A perspective on due process in teacher evaluation

A perspective on due process in teacher evaluation     

A Vygotskian perspective on teacher education

Contemporary teacher education demonstrates the continued use of competency‐based, personality‐based and inquiry‐based approaches. These approaches are commonly regarded as representing alternative paradigms for designing curriculum and pedagogy. From a Vygotskian perspective, characterized by the use of bridging concepts relating individual functioning and personal development to sociocultural process and setting, these approaches may serve to provide elements for a more comprehensive paradigm of professional development. Drawing on Vygotskian theory, a teacher‐education environment offers support to trainee teachers for developing a professional identity. A central element is that trainees explore the practice of teaching for its underlying public meanings and as these meaning relate to their own structures of personal meanings. Such an exploration involves the shaping and testing of personally‐meaningful action in professional practice. Commitment to meanings found to be valid and practicable constitutes the core of professional identity. The task students face in developing professional identity on the basis of an assignment of meaning to teaching needs an appropriate teacher‐education environment. These conditions are worked out from a Vygotskian perspective on professional development.     

我国中小学教师培训质量调查研究

2010年,北京大学中国教育财政科学研究所组织专家对我国中小学教师培训质量进行了大规模调查研究,研究结果显示当前我国中小学教师培训质量不容乐观,突出存在如下问题:不重视培训需求调查分析,内容脱离教师专业发展和教学实践的需要;培训方法主要以传统的集中讲授和听课评课为主,不能充分调动教师积极参与培训;培训师资资源缺乏优化,教师培训者队伍专业化程度不高;培训监督和评价主要停留在反应评估和学习结果评估层面,较少关注教师培训给学员行为改进带来的长远影响.     

新课程视域下教师专业发展的基本策略

我国新一轮基础教育课程改革对教师专业发展提出了新的挑战。这就要求教师必须适应课程改革的要求,全面提升素质,实现专业发展。本文阐述了新课程对教师专业发展提出的新挑战,探讨了新课程改革视域下促进教师专业化发展的基本策略。     

Reframing the teacher profession as a dynamic multifaceted profession: A wider perspective on teacher quality and teacher competence frameworks

Many countries in Europe use some kind of competence framework to define the quality of teachers. They typically formulate one level of teaching quality which defines the competence level that teachers must have acquired after completing initial teacher education. In addition, most countries provide limited career structures that define career opportunities within the teacher profession itself, resulting in a profession where often the only option for career progression is to move to leadership positions. Competence frameworks that create opportunities for vertical and horizontal career structures can make being a teacher a more attractive profession. They offer teachers opportunities for ‘career crafting’ and professional growth and supply school leaders with tools for more elaborate career guidance. In this article, we present a framework that was developed in the Netherlands to support teacher growth and teachers' career development. It has been used as a starting point for creating a shared language and understanding of the teacher profession and as a catalyst for dialogue between teachers and school leaders on professional growth. We elaborate the main characteristics of the resulting model, its limitations, the feedback that has been collected and how this feedback has been incorporated in how the model is used and discussed by teachers, school leaders and teacher education institutes. Finally, we argue that the strength of the framework can be explained by the way it acts as a boundary object, inspiring mutual learning and dialogue between different activity systems (of teachers, school leaders and teacher educators).     

An integral perspective on teacher evaluation: a review of empirical studies

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Teacher evaluation has been used for decades in schools as a human resource management practice to hold teachers accountable and to help them...     

