Teachers for the 21st Century
"...the absence of policy frameworks for teacher appraisal does not mean that teachers receive no professional feedback. In Denmark, for example, while teacher appraisal is not conducted systematically at the national level, teachers typically receive appraisal or feedback from their school leaders once a year. In Norway, teacher-appraisal approaches are not regulated nationally, but are designed at the local and/or school level. In Iceland, teacher appraisal is conducted at the discretion of individual schools and school boards...."It is also interesting to note that among the countries listed in the table above, only three, Chile, South Korea, and Mexico, have a reward scheme. Teacher appraisal is indeed a formidable task especially if class observations are included. In this area, time as well as manpower are necessary. The following is a table describing who does evaluations of classroom instruction in the countries included in this report:
It is therefore tempting to use test scores or other learning outcome statistics as a shortcut to evaluating teachers. Unfortunately, these measures do not really help inform the teacher of what measures need to be taken. For a teacher appraisal scheme to be useful for professional development, the method obviously must go beyond test scores. The following box describes an example from South Korea:
|OECD(2013), Teachers for the 21st Century: Using Evaluation to Improve Teaching, OECD publishing.|
Lessons on teacher appraisalGovernance
• clarify the purposes of teacher appraisal and ensure that they are aligned with national education objectives.
• establish teaching standards to guide teachers’ professional development and appraisal.
• establish a coherent framework for teacher appraisal.
• use multiple instruments and sources of evidence.
• provide support for effective classroom observations.
• avoid using student feedback for summative appraisal.
• strengthen pedagogical leadership to enhance internal school appraisal processes.
• Build the capacity of evaluators and those being evaluated for effective teacher appraisal.
• Develop central expertise to continuously monitor and improve appraisal policies and practices.
Use of results
• ensure that formative teacher appraisal feeds into professional development and school development.
• use the results of summative teacher appraisal for career-advancement decisions.
• ensure effective use of results by addressing the challenges of implementation.
Teacher appraisals must make teachers think more about their students. Tying teacher evaluations to salaries or bonuses simply divert the attention of teachers to themselves, their needs, and especially the fact that they are often underpaid and overworked. Teacher appraisals must lead into professional development.