怎样的评价可以促进教师潜心育人:来自中小学教师专业表现的实证证据

教育评价事关教育发展方向,影响教师潜心育人的专业表现及学生全面发展。为考察问责式和发展性两种教师评价对教师专业表现的不同影响,本研究采用问卷法,调查了我国中西部2354名县镇及乡村中小学教师,构建潜变量结构方程模型,探究教师所感知的教师评价方式、对评价的态度、教师的专业学习及专业表现之间的关系。结果发现:问责式教师评价对教师专业表现影响的直接效应不显著,但通过教师对评价反馈的态度和专业学习,显著负向影响教师专业表现;发展性教师评价对教师专业表现的总效应、直接效应和间接效应皆为显著正向影响。这提示不同教师评价对教师潜心育人专业表现的影响机制是不同的,在制定和改革教师评价方案时需要综合考虑。     

Deploying Warrants,Producing Policy: A Self-Study of Teacher Education Policy Discussions

ABSTRACT

The practice of teacher education is inextricably linked to the policy environment in which it occurs. Calls by policymakers and politicians for accountability measures, standardization and performance assessments are efforts to influence the direction of the preparation of educators. In this self-study, I examine my participation in a state-level teacher education policy decision-making body in the United States in order to illuminate how policy decisions are made about teacher education. More specifically, I discuss the kinds of warrants about teacher education practice that I deployed as I navigated the political and practical consequences of policy decisions. This study serves not only to illuminate the nature of policy discussions in teacher education, but also to encourage teacher educators to engage directly the policy-making arenas that implicitly and explicitly influence their work.     

Teacher evaluation in Chile: highlights and complexities in 13 years of experience

The paper examines the process of establishing a teacher evaluation system in Chile and its acceptance by teachers over time. The conceptual base upon which the system was established is described. Evidence is also examined from a variety of data sources and research related to the evaluation system as well as teachers’ use of its results. This evidence includes information from an external review of the system noting tensions between the formative versus accountability purposes of the evaluation system and that are being attended to in the new Teacher Professional Development Law (2016).     

美国中小学教师绩效评价改革及启示

教师绩效评价与专业发展是中小学人力资源管理的关键要素。美国将教师绩效评价政策作为学校问责与教师质量保证的重要组成部分,各州已经开发并实施各种教师绩效评价政策。例如,美国北卡罗莱纳州教师绩效评价政策的出发点在于促进与支持有效的学校领导、教学质量和学生学习成就。北卡罗莱纳州教师绩效评价体系涉及到评价目标、评价标准和评价过程,该州教师绩效评价政策为教师专业发展提供了新的范式,值得我们学习和借鉴。     

Promoting discussion in peer instruction: Discussion partner assignment and accountability scoring mechanisms

Peer instruction (PI) involves students answering questions and peer discussion learning activities. PI can enhance student performance and engagement in classroom instruction. However, some students do not engage in the discussions. This study proposes two mechanisms, discussion partner assignment and accountability scoring mechanisms, to form positive interdependence among students and individual accountability for each student to promote student discussions in PI. The evaluation results show that the student discussion rate with the promoting mechanisms is significantly higher than the rate without the mechanisms. The results from the questionnaire reveal that the mechanisms form positive interdependence and individual accountability to promote students to engage in the discussions.     

Authentically assessing graduate teaching: outside and beyond neo-liberal constructs

In this paper, we challenge the current focus on ‘best practice’, graduate teacher tests, and student test scores as the panacea for ensuring teaching quality and argue for ways of thinking about evidence of quality beginning teaching outside and beyond the current neoliberal accountability discourses circulating in Australia and other countries. We suggest that teacher educators need to reinsert themselves as key players in the debates around quality beginning teaching, rather than being viewed as a source of the problem. To enable teacher educators to assume accountability for quality beginning teachers, we propose the framework of a capstone teacher performance assessment—a structured portfolio called the Authentic Teacher Assessment (ATA)—and examine examples of these assessments through the lens of critical discourse analysis. As a measure of ‘readiness to teach’, the ATA is compared with supervising teachers’ assessments of preservice teachers. We argue that structured portfolios that include artefacts derived from preservice teachers’ practice in classrooms along with graduate teacher self assessments provide a stronger accountability measure of effective beginning teaching and demonstrably address the current anxiety regarding ‘evidence’. We suggest that such an approach should be reliable enough to be ‘read’ by external assessors (and moderated across other teacher education institutions). Rigorous research on a national basis is called for in order to develop and implement a structured portfolio as rich evidence of graduates’ quality and readiness to teach.     

