Student evaluation of teachers’ pedagogical skills during the first COVID-19 period

With the COVID-19 outbreak at the beginning of 2020, many language teachers worldwide who were successfully implementing face-to-face teaching had to abruptly switch to online education, which was not something they were trained for or had experience with. Were they successful? The present study asked students from Turkey (TUR), Poland (POL), the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) to evaluate their teachers’ professional adaptation and success during the first emergency online teaching semester. The results of the study showed that there were important similarities in the ways students in the examined four countries approached and evaluated the level of professionalism of their teachers in the first COVID-19 period regarding their teachers’ computer literacy, online teaching skills, creation of materials appropriate for online teaching.

Psychometric Properties of Student Evaluation of Teachers’ Performance Scale: Evidence from Debre Markos University Students’ Evaluation Dataset

Introduction. Student evaluation of teachers’ effectiveness is one of the most common tools used as a measure of teaching performance and accountability by various universities across the globe. The major purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity and underlying structure of students’ evaluation of the higher education teaching effectiveness scale used by all public universities in Ethiopia. Methodology. Data collected from 1397 students at Debe Markos University were used for this analysis. Cronbach’s alpha values and average interitem correlation were used to study the internal consistency reliability of the scale. Composite reliability, average variance extracted, hetero trait-mono-trait ratio, maximum shared variance, average shared variance, and interconstruct correlations were used to assess the construct validity of the scale, and exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed with 20 items to test the hypothesis which introduced a four-dimensional construct for teachers’ evaluation scale. We used different goodness-of-fit indices to measure the fit of the models. Results. The scale was shown to have good internal consistency and convergent validity but lacked discriminant validity. Furthermore, confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the four-factor model produced inadequate fit indices, revealing that the original factor structure of the scale changed. Conclusions. The results showed that Student Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness did not measure what it was supposed to be measuring. Moreover, the exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis results indicate that a two-dimensional model is better than the four-dimensional model to explain the data structure, which places limitations on its use.

An effective model of teacher appraisal

Teacher appraisal has been widely practised in China for decades. With the introduction, in 2009, of the teacher performance pay system, however, teacher appraisal has undergone certain changes. This study explores the practice of teacher appraisal, using a qualitative approach and taking public schools in Shanghai as its research sites. The methods adopted include interviews with teachers and school administrators, observation of relevant activities and document analysis. The study reveals that teacher appraisal in schools in Shanghai is not a one-off event. Although the procedure for generating appraisal results occurs at the end of each year, data collection activities for appraisal – including lesson observation, student evaluation of teachers and checking teachers’ tasks – are conducted throughout the whole year. The current teacher appraisal system has been a success, and this study identifies four factors contributing to that success. First, administrative and developmental appraisal coexist as one single appraisal system. Second, teacher appraisal is integrated with other aspects of schools’ business. Third, teacher appraisal is perceived by teachers as credible and fair. Fourth, non-technical aspects of appraisal, such as teachers’ psychology and social dynamics, are taken into account during the appraisal process.

Constructs Used by 17–19 Year Old Students in Northern Europe When Informally Evaluating Their Teachers

This article reports the findings of a joint international Socrates project, ‘Quali-Teach’, that researched the constructs that students aged 17–19 in England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Norway use to informally evaluate their teachers. Although one would expect considerable differences in the constructs due to the factual differences in the educational systems of the countries, as well as other factors, the study shows no signficant differences between the groups. The most important determinants of student evaluation of teachers are constructs that describe affective behaviours of the teacher, which have an impact on the learning climate; and constructs that describe aspects of the professionality of the teacher, such as his/her teaching skills. In keeping with earlier research by the principal researchers, the main finding seems to be that the creation of a positive learning climate is the most important factor in effective teaching, in the perceptions of young adults, irrespective of country and curriculum area; combined with a range of professional skills that may be developed in initial training.