Teach-Now Module 6 Unit 4 Activity 3: Teacher Evaluation
Teaching Evaluations
My current teaching situation is in Taiwan, at an international high school that primarily caters to Taiwanese students who are unable to attend American schools (having no foreign passport), but still wish to obtain an education different from traditional Taiwanese education.
Even before the job had started, the contract outlined the evaluations I would be given, as well as the criteria that will be used to assess my teaching. How well I perform the criteria would determine whether I would be considered for recontracting, and would determine the amount of my end-of-year bonus. These criteria varied, but very little truly reflected what I feel to be an accurate assessment of a teacher's teaching ability. These criteria included:
1. Leaves taken (regardless of circumstances, such as sick leave or other)
2. Clocking in (lateness, even by a minute, regardless of whether you have class or not, means a drop in salary)
3. School promotion (speaking negatively about the school, or not displaying enough enthusiasm, could also mean a salary drop)
It did not feel like a teaching job so much as a typical white collar company job (which, being a private school run by a man who started off managing restaurants, is no surprise).
This has caused me to consider what I would like to see in future teaching evaluations, what criteria I would like to be included to best inform my teaching.
I looked at the following two different teacher evaluation systems:
1. Ohio State Evaluation
2. Danielson Framework
The Ohio State evaluation uses three separate components to determine teacher effectiveness. These are the teacher's performance on standards, student growth, and alternative components, such as student surveys, self evaluations, and peer evaluations. In contrast, the Danielson Framework focuses purely on the teacher performance on standards, focusing on how well they prepare, create a classroom environment, act as a professional, and instruct students.
Immediately I feel unease about the Ohio evaluation, as it appears that my assessment as a teacher is dependent on the performance of my students. This measuring system would likely be through standardized testing, which would force me to teach to the test, and not to address individual student needs, which would, ironically, make me a worse teacher (at least, to my own standards). Having my performance linked to student growth looks good on paper, but often fails to take in context, and the standards, being removed from the students, do not take away the unique situation of each child. In my case, my students are all EFL students, exposed to English only through teacher instruction. This means that their English ability will be below level, and all of their performances on these standards would be skewed. I have also needed to adjust my teaching to include teaching students how to behave in a western classroom, an unanticipated difficulty, and I still am unsure just how deeply it would impact student growth.
In contrast, the Danielson Framework includes more of what I am looking for in a teacher evaluation. It includes all the basic standards, standards which Teach-Now also includes. While it is an excellent framework for how I perform while I'm teaching, a teacher does more than just teach. This is where the framework weakens. I may not be able to design unique lessons, but my strengths may lie in my ability to build rapport with students, and care for them personally even outside the classroom. How well I work with my colleagues, as well as how willing I am to expend extra time to help improve the school should also be considered. A teacher may be excellent, but if she alienates all of her colleagues, that is an issue. If she shows an unwillingness to consider or adopt new teaching methods, this may also be a problem that cannot be seen within the framework.
Final Conclusion
In the end, I want an evaluation that informs, but does not necessarily punish. How much student growth happens under my teaching should be considered as another data point, but rather than using it to show how inadequate I am as a teacher, I feel it should inform me on what alternative methods I can use to improve student development. No one teacher should be held responsible in this area. My current place uses student surveys as a part of evaluation at the moment, but this is used as one way to inform, as all too often, a student grudge can skew the accuracy of an evaluation (one student who was absent 65% of the time rated me low when asked if he had learned anything from me, which, given that he was rarely there to hear me, made both me and the admin laugh).
I would like the main body of my evaluation to encompass the Danielson Framework, but to also include components such as my willingness to engage in activities outside of teaching (especially with students), my ability to support the school environment, and how well I work with my colleagues. I am a teacher, but as all teachers know, we do so much more than just teach.
My current teaching situation is in Taiwan, at an international high school that primarily caters to Taiwanese students who are unable to attend American schools (having no foreign passport), but still wish to obtain an education different from traditional Taiwanese education.
Even before the job had started, the contract outlined the evaluations I would be given, as well as the criteria that will be used to assess my teaching. How well I perform the criteria would determine whether I would be considered for recontracting, and would determine the amount of my end-of-year bonus. These criteria varied, but very little truly reflected what I feel to be an accurate assessment of a teacher's teaching ability. These criteria included:
1. Leaves taken (regardless of circumstances, such as sick leave or other)
2. Clocking in (lateness, even by a minute, regardless of whether you have class or not, means a drop in salary)
3. School promotion (speaking negatively about the school, or not displaying enough enthusiasm, could also mean a salary drop)
It did not feel like a teaching job so much as a typical white collar company job (which, being a private school run by a man who started off managing restaurants, is no surprise).
This has caused me to consider what I would like to see in future teaching evaluations, what criteria I would like to be included to best inform my teaching.
I looked at the following two different teacher evaluation systems:
1. Ohio State Evaluation
2. Danielson Framework
The Ohio State evaluation uses three separate components to determine teacher effectiveness. These are the teacher's performance on standards, student growth, and alternative components, such as student surveys, self evaluations, and peer evaluations. In contrast, the Danielson Framework focuses purely on the teacher performance on standards, focusing on how well they prepare, create a classroom environment, act as a professional, and instruct students.
Immediately I feel unease about the Ohio evaluation, as it appears that my assessment as a teacher is dependent on the performance of my students. This measuring system would likely be through standardized testing, which would force me to teach to the test, and not to address individual student needs, which would, ironically, make me a worse teacher (at least, to my own standards). Having my performance linked to student growth looks good on paper, but often fails to take in context, and the standards, being removed from the students, do not take away the unique situation of each child. In my case, my students are all EFL students, exposed to English only through teacher instruction. This means that their English ability will be below level, and all of their performances on these standards would be skewed. I have also needed to adjust my teaching to include teaching students how to behave in a western classroom, an unanticipated difficulty, and I still am unsure just how deeply it would impact student growth.
In contrast, the Danielson Framework includes more of what I am looking for in a teacher evaluation. It includes all the basic standards, standards which Teach-Now also includes. While it is an excellent framework for how I perform while I'm teaching, a teacher does more than just teach. This is where the framework weakens. I may not be able to design unique lessons, but my strengths may lie in my ability to build rapport with students, and care for them personally even outside the classroom. How well I work with my colleagues, as well as how willing I am to expend extra time to help improve the school should also be considered. A teacher may be excellent, but if she alienates all of her colleagues, that is an issue. If she shows an unwillingness to consider or adopt new teaching methods, this may also be a problem that cannot be seen within the framework.
Final Conclusion
In the end, I want an evaluation that informs, but does not necessarily punish. How much student growth happens under my teaching should be considered as another data point, but rather than using it to show how inadequate I am as a teacher, I feel it should inform me on what alternative methods I can use to improve student development. No one teacher should be held responsible in this area. My current place uses student surveys as a part of evaluation at the moment, but this is used as one way to inform, as all too often, a student grudge can skew the accuracy of an evaluation (one student who was absent 65% of the time rated me low when asked if he had learned anything from me, which, given that he was rarely there to hear me, made both me and the admin laugh).
I would like the main body of my evaluation to encompass the Danielson Framework, but to also include components such as my willingness to engage in activities outside of teaching (especially with students), my ability to support the school environment, and how well I work with my colleagues. I am a teacher, but as all teachers know, we do so much more than just teach.
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