Contested discourses of teacher professionalism: current tensions between education policy and teachers’ union

This article addresses constructions and redefinitions of teacher professionalism by focusing on the discursive negotiations between the government and the teachers’ union in Norway. Based on an examination of three white papers on teacher education from the past 15?years and policy documents put forth by the Union of Education Norway during the past decade, the authors argue that new constructions of teacher professionalism are produced both by the government and from within the teachers’ union. However, there are differences between the government and the teachers’ union concerning what the main aspects of teacher professionalism are. The government emphasises teacher accountability, research-based practice and specialisation. By contrast, the teachers’ union highlights research-informed practice, responsibility for educational quality and professional ethics. There are three main areas of discursive struggle focused by the teachers’ union: the resistance to accountability policies, the redefining of research-based practice and the lengthening of teacher education. The authors argue that the teachers’ union is adopting an increasingly more active approach, thereby also challenging the idea that the teachers’ union is less interested in developing and taking responsibility for the quality of school education.     

政府绩效评估与行政问责的制度整合

政府绩效评估制度与行政问责制度在内在理念、实现机制、现实功能方面存在着相似与趋同性.积极推进政府绩效评估与行政问责的制度整合,有助于实现政府绩效评估问责功能的完善,有助于实现两者的协调推进和优势互补.然而,两者在制度层面的整合,面临来自权力上的协调、内容上的整合和法规上的衔接这三个方面的挑战.当前,推进这两者的整合,可从树立整合绩效评估与行政问责制度的理念,实现绩效评估与行政问责两者体系上的衔接,健全绩效评估与行政问责制度整合的制度保障,逐步开展绩效评估与行政问责制度整合的改革试点这四个方面入手.     

日本教师的人事考核评价制度

随着日本公务员人事考核制度的深化,日本学校教师的人事考核制度也在逐渐地展开。教师评价包括工作态度、工作成绩、完成任务能力、工作效果等方面。评价的目的是为了促进教师能力的提高和学校整体教学活动效果的提高。这一制度的实施也引发了日本教育界对一些问题的争论和探讨。     

The accountability era in US teacher education: looking back,looking forward

Abstract

In keeping with the theme of the 40th anniversary issue of EJTE, this article looks back and forward at US teacher education accountability. It argues that “holding teacher education accountable” has been the major approach to reforming teacher education in the US for the last two decades, assuming that enhanced teacher education quality depends on vigilant public evaluation and monitoring of outcomes related to teacher education institutions, programs, and teacher candidates. This article looks back at the “era of accountability” by examining five policy, political, and professional developments that contributed to its emergence and strong hold on US teacher education. Looking forward to the future of teacher education accountability in the US, the article argues that we need a new approach – democratic accountability in teacher education – which is based on intelligent professional responsibility for students’ learning including democratic knowledge and skills, strong equity, and genuine collaboration with multiple stakeholders.     

School principals’ views of teacher evaluation policy: lessons learned from two empirical studies

Teacher evaluation accountability policies are emerging worldwide. This study examines principals’ perceptions of teacher evaluation in terms of commonalities and differences arising from two research projects conducted in Portugal and in the US. Perceptions of school principals in regard to a new policy on teacher evaluation as well as its perceived effects at school and conditions for its implementation will be analysed. Findings point to the challenges and successes of coping with mandated accountability measures in two different contexts. Principals balanced perceived conflicting goals, sought maintenance of positive teacher relationships and school culture and managed the tensions of policy implementation and the making sense of its effects at school. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

A democratic community of practice: unpicking all those words

The No Outsiders research consortium draws upon the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) notion of a community of practice with a shared focus on ‘researching approaches to sexualities equality in primary schools’. While the word ‘community’, for some, may carry connotations of harmony and even homogeneity, the project proposal anticipated that much of the project development would emerge from dissensus, rather than consensus. In this paper two participants, the senior researcher and a teacher‐researcher, will analyse themes that have emerged through web‐based and email discussions among participants over the course of a year focusing on negotiating these kinds of hierarchical relationships among teacher‐researchers and university researchers. Rather than providing guidelines for establishing and maintaining a democratic community of practice, we examine the complexities inherent in the process. We argue that the negotiation process itself is a crucial aspect of collaboration, and recommend resisting the temptation to expect these negotiations to minimize dissent and reach compromise.     

政策悖论框架下学位论文抽检政策的效能分析

学位论文抽检政策是基于结果导向的问责制度而产生的质量保障手段,分析其效能可以为政策进一步完善与有效实施提供启示。检视J省2016-2019年学术型硕士学位论文抽检数据和相关政策文本,发现抽检政策实施和强化后,学位论文质量持续提升,然而不同类型院校和不同学科呈现出差异化政策回应,其中教学型大学和教学研究型大学的论文质量提升最快,文学和艺术学的论文质量提升较快,法学、经济学、教育学论文质量改善较慢,且政策强化后,各类院校和学科对政策的再次回应也呈现出差异。差异化效能反映出三组关键政策要素的博弈以及其中产生的相悖结果:公平与效率的政策价值博弈、简约与精细的政策规则博弈、外在激励与内在动力的政策措施博弈。忽视这三组博弈会抑制政策发挥应有的效能。为提高效能,抽检政策需处理好潜在的要素相悖问题,更好地平衡公平与效率的价值目标,适度细化规则,增强政策实施的内在动力。     

