Do you buy any car for any purpose without being at least 90% sure (evualute) if it fits your needs

present or near future?

It is all in the question.

Antonio, I think that there is some sense in the reply of Constantine, but not all truth.

The key issue is: And who are the judges? By the way, this is the phrase by Russian writer and diplomat of the 19th century A.Griboedov, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Griboyedov  .

Indeed, teacher's evaluation can sometimes be an objective measure. But very often it can be used in dirty games at some departments to block promotion of some people. It is not very difficult to make students angry even when teacher is good enough. Especially when a group (typically small) has poor knowledge and is angry due to low grades for an exam.

Teachers prepare tomorrow's workforce, so it is important to evaluate what they are doing to ensure that students acquire the needed skills, knowledge, and attitudes for functioning in the 21st Century workforce. If not, teachers may not make the extra effort to update their knowledge and skills and pass on their ignorance to an entire generation.

Best regards,

Debra 

The history which surrounds teaching has the profession in a bind. Many view teaching as an easy job, which  it is not. Our society value some profession over others, pay more  money and gives respect, not the same to teachers. Ironically, none of these professions would exist without a teacher. If you want a honest evaluation then the results are telling no? Just saying, the hypocrisy which surrounds the field begs the question, what exactly are we evaluating skills, value or microaggressive oppressive systems?

Continuing Professional Development without cheating might be the answer to ensuring that experienced teachers keep up with technology, subject matter and teaching methods.

Dr. Lucero:

As far as Spanish language teaching as a foreign language is concerned, I believe that the assessment criteria serve to evaluate, regulate, and improve our educational process and are the curriculum component, which reveals us if students have developed the abilities set out in the objectives and if they have acquired the communicative competences. They are part of the curricular design components, whose composition we could summarize as follows:

·         Educational goals: objectives and competences

·         Contents

·         Assessment criteria in the nature of feedback

Nevertheless, we will focus on everything as far as the assessment criteria are concerned, if we understand by such a concept what students have learned and to what degree they have learned. However, for teachers to know what learners have learned and to what extent, understandably this learning result will be affected by another set of factors such as those related to students themselves, how learners become skilled at, and to several other features associated with the educational practice itself. Consequently, what is affecting the outcome and learning process in terms of teaching? Reasonably, firstly, if contents are really adjusted to the knowledge level, which learners have, criterion of psychological significance, if contents and objectives have been sequenced progressively, criterion of logical significance, thereby taking into account the diversity of methods, of activities, and of strategies for teaching. And secondly, if different kinds of activities are applied, what we are going to propose within the assessment itself of teaching planning. In this way, as teachers, when it comes to setting the assessment criteria, we must take into account what and to what extent students have learned, in addition to our educational practice. In other words, we will look carefully at what and degree of learning involving the corresponding objectives and competences with regard to contents, and with regard with our educational planning as teachers.

Very truly yours,

Javier.

@ Ben

If it is convenient, could you please elicit these informal forms of feedback?

Thanks.

Universities play a very important role in the preparation of human resources at the highest level and in the creation, development, transfer and adaptation of knowledge, are a key factor for the development of society. In them culture is created with the development of research, culture is preserved through professional training and culture is promoted through university extension.

The role of teachers in this process is crucial. Performance evaluation should allow assessment of the degree to which each teacher influences the achievement of the university's objectives.

The evaluation must be objective and for this it is essential to plan the work taking into account the functions of a university professor in the teaching work in undergraduate and postgraduate, methodological, research, technological innovation, overcoming and university extension. The evaluation must correspond to the fulfillment of the results plan.

I do agree with Debra. Teacher need to practice long-life learning, otherwise, they cannot tackle complexity and incoming demands of the world. However, I think that other types of preofssionals should be periodically aassessed in their core competences (required competences in their fields), but such assessment should be more practical than theoretical. I lack a dynamic learning in sustainability field (the field of my research) because this is a overwhelming, plural, easily scattered field of research. It seems sustainability fits everywhere, and paradoxically, it fits nothing in depth. It is definetly not rooted in daily reflection of individuals, rather than overdiscussed. I wish I could be wrong. I wish Popperian arguments to my own conviction. 

