C) a weight of four, and (D) a weight of zero, if, out of the twenty two questions a student selects option (A) fifteen times, option (B) once, option (C) four times and option (D) twice, then the score computation means 118 calculates the weighted average percentage of the teacher as below:

Aggregate of a teacher student-wise = [(15 x 10) + (1 x 7) + (4 x 4) + (2 x O)] / 22

= [173]/22

= 79%

Similarly, average is removed for each teaching parameter (P_n), where n is the number of parameters, n = 1 to 22.

P_n = [(10 x no of A) + (7 x no. of E) + (4 x no. of Q + (l x no. of D)] I no. of students. Thus, if thirteen students give two A's, eight Cs and three D's as feedback for the explanation parameter then average % for explanation is calculated by the score calculation means 118 as below:

P_n= [ (2 x 10) + (8 x 4) + (3 x 0) ] / 13

= [52]/13

= 40%

The score computation means 118 generates the overall aggregate percentage as an average of the aggregate percentage student-wise with the aggregate percentage parameter-wise. These score are appended to the respective data sheets stored in the third repository.

The data sheet generated by the aggregation means 114 and later updated by the score computation means 118 portrays the score received by a teacher for every teaching parameter by each student on any number of teaching parameters i.e. greater than or less than twenty two. The data sheet gives the scores in the form of aggregate percentage and an overall aggregate percentage for each of the teachers in accordance with the present invention. In addition, the data sheet captures the remarks, if any, specified by the students. The access to the data sheets is restricted to the management of the education institution, hence only the management can view the detailed score and remarks received by each of the teachers for a particular subject and class. The data sheet displays information including the name of the teacher, the subject, the class, the date and time when the data sheet was generated, a tabular list of teaching parameters and corresponding marks obtained by the teacher from each of the students. The marks are equivalent to the weights assigned to the choice selected by the students of that class. The score includes the total marks received for the individual teaching parameters, percentage for each of the teaching parameters and grade for each of the teaching parameters obtained by the teacher, aggregate percentage obtained by the teacher based on the feedback of the students and from these intermediate scores a student-wise aggregate and an overall aggregate percentage for a teacher is computed. This information is displayed in a pre-determined manner as seen in FIGURE 3.

As, there is no limit on the number of teaching parameters which can be captured on the evaluation feedback form, the data sheet which is based on the evaluation feedback form is also not restricted to twenty two teaching parameters.

The data sheet is color coded, color graded and gray shaded. FIGURE 3 shows that the teacher 'XYZ' has received an overall aggregate percentage of 77 hence the data sheet is color graded more towards shades of green than shades of red hence by looking at the color grade of the data sheet for a. particular teacher it can be visually deduced that the teacher's performance is average and meeting expectation. On the other hand, if the data sheet for a particular teacher showed a color grading having shades of red, then the management may deduce that the teacher needs to undergo training or otherwise be replaced.

Additionally, the data sheet enables the management to see the scores received by a particular teacher in each of the teaching parameters as well as see the trends of the scores student-wise. For instance, referring to FIGURE 3, teacher 'XYZ' has received low scores by only four students out of twenty nine students in that class. Hence, it can be deduced that the students appreciate and comprehend the teaching of this teacher. An analytical engine 120 receives the discrete appended data sheets and based on the data in the data sheets generates time-stamped, discrete teacher advisory reports and performance reports for the education institution.

The analytical engine 120 comprises a comments repository 122 which includes a first table to store overall single comments based on the overall score received by a particular teacher and a second table to store sets of specific comments for a particular teaching parameter based on the scores obtained for a combination of teaching parameters. The analytical engine 120 further includes a comments selection means. 124 which cooperates with the comments repository 122 to select an overall single comment based on the overall score obtained by the teacher and sets of specific comments for each of the teaching parameters based on the grades received by the teacher for inter-related teaching parameters, for the discrete teacher advisory reports. FIGURE 4 shows a discrete teacher advisory report generated by the analytical engine 120. The teacher advisory report displays information including the name of the teacher, the subject, the class, the grades received by the teacher for each of the teaching parameters for that subject and advisory comments listing the advice for the teacher for a particular teaching parameter in a predetermined manner.

