How to activate teachers through teacher evaluation?

There is a general doubt on whether teacher evaluation can contribute to teachers’ professional development. Recently, standards-based teacher evaluation has been introduced in many countries to improve teaching practice. This study wants to investigate which teacher evaluation procedural, leadership, and teacher characteristics can stimulate teachers’ feedback utility perceptions and professional learning activities in the context of teacher evaluation. Data were collected in 32 secondary schools from 298 teachers and 32 school leaders, both quantitatively and qualitatively. We put forward a research model which is investigated through path analysis. Results nurture optimism about teacher evaluation indicating that teacher evaluation can stimulate teachers to undertake professional learning activities when they perceive feedback as useful. The important role of the school leader (through both instructional and transformational leadership) is stressed. Teacher participation and teacher collaboration also have a positive influence on teacher evaluation and its outcomes.     

Towards accomplished practice in learning skills for science (LSS): the synergy between design and evaluation methodology in a reflective CPD programme

This study was carried out in the framework of continuous professional development (CPD) programmes following a CPD model aimed at promoting ‘accomplished practice’ involving: pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and scholarship of teaching. Teachers were asked to bring evidence about their practice. The context was related to the ‘Learning Skills for Science’ (LSS) programme, which advocates the explicit incorporation of high‐order learning skills into science school curricula. The main goal of the study was to test the evidence‐based LSS CPD model by investigating the impact of its related CPD programmes on participating teachers. The impact relates to teachers’ perceptions about teaching learning skills, teachers’ LSS practice, and their professional influence in the educational system. As part of the evaluation method, we developed a criterion‐based diagnostic tool and a visual representation, designed to assess a teacher’s professional profile and progression according to dimensions of ‘accomplished practice’. The diagnostic tool can be adjusted and tailored to different CPD domains. Results indicated that requiring teachers to bring evidence from practice and students’ learning enabled us to follow teachers’ progress and succeeded to improve their performances towards accomplished LSS practice. The results exemplify a synergy between CPD designed activities and the ongoing evaluation of its impact.     

乡村幼儿园教师专业促进中的有效评价——兼论舒尔曼教师教育思想的点拨价值

评价对乡村幼儿园教师专业促进具有监控引导和反思助力作用。当前我国各类乡村幼儿园教师的专业促进工作存在着评价功能公务化、评价目标随意化和评价过程肤浅化等评价缺陷问题,应当予以及时解决。对此,舒尔曼教师教育思想具有启发和弥合价值,主要体现在四个方面:一是对“为了专业的教育”的评价思想定位;二是对以领域教学知识为核心的评价内容的厘清和理解;三是对“桥梁意识”评价标准的把握和应用;四是对“专业促进档案袋”评价方法的设计和利用。     

管培评协同的中等职业学校教师专业技能分级培训体系构建

以教师职业发展阶段理论、行为导向理论为指导,构建管办评分离下中等职业学校专业教师分级培训新机制,以解决中等职业学校专业教师实践能力偏低与自主发展动力不足,培训机构实施培训不规范、效果差等难题。通过制定统一的中等职业学校教师专业技能分级培训标准与评价考核标准,建立分层次、逐级培训与多元评价机制,强化培训质量控制与过程监督,形成管-培-评协同实施的中等职业学校教师专业能力提升新体系,切实提高中等职业学校专业教师培训绩效水平。     

The Case for Expanding Standards for Teacher Evaluation to Include an Instructional Supervision Perspective

Despite the concerns of scholars in the field of instructional supervision, teacher evaluations continue to emphasize bureaucratic accountability and standardization. This article presents an argument for extending the Joint Committee on Standards' Personnel Evaluation Standards to include standards related to the practice of supervision. The proposed standards call for differentiated procedures, collaborative identification of teachers' professional development goals, multiple sources of data, emphasis on formative evaluation processes, consideration of both teachers' personal development goals and school/program improvement goals, and the formalization of formative evaluation processes to achieve clear and shared understanding of their purpose and goals. These standards would align teacher evaluation with aspects of instructional supervision namely,clarification and shared understanding of the process and purpose of evaluations, interpretation of teaching performance in the context of teachers' classrooms and professional values, and deliberation with teachers about how evaluation evidence depicts and informs their work.Patricia Holland is Associate Professor in Educational Leadership and Cultural Studies at the University of Houston. Her research in the areas of instuctional supervision and teachers’ professional development emphasizes the interpretive nature of practice in these areas.     