There appear to be different domains for evaluation: a) short-term feedback; b) long-term feedback; c) societal needs; d) personal needs; e) economic yield; f) self-realization development; g) academia; and h) real-world problems.

Perhaps we need to address each domain, according what is most pressing and according to what fulfills our personal needs.

What I mean by this is that if you are in a situation where you don't know how your basic physical needs are going to be met, then what is most important, as a student is: how can I learn a skill to earn a decent living? If, on the other hand, you have the enduring compulsion to, say, draw sketches, then what is most important to you as a student is: how can I improve my creative skills to become a better artist.

Maslow's triangle of personal needs is useful here: Ultimately we, as students, would like to satisfy our needs for self-realization. However, we cannot work at that until our more fundamental physical and social needs are satisfied. So depending on the society in which we live and our personal drives, what constitutes a valuable education (and thereby a good teacher) can vary greatly.

Evaluation is a required step in educational process. It is very important since it gives a reflection of your performance inside the class. Experience would not be useful unless it is submitted to situations and should be evaluated to find out the defects and gaps and rectify them. Continuous evaluation stimulate the teacher to be updated with the latest of the realm of teaching.

If the evaluation refers to teacher performance then I am all for peer assessment rather than evaluation. An experienced teacher knows that even peer classes are far from being identical and therefore the teacher performance depends on the class potentials.  An evaluator may only see the teacher performance on a particular class but a peer assessor can see the issue more realistically as she is part of the same educational system.

If the evaluation is about the content of teaching then the evaluation can be done by experts in the field on the yearly basis so that the taught materials are fresh and up to date.

All of the answers so far have addressed the issue of evaluation of teaching from an external perspective to the teacher. Teaching is an extremely complex profession with many confounding variables determining the outcome of a lesson. Even from the experienced teacher's own standpoint receiving constructive evaluation within a positive ethos based on the purposes of the lesson and the impact of the compounding variables triangulates and adds to their own evaluation of the lesson thus helping them to improve the outcomes of future lessons. Teachers probably have a 40 year career. Our world is constantly changing, as is the pace of technological change so what was good teaching 20 years ago may not be the best range of approaches to use today.

The impact of evidence from neuroscience is resolving some of the long time dichotomies of what good teaching is. For example Bruner's idea that child development is continuous has been shown to be wrong. Or, our understanding of working memory and it's impact on classroom practice. Also psychological research is also providing guidance for teachers. For example Carol Dweck's work on the the teacher's understanding of intelligence. Finally an experienced teacher (an ex-colleague Head of Department) may be someone who has taught the same way for 20 years and fails to understand why lessons are not so effective today, so blames the learners.

So teacher evaluation that target's professional development is an essential part of the teaching profession. How it is carried out and for what purpose are the main issues for discussion.

Evaluation of teaching efficiency is important. However, the current practice (students put grades to teacher) should not be dominant and should not influence teacher's career. This feedback is important and can help teacher to perform better in future. However, it is relevant only for the case of routine teaching when curriculum does not change over 10-20 years (for example, math and language study).

In many cases teacher has to adapt to changing knowledge (computer science, current politics, etc) and has to change part of curriculum every year. Clearly, perfection in methodology can  be hardly grasped in this case.

Students (who are often lazy) might also not understand why they have to learn something different and cannot rely on the notes left by the previous class (this would be easier), thus lowering valuation of a good teacher who tracks the changing world.

In order to be efficient, teaching should build the bridge between skills of students and demand of industry for knowledge. Only students after working for few years can be relevant judges of the necessity and efficiency of courses studied in university. But sometimes they cannot be good judges too, because: a) their failed to find application of  knowledge from university for personal reason, b) it was not the fault of professor that wrong course was taught, but of the department who decided about curriculum.