In accordance with the present invention, the analytical engine 120 receives individual scores for each of the parameters for each of the teachers from the appended data sheets and then forwards the scores to the comments selection means 124 which picks up the advisory comments from the comments repository 122 based on the scores and provides pointers for the teacher's to act and improvise on.

The analytical engine further includes a color code generation means 126 which based on the grades obtained by the teacher for each of the teaching parameters assigns predetermined color grades for that parameter.

As seen in Figure 4, the teacher 'XYZ' has received Grade E for the teaching parameter 'Speech Pace' and hence the analytical engine's 120 color code generation means 126 has highlighted the Grade with color Red and with diagonal stripe shading and the comments selection means 124 has selected specific comment from the comments repository 122 which advises the teacher to speak more deliberately by reducing the pace. Likewise, the comments selection means 124 has picked the comment 'Well Done!!! Keep it up' for the teaching parameter 'Being Harsh' where the teacher has received more than 90% and this teaching parameter has also been shaded with horizontal stripes and green color.

Also, the comments selection means 124 has selected an overall single comments based on the overall score for the teacher. In this case, the teacher 'XYZ' has received an overall grade 'C hence, the comments selection means 124 has selected one single comment from the comments repository 122 which based on the grade gives a general feedback to the teacher. Further, based on the grades received for each of the teaching parameters, the comments selection means 124 has selected sets of specific comments for individual teaching parameters. The set of comments are created by the present invention based on the premise that the performance of each of the teaching parameters is directly affected by the performance of another teaching parameter. For instance, the teacher 'XYZ' has received Grade 'C for teaching parameter 'Explanation', performance of 'explanation' is dependent on other teaching parameters including 'teaching aids' and 'pace'. As teaching aids are not used extensively and the pace of explanation is too fast the performance of the teaching parameter 'explanation' is low. As can be seen in FIGURE 4 'Teaching Aids' and 'Speech Pace' have also got lower grades like 'D'. Hence, the comments selection means 124 has selected sets of comments for the teaching parameter 'Explanation' which advice the teacher 'XYZ' that the explanation can be improved by use of more innovative teaching aids and live examples and by reducing the pace of speech.

The automatic generation of comments based on the grade received for a particular teaching parameter reduces the load on the management tremendously, as now, the management does not need to personally look into the performance of each teacher and write their feedback. With the increasing number of teachers and the classes they handle, the statistical, color coded and shaded performance output generated by the present invention enables the management to quickly identify the weak teachers and focus on their weak areas or otherwise look for their replacements.

In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, the comments are flexible and allow the management to append the generated overall comments with their personal remarks/feedback, if any, based on the remarks highlighted by the students at the end of the feedback form which are ported to the data sheet of the teacher. For instance, if one of the students writes a remark in the feedback form stating that the teacher physically harasses them, then the management can append the comments to give a- strict warning to the teacher to avoid any kind of physical abuse while teaching the students.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, the teacher advisory generated by the analytical engine 120 is explained and discussed with the teachers individually. The teacher advisory report generated by the present invention makes the teachers aware of his/her strengths and weaknesses in a positive and constructive way. The teachers are individually advised on ways to overcome their weaknesses and are given a copy of the report for continuous reference.

The analytical engine 120 also generates overall performance report for the educational institution. These overall performance reports are generated in the form of tables, charts and graphs and show performance of the whole educational institution in one glance as seen in FIGURE 5, FIGURE 6, FIGURE 7 and FIGURE 8. The overall performance reports are color-coded, color-graded, shaded and enable the management to see the performance of the educational institution teacher- wise, subject- wise, class- wise, department-wise and educational institution wise.

FIGURE 5 shows a tabular overall performance report generated by the analytical engine 120. This is a detailed report for the management and the principal of the educational institutions which enables them to pin-pointedly identify the exact areas of Teaching- Learning process which require their urgent attention. This report shows at a glance the percentage scores and grades in each of the teaching parameters of all the teachers of the educational institution arranged as per their departments. Also, the department average in each of the teaching parameter, overall department average and also the average percentage of the educational institution overall and teaching parameter- wise can be seen. The report lists the teaching parameters horizontally and under each parameter it displays the average percentage scores of all the teachers as well as the department as a whole. The color coding and grading of the teachers' scores are same as the teacher's data sheet.