Accountability and control in American schools*

Abstract

One of the most controversial and significant of contemporary education reforms has been the teacher accountability movement. From this perspective, low-quality teachers and teaching are a major factor behind inadequate school performance, and a lack of accountability and control in schools is a major factor behind the problem of low-quality teachers and teaching. In turn, to advocates of this reform movement, the solution is to centralize control of schools and hold teachers more accountable. Utilizing a sociology of organizations, occupations and work perspective, the objective of this article was to offer a critique of the teacher accountability perspective and movement. This article draws from, and summarizes, the results of a series of empirical research projects on the levels, distribution and effects of accountability and control in American schools. The argument of the article is that the teacher accountability perspective overlooks some of the most important sources and forms of organizational accountability and control that exist in schools and overlooks the ways schools themselves, and in particular the ways they are managed and organized, contribute to the teacher quality problem. As a result, teacher accountability reforms often do not succeed and can have a negative impact on teacher quality and school performance.     

Teacher resistance against school reform: reflecting an inconvenient truth

In this article, the contexts, forms and consequences of teacher resistance against school reforms based on quality assurance policies are discussed. The problems are demonstrated by recurring on research devoted to the acceptance and/or resistance of (German) teachers against standards-based accountability policies. These results demonstrate that the majority in the teacher force ignores, misinterprets or misuses the feedback information from standards-based performance tests aiming at a data-driven development of classroom teaching. Only a small part shows an adequate usage of feedback information, especially those schools that already have developed a culture of internal evaluation. In general, the success or failure of educational innovations is difficult to estimate, because it is a matter of interpretation and post hoc reconstruction.     

The Impact of a High Stakes Teacher Evaluation System: Educator Perspectives on Accountability

The use of student achievement data to evaluate an individual teacher's effectiveness has become a new focus in educational policy. This article focuses on the underresearched teacher perception of this new policy measure. Drawing on ethnographic research procedures, this article explores how first-grade teachers in one state navigated a new high-stakes teacher evaluation system. Although the results indicate that teachers have a desire for accountability, findings also show a variety of beliefs on the validity of teacher evaluation, as well as differing applications of scoring measures across school contexts.     

Employment Reference Response Strategies in K–12 Schools: Harmonizing Policies and Practices with Ethical Standards and Professional Responsibilities

This article describes Teacher Work Sample Methodology (TWSM) as one piece of an in-place accountability system for the initial preparation and licensure of teachers that includes evidence of student learning. The underlying tenets of both the methodology specifically and the notion of accountability systems generally are explored from the perspective of using evidence of student learning. This discussion includes the argument that teacher do indeed influence student learning and thus can ethically be part of an accountability system. However, the author also argues that the teaching and learning context is important and must be taken into account within such systems. The author also describes why, especially at the preservice level, the notion of accountability is part of a broader “social contract.” Finally, the author argues that the aim of any accountability system should be to develop personal, professional responsibility rather than to develop an external hammer for performance. A summary of the differences TWSM has made at the individual teacher level and within the institution, the state, and the nation generally is presented. The author concludes that the intended impact of the system—to develop personal, professional responsibility—has been largely achieved.     

Resistance to classroom observation in the context of teacher evaluation: teachers’ and department heads’ experiences and perspectives

This paper reports the main findings of a study that sought to understand how teachers and department heads perceived and experienced the implementation of a classroom observation system in a teacher evaluation context. The data was collected through a teacher and department head survey and interviews with department heads who were responsible for classroom observation. The findings show that respondents regarded classroom observation as an inadequate teacher evaluation instrument. It was also viewed as one of the features of the teacher evaluation system that least contributed to the teachers’ professional development. Department heads felt torn between their intermediate management role as teacher observers and their professional role as teacher peers. Cultural norms of individual professional autonomy that regulated relations among colleagues prevented department heads from using information, gathered through classroom observation, to nourish in-depth professional discussions about concrete educational practices.     

基于合作教研的教师专业发展：问题与对策

合作教研之于教师专业发展有重要意义,有利于提高教师专业知识;有利于提高教师实践能力;有利于激发教师专动业力。当前合作教研存在的问题主要有刻板的合作规范导致教师的消极行为;过度的行政权力导致教师的话语沉默;异化的业绩评价导致教师抵触情绪。针对这些问题,我们提出了一些改善合作教研以促进教师专业发展的策略,包括建立开放的合作教研组织;建立专业取向的合作教研制度;建立发展性教师业绩评价体系。