You can find more related ideas in my paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280011442_THE_INTERACTION_BETWEEN_INDUSTRY_DEMAND_RESEARCH_AND_TEACHING

Conference Paper THE INTERACTION BETWEEN INDUSTRY DEMAND, RESEARCH AND TEACHING

The evaluation of the teacher should include other aspects such as the methodological work he performs in the subject he teaches, the development of research and professional improvement. These aspects help to keep teachers updated and ensure the efficient development of the teaching process.

It is important to know the opinions of students for feedback on the development of the teaching process, but it is not the only criterion to be taken into account in the evaluation.

So far it seems that most of the responses are in favor of evaluating teachers; but the metrics and methods for the evaluation can vary according to the external context.

I personally am opposed to an administrative process for evaluating teachers. I feel each teacher should be treated as a dedicated professional who does things in ways that are true to their personality and reflect the need to connect emotionally with their students.

Studies have shown that grit and self-confidence in a student are the best indicators that a student will do well when they have left school, not their grade-point average. I would go further and say that students who really grasped and applied the principles underlying the matters being learned will be able to handle the future, unpredictable problems that the world will present; how many facts they have memorized will be of little value.

It is incumbent on the teacher to foster the development of grit and self-confidence, as well as to imbue the students with a keen appreciation of the importance of underlying principles and how to apply them to unusual circumstances.

Assessing such capabilities in a teacher is hard to do, especially when considering that teaching methods will need to change according to the huge variability students' characteristics.  

Every human activities should be valorized. Quite another question is how to do it.

Teachers of the whole-of-life estimated student activities. You should not they against the assessment of their own work.

Is evaluation of experienced teachers needed? Why or why not?

Evaluation can be taken positively for experienced teachers or other job professions e.g. engineers, IT specialists, nurses, researchers etc. in order to verify they maintain the minimal competency as well as acquire the appropriate new skills to meet the constantly changing environments / requirements etc.

Evaluation can be conducted in different ways beside theoretical and practical tests / assessments. Some professions / certifications e.g. PMP Project Manager, CISSP IT Security Specialist etc. required their members to accumulate & attend certain number of hours of approved training (onsite or online) or performing certain number of hours of community services etc. before they are considered passing / clearing the evaluation.

The evaluation of experienced teachers is necessary, because it must be proved, on a continual basis, that they do their job correctly, adopting the more efficient methods of teaching.

Regards

Teaching is a very sensitive and crucial process especially in early ages. Accordingly, teachers must be evaluated for higher quality qualifications to ensure that they are fit to the intended goals of teaching.

Regards

SM Najim

Educators should be making their own evaluations more deliberate, more formal. see the link below.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.543.5561&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Some thoughts and comments on your question:

Evaluation of experienced teachers (or any others) already occurs on a regular basis. 

Teachers are "constantly" evaluated by students, parents, administration and other teachers. Having said that, another adult in the classroom does tend to focus self-reflection both in your immediate setting and after the event. I like having teacher aide's in the classroom because they can offer immediate feedback on lessons. Mentoring student teachers who observe your lessons has a similar affect. Not only that, but in mentoring student teachers you need to break down what makes for effective teaching and behaviour management. This more detailed, in-depth reflection probably has more of an impact on teaching. Student teachers also often bring the latest research and teaching ideas and fads with them from university and are usually required to implement them in their teaching in some way: which makes you aware of them. This can add to an experienced teachers repertoire of knowledge and skills. Anecdotally, other teachers who have mentored student teachers have made similar observations. 

But I don't think this is the kind of evaluation you are referring to. I suspect you are asking if they should be formally evaluated against specific criteria, perhaps by an external examiner of some kind. I think you'd end up with your 'Board Certificate' problem. Having been externally evaluated, I know that you find out what the criteria are (administration will help on this because it reflects on the image of the school), and go through the motions of meeting those criteria for the evaluation event. It may even improve your teaching as a side effect. I believe in the UK, it is has been found that teacher performance diminishes after school inspections and teacher evaluation because of all the stress it has put the whole school under. If I recall correctly, Hattie has recently indicated that rather than put effective teachers through unnecessary evaluations or hoop-jumping they should be allowed to get on with teaching and the emphasis should on having them pass on their know-how.