This tabular overall performance report provides a powerful tool to the management to quickly review the overall performance of the educational institution in a glance. On looking at the report the management can deduce the performance of the individual departments teacher-wise and teaching parameter-wise. For instance, as seen in FIGURE 5 on looking at the score of the teacher 'Mandeep Kaur' of department 'Maths' for classes eleventh and eight, the management can infer that since 'Mandeep Kaur' has got a grade of 'good' for class eleven and below average for class eight, this teacher is good for teaching maths only in higher classes. Similarly, teacher 'Shivmeet Kaur' of department physics must undergo training or must be replaced as the teacher's performance is consistently below average. Likewise, on looking at the grade of the department 'Physics' which is below average and also the color coding showing more variants of color red i.e. diagonal stripe shading it can be concluded that the teachers of this department are not performing well and immediate action needs to be taken to improvise on the performance of this department.

Hence, this strategically designed report assists the management to scan in one glance the progress of the entire educational institution right from the teachers' performance, departments' performance to the overall institutions' performance. Also, on looking at this report conclusion can be drawn' on which teaching parameter is the most neglected by the teacher / department / educational institution for instance, as seen in FIGURE 5, 'teaching aids' have got the lowest score department-wise / educational institution-wise. A low teaching aid score lowers the score of 'explanation' teaching parameter as teaching aids supplement the explanation. Hence, the management needs to provide and/or stress on the use of teaching aids while teaching.

Additionally, the analytical engine.120 contains a rank generation means (not shown in the figures) which takes the score computed for each of the teachers from the data sheets in the third repository 116 and generates ranks for the teachers of the educational institution parameter- wise, subject- wise and class-wise. These generated ranks, educational institution parameter- wise, subject- wise and class- wise are used for generation of tabular overall educational institution performance report by the analytical engine 120 as seen in FIGURE 6.

FIGURE 6 shows the ranking of all the teachers' in an educational institute generated by the analytical engine 120. The report is further color coded and color graded for the ready reference of the educational institutes' management.

FIGURE 7 is a bar graph generated by the analytical engine 120 showing pictorially the average % of each teaching parameter for the educational institution teaching parameter- wise. Also, the analytical engine 120 collates the average % of the teachers for each of the pre-determined teaching parameters from the data sheets in the third repository 116 and generates discrete bar graphs for each teacher showing their average % of each teaching parameter. Similar bar graph can also be generated for each department showing their average % of each teaching parameter in accordance with the present invention. The bar graph displays the results along with gray shading, color coding and color grading.

FIGURE 8 is a pie chart generated by the analytical engine 120 showing the grade distribution of the teachers in the school, for instance as seen in the chart, 17% of the teachers in the school are unfit and 21% are below average as their teaching parameter average falls below 50%. Hence the management on looking at these performance reports can easily deduce that they need to upgrade their teaching staff for the best interests of the students and to maintain the standard of the educational institution. These reports also indicate to the management the type and frequency of in-service training needed for the teachers.

The analytical engine 120 also includes as fourth repository 128 to store generated time- stamped discrete teacher advisory reports and time-stamped overall performance reports for the educational institution. A performance comparator 130 of the analytical engine 120 compares the stored teacher advisory reports for each of the teachers and/or stored overall performance reports for the educational institution for a pre-determined period and provides a monthly / quarterly / annual performance report. These periodic evaluations and corresponding reports enable the teachers and the educational institution to compete with their previous scores and improve on them so that the standard and quality of education of the educational institution can be increased. This in turn increases the students' interest in attending lectures, performing well in their academics and eliminating any sort of academic pressure in the students' mind.

In accordance with the present invention there is proposed a method for evaluation and improvement of teaching quality of educational institutions, the method comprises the following steps as seen in FIGURE 9:

• preparing a feedback form for evaluation of teachers via a questionnaire having questions pertaining to a plurality of teaching parameters, wherein at least some of the questions are of the multiple choice type and each choice is assigned a pre-determined weight, 1000;

• conducting two feedbacks per teacher one from the lowest class/section taught by the teacher and the other from the highest class/section, 1002;

• receiving the filled feedback forms for a specific subject, teacher and class,

1004;

• aggregating the weights corresponding to the choice selection from sets of valid filled feedback forms for specific subjects and preparing discrete time- stamped data sheets for each of the teachers for the respective classes, 1006;

• calculating the score and entering it in the teacher's data sheet, 1008; • generating teacher advisory report and overall performance reports, 1010; and

• discussing the teacher advisory report with the teacher highlighting his/her weakness and strengths, 1012.