Accountability or authenticity? The alignment of professional development and teacher evaluation

The alignment of professional development and teacher evaluation has been a growing concern in teacher professional development practices. The issue of how teacher evaluation can help authentic professional development is important in that teachers only learn what is real, useful and valuable to them. Based on our reflections on current professional development in Taiwan, this article challenges the dominant evaluation-led approach to professional development, in which much attention and energy of policy-makers and educators is devoted to establishing extensive programmes and standards that might not be relevant to teachers’ concerns. We draw upon Habermas’ notion of system and lifeworld to sense-make and to theorise why it can be difficult for teachers to engage the entirety of their personhood with a policy agenda of pursuing system integration and efficiency whereby teachers’ learning actions become strategic. We argue for considering teacher development from an alternative, lifeworld perspective in which teachers and teachers’ subjectivities in striving to achieve what matters and makes sense to them are placed centre stage. Although the evaluation mechanism plays a role in avoiding the devolution of professional development into mere subjectivism, it is reductive to treat teacher professional development not only as distinct but also as requiring evaluation items and overlooking the importance of maintaining teacher development as a tacit, authentic process of knowing. We finally juxtapose the two approaches and their contrasting characteristics and describe implications for planning teacher professional development so that policy-makers and educators can reflect on their mindsets and implementation and modify their programme planning and strategies accordingly.     

高职院校教师业务档案管理中的问题及对策

教师业务档案在高职院校教育事业的发展过程中,凸显出越来越重要的作用。对教师业务档案进行科学、高效地管理,可以充分发挥教师业务档案在学校各类评估工作、教师师资队伍建设、教师职称评审、绩效分配和展现学校办学成果等方面的支撑作用。     

Stress and the deputy head

In recent years Ministries of Education in Canada have developed provincially mandated teacher evaluation policies to ensure the provision of effective classroom instruction to students and the professional growth and development of teachers through the assessment of their performance in the classroom and the quality of their teaching practice. Based on an in‐depth study of teacher evaluation practices in a school jurisdiction in the province of Alberta, the researcher concludes that the policy falls short in meeting these intended objectives for essentially three reasons: (1) teacher evaluation is an externally imposed bureaucratic mandate rather than a requirement that emerges from the professional culture of the school that requires an ongoing review of practice by administrators and teachers; (2) the teacher evaluation process is conducted as a distinct and separate process by school administrators, with little connection to other school and district policies or professional development activities; and (3) despite the intended purpose of the teacher evaluation policy, how it is interpreted and implemented is greatly influenced by the attitudes, values and beliefs of the evaluator (administrator) with regard to what constitutes effective teaching, and the role and purpose of schooling in the community. The researcher discusses alternative approaches to teacher evaluation that focus more directly on instructional improvement and the professional development of teachers.     

From the bottom-up: New York City teacher evaluation and the narration of mediated institutional assault

Following the trend of consequential accountability in US public education, New York City introduced a teacher evaluation program during the 2013–2014 school year that linked teachers’ individual performance ratings with their students’ exam scores. As this program systemically alters the nature of teacher–student relationships by transforming students into the means to an end (teachers’ professional viability), this study investigated the implementation of this accountability program from the point of view of the teachers – those who were the subject of this new policy. This study of 15 teachers’ narratives from 3 distinct schools illuminates a social-organizational process that I refer to as mediated institutional assault – a perceived attack on the teachers’ sense of personhood and moral agency perpetrated by mediating figures whose actions were facilitated by bureaucratic policies and institutionally coordinated tools of control. Thus, this study reveals that the consequence of this new mode of accountability is not merely the threat of losing one’s job, but also an insidious form of psychological assault, which in its masked delivery violates teachers’ sense of relational morality and challenges deeply engrained beliefs about their role as educators.     