Also, there is a difference between experienced and effective teachers. 

I think the issue of evaluation comes in when we want to appraise and give a kind of judgment on a particular programme or process. Educational programme is as dynamic as the society it serves, being experienced may not mean being up-to-date in practice. You may acquire experience from what you have been doing over time and may not have added anything to what you have been doing. Therefore, there is the need to evaluate the so called experienced teachers. again the society has failed in proper classification of those said to be experienced. They are being determined by the number of years they have stayed in work and not the productive output. So for better educational practice they ought to be evaluated.

I think it all depends on the evaluation criteria and who does the evaluation. Would a very successful teacher who uses an unorthodox method of teaching be deemed incompetent?

Evaluation of teachers is necessary because the world is fast changing into new ways of handling situations.Same applies to teachers, a teacher maybe 20 years experienced but his experience may no longer be valid through what is called Continuous professional development (CPDs).Pursuing Cpds is to ensure that you are still relevant in your field.

In the past years teaching has been teacher-centred but now we are moving into an era where teaching is student- centred.Teacher- centred is where the teachers does most of the donkey job and tell the students how things are done, but with student-centred we would want to see much on student involvement in doing tasks individually not 100% relying on the teacher to explore new things for them. 

Hence teachers need to be evaluated to see if they are teaching the right way and see if they are still relevant in their field.

Hi There 

Firstly, Medical professional not only need certified, to keep their practicing privileges, we have to have 360 degree evaluation. I strongly disagree generalizing the mal practices if any practices within the medical profession. We are liable legally for the actions and omissions.

In regards to evaluation, with the change climate and developments not only teachers every individual has to be evaluated in one form or another to be effective. Without evaluation and reflection, we wont be able to confirm or deny anything apart from being subjective. 

Contrary, I do agree the method of evaluation needs to be evaluated for its effectiveness. No one evaluation methods is superior to another one. I personally favour 360 degree evaluation. 

Victor

Yes, most definitely.  Everyday things change in terms of education and training so teachers should stay abreast just like any other profession.  This is the first line of defense so to speak so it is important that teachers are preparing students to operate in the current century.  Students have to compete with all kinds of talents when they leave that classroom so it is critical that they get the best training.  To give the best training teachers have to stay abreast of current trends in whatever subject area they are teaching.

The problem with ANY system of professional evaluation is that it ALWAYS introduces a normative power on a profession by a small group of individuals defining the critera and the method of evaluation (Who evaluates YOU is ABOVE YOU). The best teachers, those that cultuvated their skills through years of teaching and which probably cannot even convey in words what is it there are doing that make them so effective teacher, since all complex professional practice is an art that one does and that they cannot not explain nor evaluate, will be the first victims of these shallow professional system of evaluation.  Some people comes out of a Ph.D. in education, very little teaching experience  or no teaching experience may end up be involve in the creation of these shallow evalution systems and so creating the norms of the professions; the best professional may receiving mediocre scores from mediocre evalutaion method, what they are doing not being really evaluate by such shalllow and mediocre methods.  Evaluation is opening wide open the doors of the mediocratization of a profession, putting the  blind narrow mind burocrats of the evaluation systems in leadership.  Evaluation is ALWAYS sold on the goal of increasing the quality of teaching and education while in practice it will ALWAYS lowers the standards through the evaluation by mediocres standards.

Teacher evaluation is necessary to all teachers regardless of seniority given the dynamics in educational theory and practice. Furthermore more technological changes necessitate continuous evaluation of classroom practitioners to keep the abreast with the ever changing teaching and learning arena. In fact if done properly, evaluation can be used as a mirror from which teachers view themselves in order to improve on classroom instruction.

