From pentagon to triangle: A cross‐cultural investigation of an implicit theory of giftedness

The present study examined an implicit theory of giftedness among pre‐service Chinese teachers. Participants were 189 second year students (preservice teachers, 74 male and 115 female, average age 20 years) from China Central Teachers’ University. Participants responded to an inventory based on Stemberg and Zhang's (1995) pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness and a simple questionnaire designed to cross‐validate two of the five criteria in the pentagonal model. Results indicated that in making judgments about giftedness, participants took into consideration three of the five criteria specified in the pentagonal model: excellence, productivity, and value. The excellence and productivity criteria were also confirmed by results from the simple questionnaire. Rarity and demonstrability, the two other criteria specified in the pentagonal model, were not taken into consideration by the participants in their evaluation of giftedness. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Evaluating teacher performance in language learning classes: the gap between students and department administrators

ABSTRACT

Using data from multiple evaluation instruments to evaluate university teachers’ teaching quality has been popular in practice; however, the inconsistency of these evaluation results has not received sufficient attention. This study intended to fill the gap by investigating the main reasons for the discrepancy in teaching performance that resulted from student evaluation surveys and classroom observations of two administrators from the English department in one of the largest universities in Vietnam. Student evaluation surveys (n = 604) suggested that teachers performed better in activities that focused on instructional techniques than when promoting classroom interaction and student engagement. Structural equation models further showed that activities that engaged them in learning and promoted classroom interaction had a strong positive effect on their overall satisfaction with their teachers’ performances. However, interviews with administrators from the department revealed the conflicting finding that they felt that teachers whose teaching performance was less satisfactory should focus primarily on instructional techniques.