How can a teacher evaluate the teaching/learning procedure?

Test scores are measurable findings that need statistical analysis in order to be treated as sort of evidence. They also need to derive from well-planned experimental studies, such as RCTs. This later requirement makes quite difficult, but not impossible, the organization of such research by a single teacher. Test scores give an average image of the success or failure of the classroom as totality and in this way they can indicate somewhat the effectiveness or not of a teaching method.

Answers collected through questionnaires can be either closed-ended, thus quantitative, or open-ended, thus qualitative. The design of a questionnaire is a highly sophisticated task and depends on many things such as the research purpose, the characteristics of the respondents, the emphasis on the quantitative or the qualitative nature etc.)

            Field-notes, derived from a thorough observation, are so flexible, open-ended and qualitative that can capture and record numerous student activities, daily dialogs, points of interest etc. Although they seem as the result of an unstructured and random method of research, however they need time-consuming analysis and interpretation in order to start making sense and to serve as a sort of qualitative evidence.

The differences between these sorts of evidence arise mainly from their varying degree of quantitative or qualitative nature. So, in order to locate more effectively the in-between differences I will examine the case of the two most oppositional sorts of evidence, that of the test scores (paradigm of quantitative evidence) and that of the field notes (paradigm of qualitative evidence). Most obviously, test scores are presented in numerical form while field notes are expressed verbally. Test scores shift the focus on the learning outcomes, which are expected to be the same for all students while field notes shift the focus on the learning process. Test scores inform the teacher about the average level of his class efficiency while field notes keep the interest mainly on the individual activity. Finally, test scores may be said to represent the scientific perception of research and in this way they are considered objective, while field-notes may be described as susceptible of multiple interpretations by the researcher-practitioner. The following table attempts to categorize the key differences.

Test Scores	Field notes
Quantitative	Qualitative
Expressed in numerical form	Expressed verbally
Require statistical analysis	Require thorough reflection
Shift the focus on the learning outcomes	Shift the focus on the learning processes
illustrate the average level of a class	illustrate the individual level of a student

Despite their differences, the above three sorts of evidence can be combined in order to give a more comprehensive picture of the teaching/learning procedure. However, all the three sorts of evidence seem to shift the focus exclusively on shelf-improvement (or teacher/pupil improvement) rather than on broader socio-economic and cultural problems or on the defects of the educational system.)  After all, all sort of evidences, even test scores, entail the notion of subjectivity, in the sense that they accept personal evaluations and interpretations by the teacher who inevitably interferes and carries his own ideological and emotional baggage.