Evaluation of instructional faculty is necessary as it is in any other profession. Although in promotion and tenure reviews I tend to read the comments that the students make and look for trends. One dissatisfied student is an anomaly. Twenty stating the same complaint is a trend.I prefer peer reviews, but those take a lot of time and effort. . 

La Evaluación cualquiera que sea es importante.Incluso después de cada clase debemos evaluarnos nosotros, y preguntarles a los alumnos si hay alguna parte de la clase que no les quedó clara, y además que con respeto le indiquen que cambiarían de la clase.

Esta es la mejor manera de tener a la larga una evaluación positiva.

ES IMPORTANTE SER EVALUADOS

Estela

Non hablamos Espanol

This is an English language site

Regards 

Yes as its a way of monitoring performance and recommending professional development in tandem with the need.

Whether professional, experienced or novice, there needs to be a form of evaluation. Evaluations are measures of growth and needs assessment. Evaluations provide insight (when appropriate) to the levels of practice that occurs in the classrooms. 

The evaluation of the performance of the teachers is necessary both in the experienced and those who have just entered. This for to know the impact of their educational work on the development of competencies of doctors in training.

In a recent research, was observed that when teachers are evaluate, they recognize the need to develop teaching competencies. This is significantly related to help students to be creative and innovative (score 0.64), encourage students to work positive emotions "(score 0.47), helping students to use complex thinking" (score 0.62), and "teach students to solve problems by integrating knowledge from different disciplines" (score 0.52). This information suggest that evaluate teacher performance is a key factor in the integral formation physician. (Parra, et al, 2015).

It is clear that there is no consensus on this general topic. One major factor has to do with how well or how badly an educational system is fairing. Two extreme examples can illustrate this point:

1) Universally recognized as excellent schools in northern Europe, such as in Finland. In Finland, there is no national standard for teacher evaluation. Instead, the teachers are assessed informally by their school principals in terms of how well their students are doing in core subjects and how the school is progressing relative to the local goals set by the school. In this case, there is no need to have a formal evaluation of teachers.

2) Schools in Mexico which have consistently scored very low in international assessments of student achievements. In Mexico, until recently, the national teachers' union was run for many years by a corrupt leader - who is now in prison. During this leader's rule, every aspect of the governmental educational system was poorly conceived and executed, including the qualification of teachers,  Now with the new president, who had the political courage to oust and prosecute this leader, he has required that all the teachers be evaluated. This was because it was feared that there were many unqualified teachers in public education. In this case, there was a clear need to formally evaluate the teachers.

Is evaluation of experienced teachers needed?

Personally evaluation should apply to all teachers. Performance evaluation is  indispensable component of human resource management.

Dear Cristina,

I strongly agree that excellence in teaching performance  "requires a continuous training." But evaluation? By whom? By what standards?

Teaching, is an art. The teacher is the artist. How good the art is often "in the eye of the beholder."

Teachers should be required, on an ongoing basis, to show that they are availing themselves of short-courses and/or full length courses, as school schedules permit. Some core courses should be concerned with teaching methods, but many others may be about diverse topics, as the teacher can relate, in their own way, to their teaching needs.

I think evaluation has many purposes.  Among those are salary advancement, fulfilling district or contractual requirements, and, maybe to improve professional efficacy.  It depends on who is doing the evaluating, and what the procedure for the evaluation may be.  If evaluation is a collaborative, collegial arrangement, then it is beneficial.  The person being evaluated should have input into the process.  For example, they should be able to determine where and when the evaluation will take place.  The evaluator should also have input into the process.  What instrument is used should be at that person's discretion. Well planned evaluations can be important, leading to professional growth.  Evaluations done only to fulfill requirements may not be beneficial.

Jeffrey is right. Peer evaluations with clearly stated standards are the most valuable. However, students evaluations also serve a purpose. Even if that purpose is like a canary in a coal mine.

