A Study on Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Assessment of Their Own Microteaching Performance Compared with Peer and Instructor Assessments

Abstract

This study explored specific abilities prioritized by three assessment groups (instructors, peers, and pre-service English as a Foreign Language [EFL] teachers themselves) when assessing microteaching conducted in English. It also examined differences in assessment patterns among pre-service EFL teachers when evaluating their own and their peers’ microteaching performances. The research was conducted at a 4-year college in the southwestern region of Korea, involving three stages: instructor assessment of five pre-service EFL teachers from a different group; peer assessment of 20 pre-service EFL teachers, and collection of self-reflective journals from the same group. The collected data were subjected to both quantitative and qualitative analyses to compare and analyze the assessment criteria provided by three different assessment groups. In all three assessment groups, ‘non-verbal communication’ and ‘teaching skills and ability’ stood out as the most frequently mentioned criteria. The research findings further demonstrated that peer assessment covered a narrower range of assessment criteria compared to instructor assessment or self-assessment. The study also addresses the issues and implications associated with the implementation of peer assessment and self-assessment in pre-service EFL teacher education.