对高职师范类专业实践教学之思考

基础教育课程改革给肩负着为基础教育培养合格师资的师范类专业的实践教学带来一次深刻的变革。文章通过反思现行的高职师范类专业的实践教学,探讨如何构建既有别于高职工科类专业的、又符合高职办学特点而不简单模仿高师的实践教学体系。     

Data-based decision making for teacher and student learning: a psychological perspective on the role of the teacher

Data-based decision-making has the potential to increase student achievement results. Data-based decision-making can be defined as teachers’ systematic analysis of data sources in order to study and adapt their educational practices for the purpose of maximizing learning results. Teachers must apply the findings from their data use to their personal teaching activities. Therefore, data-based decision-making may be influenced by individual teachers' psychological characteristics. The present study aimed to explore which psychological factors contribute to teachers’ data use in a Dutch primary school context. A questionnaire-based quantitative methodology was employed. We included the following psychological constructs: affective and instrumental attitudes, perceived control, social norms, self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and intentions regarding data use. Results of the path analysis showed that perceived control, instrumental attitude, and intention regarding data use all significantly influenced data use. Additionally, intention was found to be a mediator of the relation between affective attitude and data use. Interventions aimed at data-based decision-making should take these psychological factors into account to increase teachers’ implementation of data-based decision-making for instruction and, consequently, educational quality.     

SCIS-II and the elementary teacher: A program evaluation

A two-part opinionaire was used to identify teachers' perceptions of the SCIS-II elementary science program. Of particular interest were perceived barriers to effective implementation of the program. The first part of the opinionaire was administered to 685 individuals, or 96.8% of the elementary teachers in a metropolitan school district. The second part was completed by a group of teachers at each grade level in each of the 31 elementary schools, with completion rates ranging from 77%–97% for the 13 SCIS-II units. Results indicate that grades K-2 teachers rated the program more positively than grades 3–6 teachers; teachers who rated the program highly perceived fewer barriers to effectively utilizing the program; and teachers rated the program higher for developing social skills and positive attitudes than for teaching science content and processes. Data on problems with individual SCIS-II units indicated that the viability and performance of the living organisms are problematic in all life science units. Further, the small number of insightful evaluative comments received for the last one-third to one-half of some units suggests that a significant portion of teachers are quitting the units before reaching the end.     

Faculty development for preservice teacher educators: A research utilization perspective

Weak research utilization strategies limit the faculty development of university-based preservice teacher educators. Compared to school district-based inservice teacher educators, preservice teacher educators have weaker knowledge acquisition strategies, and are less likely to have sustained contact with researchers, especially where a training focus is prominent. Preservice teacher educators have less developed networks that facilitate research utilization, and have less institutional support for internal staff development. A research utilization theoretical framework is used to propose recommendations for helping preservice teacher educators.     

发展性教师评价实施的阻力分析及对策

教师评价可分为奖惩性教师评价和发展性教师评价。奖惩性教师评价,是一种弊端日显的终结性评价。发展性教师评价是一种关注教师发展的新型教师评价制度,它扬弃了奖惩性教师评价的弊端,是一种目前较为理想的教师评价。但是,发展性教师评价在我国并未得到普及,它在实施过程中遇到了一些阻力,只有消除了这些阻力,发展性教师评价才能得以顺利地实施与推进。     

An asset-based perspective on prospective teacher education

Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education -     

Assessment purposes and procedures in ESL/EFL classrooms

University instructors’ classroom assessments play a central role in and inevitably influence their teaching and their students’ learning. This paper reports on a comparative interview study conducted in a range of three ESL/EFL university contexts in Canada, Hong Kong and China. Six major aspects of ESL/EFL classroom assessment practices were explored: instructors’ assessment planning for the courses they taught, the relative weight given to course work and tests in their instruction, the type of assessment methods (selection vs. supply methods) that they used, the purposes each assessment was used for, the source of each method used, and when they used each method. University instructors were also asked to indicate what they saw as the advantages and disadvantages of the methods they used, and whether they took into account prior student knowledge when making decisions about what assessment methods to use. The findings contribute to a better understanding of ESL/EFL university instructors’ classroom assessment practices at the tertiary level in a range of three ESL/EFL university teaching contexts.     

Correction to: An integral perspective on teacher evaluation: a review of empirical studies

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - The original version of this article unfortunately contained mistakes.