 Dear Zainab,

Of course, if many "teachers" are not professional, as indicated by: their lack of dedication, lack of knowledge, etc., They should be subject to evaluations that have consequences. If, on the other hand, most are really dedicated and know the subjects they are teaching, then we should be careful that we are not forcing them to conform to the conventional ways of teaching.

Internationally, education is getting worse and worse. We need more teachers (who are knowledgable, inspired, and dedicated) to follow their intuition and imagination, regardless of what the education establishment thinks.This is how the teaching paradigm will change for the better. We need innovation.

Dear Zainab, I was thinking that the good teachers themselves would create innovations that are appropriate for their classes, according to the needs and interests of each student - a challenging, but fulfilling task.

Zainab is right. My children had to teach me to text. One of the reasons that I got a facebook page was to keep in contact with my students. A professor has to be able to communicate with his or her students in a way that the students find relevant and actually understand.

Perhaps because of my background as a musician (in theatre) I find that I evaluate my own teaching all the time, reflecting quite naturally on how the session went, what worked/didn't, whether I achieved what I intended, and changing my practice as a result - as would any performer.  This self-evaluation could be supported further by my observing others, and having them observe me, but that is a cost some institutions may well not be prepared/able to afford.  Institution-led evaluation typically has a different agenda altogether (ultimately, a marketing tool), and is potentially invidious and destructive when done badly for the wrong reasons.

Constant evaluation of teachers,by special boards, is required in order to provide good tuition to young students.THIS APPLIES TO ALL PROFESSIONS for science and technology generally speaking are constantly and rapidly progressing  so if one has to keep pace with this progress he must be evaluated by his peers that he matches the conditions "implied" by this progress. This of course could be achieved also through self-evaluation instead of institutional led evaluation.

Just a few points to add to the mass of interesting comments . Who assesses an experienced teacher - another less experienced or a more experienced practicioner ?It's not easy to find assessors with 30 plus years of subject teaching. What does experienced mean here, 5 years, 10 years or more in a subject or post. How do you relate progress in teaching experience to progress in pedagogy in any event. Few experienced and very capable teachers in my own schools, including me, have the sort of technological skills that would successfully fulfill an evaluation  into their use of the latest techniques available. 

Irrespective of their prior experience, teachers should be evaluated. As human, there is no a level that we become complete, there is always a room for improvement. An experienced teacher may have insisted, for many years, on a character or a teaching method that is not desired by students. That  character definitely needs to be changed. Years of teaching practices sometimes don't matter, what matters is the best practices followed. We should also consider the challenges that today's technology create. If the teacher was good at using blackboards and whiteboards, he/she should also be good at today's smartboards and computers as well.  

A todos los profesionales la sociedad y los clientes, de una manera formal o informal les evalúan. Como profesor, nuestros alumnos y la propia institución nos evalúa formalmente cada año. De manera informal cada vez que realizan cuestionamientos, opiniones y valoraciones sobre asuntos vinculados al ejercicio profesional. En uno o en otro caso, suele haber opiniones y decisiones que afectan los pasos a seguir del profesional. El hecho del tipo de institución también es determinante. La cuestionable es que el profesor o el profesional ya experimentado, que ha demostrado ya todo, pueda ser valorado, al menos con los mismos criterios del aprendiz.

To all those professional it society and the customers, of a way formal or informal them evaluated. As a teacher, students and the institution itself us evaluated formally every year. Of way informal whenever made questions, opinions and assessments on issues linked to the exercise professional. In one or another case, tend to have opinions and decisions that affect the steps to follow professional. The fact of the kind of institution is also decisive. The questionable is that the teacher or already experienced professional, who has already shown everything can be measured, at least with the same criteria of the apprentice

Evaluation is a must for every professional career .Even for medical professional when they are to join the hospital for their required in their subject personal interview has certainly a place in the selection & recruitment process .

Evaluation is necessary even for selection of the music & artistic product of Fine Arts ,painting & such other related areas. With this evaluation is absolutely necessary for selecting a management team in case of company organisation where future of well many employees & last but not the least the fortune of company for the control of Finance , both for the success & reputation of the company .

