Investigation of preschool teachers' professional self-assessment with instructional rounds model

Preschool teachers' professional self-assessment plays an important role in their professional development. It is very important for teachers to assess their professional acts, knowledge, and skills. Although there have been many studies on teacher self-assessment, it is seen that these studies are quite limited in the early years. The instructional rounds model provides a collaborative and reflective environment for teachers for self-assessment. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the views and experiences of preschool teachers towards the instructional rounds model and to examine their professional self-assessment with this model. Case study, one of the qualitative research approaches, was used in the study. Preschool teachers in a school participated in the study and the instructional rounds model was applied during one academic semester. The data of the study were collected through observation notes, individual interviews and focus group discussions and analyzed by thematic analysis. The findings indicate that the instructional rounds model enables teachers to make self-assessment of their teaching techniques, learning environments, communication with children, strengths and areas for improvement. Teachers stated that the features of the instructional model such as peer observation, learning from colleagues, reflective meetings and providing feedback played an important role in their self-assessment.