The role of feedback from the school leader during teacher evaluation for teacher and school improvement

Since the turn of the century, teacher evaluation has been introduced around the world with the intent to improve teaching. However, in the literature on teacher evaluation, often findings reveal critical accounts about the effectiveness of feedback in teacher evaluation for teacher and school improvement. This article presents a qualitative study in eight schools where teachers did indicate to find the feedback they discussed with school leaders during teacher evaluation processes useful. In this study, we investigate whether we can identify what teachers actually do with this feedback and which factors contribute to their response. Our findings demonstrate the importance of school organizational characteristics and an integrated leadership approach for the feedback response of teachers. Also, our findings reveal how teacher evaluation is used in these schools to further school improvement.     

Teacher evaluation policy as perceived by school principals: the case of Flanders (Belgium)

In Flanders (Belgium), a new teacher evaluation policy was issued which placed a lot of autonomy with school principals to develop and implement a new teacher evaluation system. In this study, we explore how Flemish principals perceive the new teacher evaluation policy and what influences their perception. Results demonstrate that principals perceive the policy as clear, but they are rather negative about the need, practicality, and complexity of the summative teacher evaluation. This perception is influenced by policy, context, and individual factors as is demonstrated in our qualitative analyses.     

Early contribution of phonological awareness and later influence of phonological memory throughout reading acquisition

The acquisition of reading skills is known to rely on early phonological abilities, but only a few studies have investigated the independent contribution of the different steps involved in phonological processing. This 1‐year longitudinal study, spanning the initial year of reading instruction, aimed at specifying the development of phonological discrimination, awareness and various aspects of phonological memory and at assessing their respective contributions to early reading acquisition. Our results show an increase in performance at each phonological processing step, but also suggest a qualitative evolution in their relative importance. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that reading skills are mainly predicted by phonological awareness measured at the kindergarten stage and, subsequently, by phonological memory abilities measured at the end of first grade. More precisely short‐term memory for serial‐order information seems to contribute to the development of decoding abilities, while phonological knowledge stored in long‐term memory seems to influence word recognition.     

Qualitative differences in the exploration of upright and upside-down faces in four-month-old infants: an eye-movement study

Four-month-old infants were habituated with an upright or an upside-down face. Eye-movement recordings showed that the upright and upside-down faces were not explored the same way. Infants spent more time exploring internal features, mainly in the region of the nose and mouth, when the face was upright. They also alternated as frequently between the face's internal features (eyes vs. nose/mouth) as between external and internal features. When the face was upside down, the infants spent half of their time exploring external features, and preferentially alternated between external features and internal features. The main effect of inversion was a decrease of the looking time to the nose/mouth region and of the number of shifts between the eye region and the nose/mouth region.     

The effects of autonomy gap in personnel policy,principal leadership and teachers’ self-efficacy on their organizational commitment

School autonomy in personnel policy is important to effective personnel management. With increased autonomy in personnel policy, principals could wield their leadership to improve teachers’ organizational commitment. However, little is known about whether the given autonomy in personnel policy meets principals’ expectation and whether and how the gap in between has an effect on teachers’ organizational commitment. This research explores the effects of autonomy gap in personnel policy, principal leadership, teachers’ self-efficacy and school contextual factors on teachers’ organizational commitment. Multilevel analysis was used. The results show the effects of autonomy gap in personnel policy differ among areas. In particular, the autonomy gap in salary was found to be a significant antecedent of teachers’ organizational commitment. The results also highlight the importance of principal leadership in this process. Principals with a stronger leadership tend to perceive generally a larger autonomy gap in personnel policy. In addition, when transformational leadership increased, its positive influence on teachers’ organizational commitment became even stronger. Implications for developing efficacious leadership and autonomy policy in personnel management were discussed.     

The influence of school leadership on teachers’ perception of teacher evaluation policy

The understanding of teachers’ perception of new educational policy is crucial since this perception shapes the policy’s implementation. However, quantitative research in this area is scarce. This article draws on empirical data to investigate whether the school leader might influence his teachers’ perception of the new teacher evaluation policy. The conceptualisation of teachers’ perception consists of three policy characteristics: practicality, need and clarifying function. Our results indicate that school leadership influences teachers’ policy perception. More specifically, the structure a school leader provides in a school and the amount of trust teachers have in the school leader have a significant impact on teachers’ perception of the practicality of the new teacher evaluation policy.     

Exploring the link between experienced teachers’ learning outcomes and individual and professional learning community characteristics

The continuous professional development of teachers is crucial in our current knowledge-based society, yet empirical research on experienced teachers’ learning outcomes is scarce. In this study, we examine perceived changes in classroom practices and in competence as outcomes. By making these outcomes measurable, we can relate them to several individual teacher characteristics and professional learning community characteristics. A questionnaire was administered to 490 experienced teachers from 48 Flemish (Belgian) primary schools. Multilevel analyses show that of the professional learning community characteristics, only reflective dialogue is significant for perceived changes in practices. As for individual characteristics, self-efficacy relates positively to both perceived changes in practices and in competence. The relationship between teaching experience and both learning outcomes, however, is negative.     

Does the social working environment predict beginning teachers’ self-efficacy and feelings of depression?

We investigate how the social working environment predicts beginning teachers’ self-efficacy and feelings of depression. Two quantitative studies are presented. The results show that the goal structure of the school culture (mastery or performance orientation) predicts both outcomes. Frequent collaborative interactions with colleagues are related to higher self-efficacy only when the novices are experiencing few difficulties or work in an environment oriented towards mastery goals. The mere occurrence of mentoring and meetings with the principal is not related to the outcomes, but the quality of these activities predicts them significantly. Conditions increasing the effectiveness of these support activities are discussed.     

Engineering ethics at the Catholic University of Lille (France): Research and teaching in a European context

This paper relates to the development of non-technical education (and to ethics) in engineering curricula in Europe and particularly in France. Two projects being followed at the Centre de recherche en éthique de l'ingénieur (CREI) at the Catholic University of Lille (France) are discussed: the first is an engineering ethics course which has been running for 6 years in a state engineering school, where there is a strong emphasis on analysing the ethical issues of the students' first work experience. The second has to do with the writing of a European handbook on engineering ethics which gives us good insight into how engineering ethics as a discipline is shaped by the cultural background of those who develop it (dominant philosophical tradition, religious background, the way the engineering profession is organized and education). Two main approaches seem to be prevalent in Europe today: the first relates to professional ethics as discussed in the USA since the 1950s, the second relates to a new discipline that is developing in Europe, that of the ethics of technology.     

Acculturation preferences of a host community: The effects of immigrant acculturation strategies on evaluations and impression formation

This article examines how host populations perceive immigrants. Research in intercultural psychology has shown that the acculturation strategies (integration, assimilation, separation or marginalization) adopted by immigrant populations may be viewed very differently by the host population. In addition, social perception studies have demonstrated that host populations evaluate immigrants on two dimensions, warmth and competence. Our research brings together these two findings to investigate whether perceptions of immigrants on these two dimensions are affected by the acculturation strategy adopted. We present two studies that focus on the host population in France, a country that has adopted a policy of assimilation towards its immigrant populations. In general, the participants rejected separation on the part of immigrants. Evaluations of assimilation and integration were similar, although the student population showed a preference for integration. Adoption of the host culture and conservation of the original culture were both found to be pertinent for the warmth dimension, but only adoption was pertinent for the competence dimension. The effect of immigrant origins was found to be marginal.