In accordance with the present invention, the step of receiving the filled feedback forms includes the steps of recognizing the choice selection on a filled set of feedback forms for the specific subject, teacher and class and validating the choice selection on the filled set of feedback form.

Further, the step of calculating the score for each of the teachers includes the steps of selecting pre-determined weights in the teachers' data sheet for each of the teaching parameters, calculating the score based on the corresponding weight for each of the teaching parameters and appending the calculated score to the data sheet.

Furthermore, the step of generating teacher advisory report for the teachers includes the steps of generating automatic individual comment based on the overall score obtained by the teacher, generating sets of specific comments for each of the teaching parameters based on the score received for a combination of teaching parameters and color coding, color grading the report for ease of visual analysis.

Still further, the step of generating overall performance reports includes the steps of generating tabular, chart based and graph based reports for displaying information including the scores of all the teachers in each of the teaching parameters arranged as per departments, the score of the department in each of the teaching parameters, the overall score of the department, the score of the educational institution for each of the teaching parameters and overall score of the educational institution, in a pre-determined manner and color coding, color grading the report for ease of visual analysis.

In accordance with the present invention, the present invention can be accessed via a web based graphical user interface or a standalone user interface which will provide the users of the system 100 including the administrator and the management with a role based access to the information on the teachers' and their performance. The users will be registered to the system 100 and will be provided a username and password to access the stored details.

In accordance with the present invention, the system 100 will assign permissions to the users based on their role and will only provide access on successful authentication of the user with the system. For example the management will only have permission to view and update the teachers' data sheets and teacher advisory reports, and view the various overall performance reports generated by the system; and the teachers will only be given the permission to view their own teacher advisory report.

The statistical and analytical results generated by the present invention help the management to decide their focus areas for the quarter. In addition, the performance feedback and the advisory comments generated by the present invention assist the management in deciding which teachers will get promoted and which can be discontinued. The feedback also helps the management in identifying training needs for the school and also for helping teachers in increasing their overall grade and quality of teaching. For instance, on viewing the bar graph generated by the present invention, it becomes apparent to the management that the overall rating of the educational institute in 'teaching aid' teaching parameter is low i.e. 46% therefore they need to focus their attention on increasing the average% for this teaching parameter.

Hence, the strategically designed performance reports enable the management to take substantial correct actions to raise the overall academic standards of the educational institution.

TECHNICAL ADVANTAGES

The technical advancements of the present invention include:

• providing an efficient system which will give a statistical measure of the teacher's • performance and/or competencies from the view of the students; . providing a system which will enable the management of the educational institutions to gauge the quality of teaching provided in their institution;

providing an accurate system which will assess the teachers and advise them for overcoming their weaknesses and leveraging their strengths;

providing a system which will give periodic quantifiable feedbacks to the teachers so as to make them compete against their previous feedback;

providing a system which gives feedbacks to the management of educational institutions on the overall performance of the teachers and the educational institution at large;

providing a system which improves the quality of the teaching-learning process of any educational institution so as to make the educational journey satisfying and productive for both the students and the teachers;

providing a system which seeks active and responsible participation of students in exercising corrective measures concerning their own learning process;

providing a system which will strengthen the educational relationship between the teachers and the students;

providing a system which identifies the exact areas where the school needs to make amendments to enhance the overall teaching quality;

providing a system which will focus the attention of all teachers towards correct teaching practices;

providing a system which gives an objective and an impartial method for assessing the teachers for promotion and/or up-gradation;

providing a system which saves the time of the educational institutions' management by eliminating the manual feedback process and automatically generating advisory comments for highlighting the weakness, strengths and key focus areas of the teachers; and

providing a system which generates statistical reports which are color coded and color graded to enable the management to quickly identify the performance levels of the teachers. While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the components and component parts of the preferred embodiments, it will be appreciated that many embodiments can be made and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiments without departing from the principles of the invention. These and other changes in the preferred embodiment as well as other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the invention and not as a limitation.

