REVIEW OF TEACHERS PERFORMANCE
Evaluation of teachers’ performance ensures development of an effective educational system. Teaching-learning process is double-sided: a teacher presents material and motivates students to learn and use acquired knowledge, however, pupils’ performance and involvement into learning process mirrors whether teachers’ objectives are reached and methods are working as planned. For instance, Australia’s federal Education Minister, Peter Garrett, suggests:
Every teacher, every year in Australia will have an annual performance review and there will be ongoing professional development support throughout their careers. That’s a huge step forward because we will be able to get continuous development and, if we have underperforming teachers, they will get the help they need to improve. (qtd. in Stevenson)
Review of teachers’ performance relies on getting outside feedback. In this paper, a comprehensive approach to determining teacher’s efficiency is offered. The advantage of the suggested review scenario is in multi-facet nature of the feedback and media used in it.
The perspectives of this review are: 1) teacher him/herself; 2) pupils; 3) parents; 4) school headmaster and colleagues; 5) independent observer with professional background in pedagogics and subject taught.
The teacher’s perspective is a valuable component in a performance review that is conducted in a form of interview with an independent party/ federal ministry representative or school expert. The interview is to be built around the questions on: a) subject competence; b) teaching objectives; c) view on classroom management and organization (see Stronge 109-15). Pupils can be asked to fill in a questionnaire where questions will be focused on a teachers’ subject competence and the quality of information/material presented in the classroom. A separate section of questions will be devoted to evaluation of teacher’s ability to organize, plan, motivate and control in-classroom activities. A useful idea is to ask pupils to fill in these questionnaires by an independent expert (not by a teacher him/herself) in extra-curriculum class.
An important insight into teacher’s performance can be gained from questionnaires filled-out by parents whose children attend classes with a teacher under review. A valuable perspective will be available after visiting a class, led by a teacher under consideration, paid by a school principal with or without other teachers (see Eed.state.ak.us 12-3). This visit can be announced / unannounced or even of both forms: at the beginning of the performance review procedure – announced and at the end – unannounced to get a comprehensive vision of the teacher’s competence and performance.
The final point of the performance review scenario is distant video observation (see Eed.state.ak.us) conducted by and independent expert and/or school experts. There is an ethical issue involved of a person being videotaped. At the initial stage of the review, a teacher should be offered an agreement with a program of review to be signed. This will help to make sure that a teacher is aware of what is he/she going through. The trick with a video observation is that camera will be placed into the classroom for the entire period of review (e.g. 2 months), but only one class of …