走出故步自封的“堡垒”:新课程背景下高中英语教学的时代诉求

教育教学具有鲜明的时代性。新课程背景下的高中英语教学目标、教学内容、教学方法、教学评价等都需要与时代要求相一致。然而,我国高中英语教学存在的问题在于:教学目标工具化、教学内容繁难偏旧、教学方法单调古板、教学评价一元化。当前高中英语的关注点应该集中于评价制度、英语课程方案、教师专业发展等方面,主要策略是变革高考评价制度,以监督并保证高中英语新课程的有效实施;修订更适切的课程设计方案,让高中英语课程目标趋于多维,让课程内容具有基础性、选择性、时代性统一的特点;建立教师支持系统、校本教研制度促进教师专业发展,以保证教师从教学信念到教学行为都有利于新课程的实施与推进。     

远程教育教师评价体系建设构想

教师评价对教师工作具有指导方向的作用。良好的教师评价体系能激发教师的内在动机,调动教师的工作积极性,引导教师科学、高效的从事教育教学工作,同时促进教师自身专业发展。现代远程教育作为新兴的教育模式,有其不同于传统教育的特殊性,所以应结合教师及远程教育的特点建立对远程教育从业教师的评价体系,以发挥评价的正面功能。     

高职院校教学名师专业发展评价体系的构建

高职院校教学名师专业发展评价是促进教学名师专业发展的重要途径,评价体系的构建是开展教师评价工作的基础和前提。在分析高职院校教学名师专业发展内涵及意义的基础上,明确其评价体系的构建逻辑及具体内容,提出教学名师专业发展评价的实施过程以及改进评价活动的建议。     

课堂教学自我诊断:教师专业发展的核心能力

课堂教学自我诊断是教师通过对自己课堂教学过程中诸要素的"诊视"与"判断",发现并总结经验,分析存在的问题并提出改进措施的一种方法和技能,诊断视角为人际关系、学习目标、学习内容、学习方法、学习环境、学习反馈等。课堂教学自我诊断,是教师专业化发展过程中必须具有的自我审视与自我完善的能力,也是教师专业核心能力,却是当前教师专业化发展的一个"短板"。只有提高教师课堂教学自我诊断能力,才能切实提高教师的教育教学能力、教学科研能力、自我反思能力、创新学习能力,从而提升教师专业能力,有效促进教师的专业化成长。     

基于教学学术视角的高校青年教师专业发展研究

高校教师的质量决定着高等教育的质量,高校青年教师作为高校师资的主体和未来,其专业发展水平对保障和提高高等教育质量有着直接的影响。教学学术的提出,为高校青年教师教学专业发展提供了新的视角。从教学学术视角来看,高校青年教师专业发展的关键是提升其教学学术水平。通过提升教学学术水平促进高校青年教师的专业发展,一方面教师自身需立足自主发展,即树立教学学术的观念,在教学实践中反思,在教学研究中提升能力;另一方面学校可通过强化教学培训、注重教学团队建设、实施发展性教师评价为青年教师创设良好的激励氛围。     

Validity Evidence Supporting Use of Anchoring Vignettes to Measure Teaching Practice

High-quality measures of instructional practice are essential for research and evaluation of innovative instructional policies and programs. However, existing measures have generally proven inadequate because of cost and validity issues. This paper addresses two potential drawbacks of survey self-report measures: variation in teachers’ interpretation of response scales and their interpretation of survey questions. To address these drawbacks, researchers tested out use of “anchoring vignettes“ in teacher surveys to capture information about teaching practice, and they gathered validity evidence in regard to their use as a tool for adjusting teachers’ survey self-reports about their instructional practices for research purposes, or potentially to inform professional development. Data from 65 teachers in grades 4-9 responding to our survey suggested that vignette adjustments were reliable and valid for some instructional practices more than others. For some instructional practices, researchers found significant and high correlations between teachers’ adjusted survey self-rating, through use of anchoring vignettes, and previous observation ratings of teachers’ instruction, including ratings from several widely-used observation rubrics. These results suggest that anchoring vignettes may provide an efficient, cost-effective method for gathering data on teachers’ instruction.     