Claims

1. A system for improving quality of teaching by conducting a 360° assessment and providing corrective measures to improve the teaching-learning process from the point of view of students, said system comprising:

• collation means co-operating with said school repository adapted to randomly collate questions from said first repository for each of said teaching parameters to create and display a feedback form for a specific subject, teacher and class;

• receiving means adapted to receive and recognize the choice selection on a filled set of feedback forms for said specific subject, teacher and class;

• validation means adapted to receive and validate the choice selection and segregate sets of valid filled feedback forms for said specific subject, teacher and class;

• a second repository to store said sets of valid filled feedback forms;

• aggregation means adapted to aggregate the weights corresponding to the choice selection from sets of said valid filled feedback forms for specific subjects and prepare discrete time-stamped data sheets for each of the teachers for the respective classes;

• a third repository to store said data sheet;

• score computation means adapted to receive said discrete data sheets from said third repository and compute a score and further adapted to append the computed score to said data sheet in a pre-determined manner; and • an analytical engine adapted to receive discrete appended data sheets and based on the data in said data sheets generate discrete teacher advisory reports and performance reports for the education institution.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said receiving means includes an optical mark reader to recognize the choice selection on a filled set of printed feedback forms for said specific subject, teacher and class.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said receiving means includes a web based user interface to receive and recognize the choice selection on a filled set of online feedback forms for said specific subject, teacher and class.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said appended data sheet displays information including the name of the teacher, the subject, the class, the list of teaching parameters and marks obtained by the teacher corresponding to the weight assigned to the choice selected by the students of that class, total marks, percentage and grade obtained by the teacher for each of the teaching parameter, aggregate percentage obtained by the teacher student-wise and the overall aggregate percentage achieved by the teacher, in a pre-determined manner.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said analytical engine includes:

• a comments repository having:

o a second table to store sets of specific comments for a particular teaching parameter based on the scores obtained for a combination of teaching parameters; and

• comments selection means co-operating with said comments repository adapted to select said overall single comment and said set of specific comments for said teacher advisory report based on the score obtained by the teacher.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said teacher advisory report displays information including the name of the teacher, the subject, the class, the grades received by the teacher for each of the teaching parameters for that subject and advisory comments listing the advice for the teacher for a particular teaching parameter in a pre-determined manner.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said analytical engine comprises color code generation means adapted to assign pre-determined unique colors to fixed ranges of scores and color code and color grade the discrete teacher advisory report and overall performance reports for ease of visual analysis.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said analytical engine generates said overall performance reports in the form of tables, charts and graphs.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said analytical engine timestamps the generated discrete teacher advisory reports and performance reports.

10. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said overall performance report displays information including the scores of all the teachers in each of the teaching parameters arranged as per their departments, the score of the department in each of the teaching parameters, the overall score of the department, the score of the educational institution for each of the teaching parameters and overall score of the educational institution, in a pre-determined manner.

1 1. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said analytical engine further includes:

• rank generation means adapted to generate ranks parameter-wise, subject- wise and class-wise for each of the teachers of the educational institution based on the score obtained by the teachers; • a fourth repository to store generated time-stamped discrete teacher advisory reports and time-stamped performance reports for the education institution; and

12. A method for evaluation and improvement of teaching quality of educational institutions, said method comprising the following steps:

• calculating the score and entering it in the teacher's data sheet;

• generating teacher advisory report and overall performance reports; and

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the step of receiving the filled feedback forms includes the steps of recognizing the choice selection on a filled set of feedback forms for said specific subject, teacher and class and validating the choice selection on the filled set of feedback form.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the step of calculating the score for each of the teachers includes the steps of selecting pre-determined weights in the teachers' data sheet for each of the teaching parameters, calculating the score based on the corresponding weight for each of the teaching parameters and appending the calculated score to the data sheet.

15. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the step of generating teacher advisory report for the teachers includes the steps of generating automatic individual comment based on the overall score obtained by the teacher, generating sets of specific comments for each of the teaching parameters based on the score received for a combination of teaching parameters and color coding, color grading the report for case of visual analysis.

16. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the step of generating overall performance reports includes the steps of generating tabular, chart based and graph based reports for displaying information including the scores of all the teachers in each of the teaching parameters arranged as per departments, the score of the department in each of the teaching parameters, the overall score of the department, the score of the educational institution for each of the teaching parameters and overall score of the educational institution, in a pre-determined manner and color coding, color grading the reports for ease of visual analysis.