The Evaluation of Teaching Performance

Abstract

Evaluation of teaching Is a key concern of educational administration. In Victoria, Australia, inspectors are required to carry out assessments of teaching performance hut no written guide or checklist is provided. This study seeks to identify by means of two instruments, a critical incident paper and an evaluation record designed to highlight Mitzel's Product, Process and Presage criteria, the criteria used by Victorian inspectors in evaluating teacher performance. It was found that inspectors stressed Process criteria when recommending promotion in teaching positions and Presage criteria when recommending selection for administrative positions. Little emphasis was placed on Product criteria. Inspectors' judgments of teachers were found to be based largely on their own individual “image” of good teachers. On the basis of this study it seems that a guide could be developed to assist inspectors in reaching agreement on basic criteria for promotion of teachers.

Interviewing staff: A review of the Literature

“…The interviewer must know what makes a good teacher and here he must rely on those studies which have been concerned with the assessment of teachers and teaching performance. Moore and Neal [11] stated that 'the major justification for the evaluation of teaching performance must nevertheless be found in the desire to improve teaching and learning performance'; objectives which apply equally to the selection of teachers. The assessment of teachers has been subject to a number of studies in both this country and the USA.…”