Using standards to evaluate accountability policy in context: School administrator and teacher perceptions of a teacher evaluation system

Accountability policy in the United States requiring school districts to design and implement state policy-directed teacher evaluation systems that utilize multiple measures, most often observations of professional practice and student achievement data, has been reflective of shifting international public discourse surrounding educational accountability, specifically related to teacher quality. Although the most recent wave of policy change provides states some flexibility in determining how teachers are evaluated, many are still mired in debate on how to improve teacher professional practice and increase student learning. This study examined the perceptions of school administrators and teachers in a large, suburban, public school district regarding their district’s new teacher evaluation system. Understanding the convergent and divergent views of participant groups regarding how (i.e., the standards by which) they defined and measured the effectiveness of the evaluation system is necessary to not only better understand their lived experiences but also to potentially inform policy change.     

Applying the Rasch Model to Evaluate an Implementation of the Kentucky Electronics Education Project

Kentucky Electronics Education Project (KEEP) uses microelectronics to connect real world content to K-12 science education. KEEP trains teachers in a series of circuit building activities through summer workshops and in-service professional development. Teachers are expected to implement components of their training into their curriculum, and then participating students are asked to evaluate their experience. Here, survey responses of 61 Midwest high school students, who completed a circuit building activity in the classroom setting, are analyzed using a Rasch rating scale model. Insights are provided regarding the inquiry based, hands-on engineering activity, while introducing a tool for program evaluation. Results characterize students’ perceptions regarding difficulty of the project and potential misunderstandings. Suggestions for project enhancement, based on empirical evidence and practical experience, are described.     

Narrative inquiry as a mediational space: examining emotional and cognitive dissonance in second‐language teachers' development

In the practice of teacher education, most would agree that critical reflection in and on the process of learning to teach and the activities of teaching play a central role in teachers' professional development. Using Vygotskian sociocultural theory, we examine how narrative inquiry functions as a culturally developed tool that mediates teachers' professional development. We analyzed narratives written by three teachers of English as a second/foreign language set in three different instructional contexts. Our analysis suggests an interwoven connection between emotion and cognition, which drove these teachers to search for mediational tools to help them externalize their experiences. The activity of engaging in narrative inquiry created a mediational space where teachers were able to draw upon various resources, such as private journals, peers and ‘expert’ or theoretical knowledge, that allow them to reconceptualize and reinternalize new understandings of themselves as teachers and their teaching activities. The intersection of experiential and ‘expert’ knowledge provided a discourse through which these teachers named experiences and constructed a basis upon which they grounded their transformed understandings of themselves as teachers and their teaching. Depending on where these teachers were in their professional development when they wrote their narratives, we uncovered evidence of idealized conceptions of teaching with commitment to action as well as the transformation of teachers' material activities. Implications for the role teachers' narrative inquiry may play in teacher education programs are provided.     

The impact of school-based continuing professional development: views of teachers and support professionals

Evaluating the impact of school-based continuing professional development (CPD), as with any other kind, is not without its challenges. This article reports on an evaluation of a CPD programme which was established to support implementation of a new primary school curriculum in Ireland. It examines what can be learned by comparing the views on the likely impact held by the teachers participating in the CPD and the support professionals providing it. The results show that both groups were very positive about the likely impact. However, support professionals anticipated a greater impact than the teachers themselves on teachers’ knowledge and implementation of the new curriculum. Likely explanations for these divergent views are discussed. The article highlights the importance of building in mechanisms within CPD to enable both teachers and support professionals to consider together the impact on an ongoing basis, and to use the available evidence formatively to inform planning for CPD. Incorporating a focus on impact in CPD is likely to become even more important in the years ahead given that teachers themselves are increasingly playing a greater role in decisions about what CPD is undertaken.     

美国圣马特奥社区学院教师评价制度的研究及对我国的启示

评价是高校教师管理的重要环节。美国圣马特奥社区学院教师评价制度由以"教师专业发展、学术自由"为重点的评价目的、以"终身制教师"为核心的多类教师评价对象、以"一般标准为基础、具体标准为补充"的标准、以"超出预期、达到要求、需要改进、不满意"为评价等第、以"期待改进、提高绩效"为目标等五个方面构成。其经验启示我国高校教师评价应考虑教师权利、尊重教师个人差异、注重教师绩效改进和挖掘评价结果的价值。