This is my personal opinion 

I agree with the answer of John Crossland.

Regards

SM Najim

Of course needed, this is era of continuous learning and up-gradation so that the students can be kept updated with latest knowledge. Although, self assessment in true sense would also serve the purpose.

Hi all,

Given that “learning to teach never stops” and the main aim of teacher evaluation is teacher professional development, I believe that evaluating experienced teachers can be beneficial. However, the frequency and dynamics of evaluating experienced and novice teachers should be different.

The sad point is that in many educational contexts, the focus of evaluation is mainly on summative purposes for hiring or firing teachers. This is in contrast with the ideas of many experts in the field; for example Sergiovanni and Starratt (1993) believe that there need to be an 80/20 quality rules in teacher evaluation: “when more than 20 percent of supervisory time and money is expended in evaluation for quality control or less than 80 percent of supervisory time and money is spent in professional development, quality schooling suffers” (p. 221).

Hossein 

Evaluation of everyone is needed. Sure we would like to buy into the adage that experience teaches wisdom, evaluation is in of itself a feature of reflective practice. However perfect we think our teaching can be, there is always room for improvement. Each semester, our students needs, and learning styles vary, to ignore or in this aspect not evaluate lends credence to hubris. Therefore, it is necessary as we can see, those who believe in their perfect teaching style, are of the disposition that all students learn and process information in the same manner. When we understand the difference between structural learning vs. interpretitive influences. We as educators should recognize the need for ongoing monitoring of our teaching style, learner outcomes and adaptive processes that should be implemented, if necessary.

He is always requires us to make our profession quality. The experience can help to this activity have the quality required. For the education there is that ensure that the training that is da ensures the achievement of them competencies and skills that the students has of achieve.

Siempre se nos exige que nuestra actividad profesional sea de calidad. La experiencia puede ayudar a que esta actividad tenga la calidad necesaria. En el caso de la educación hay que garantizar que la formación que se da asegura la consecución de las competencias y habilidades que el alumnado ha de lograr.

The evaluation of senior faculty members is all the more needed then their juniors for the simple reason that they are looked up to by their subordinates. By evaluating them, it is being made sure that they perform their task well. Moreover, a faculty member who is doing their job well would always welcome any type of scrutiny.

Who qualifies the inquisitors?

Conventional wisdom will probably be the standard by which teachers are judged - innovative teachers may not measure well on the scale of conventional wisdom, although they may be the salvation of a failing school system.

Everyone is in need of evaluation.  Yet, one of the important factors, especially at the University level, is tenure.  Who evaluates tenured faculty?  And who evaluates the evaluator?  If evaluation can be thought of as being like professional learning, and not tied to job security, then it is very important.  I wonder how often that is the case?

New teachers must be evaluated re. their knowledge, their teaching practice, their students' opinions, their psychological fitness, etc.

Once they have passed their initial probation, then they must be allowed to practice their art as they deem appropriate, according to the needs of their charges. 

Jeffrey,

''Everyone is in need of evaluation. ''.  There is two assumptions here.

1. There is a method that correctly evalute teachers. 

2. Everyone is in need of evalution.

Assumption 1 would need also a method to correctly evalutate the method to evaluate the teacher, this one would need also a method to evaluate the evaluation method to evalutate the teacher, to infinity.  It never happen.  What happen in practice, a method that is not evaluated, that is thus more or less arbitrary, is used to evaluate teachers and the results of such evalutation are as bogus as the way the method was chosen which is as bogus as those doing this choosing.  It is a perfect way to hide burocratic arbitrariness behind a curtain of objectivity obeying to the highest standards.  

Assumption 2 fall if assumption 1 fall.  Noone need  to be arbitrarily evaluated even if the arbitrariness of this evalutation is hidden into an evalutation process sanctified by the highest authorities.

But although I do not believe into ''evaluation methods'' , I do believe that the best teachers, those recognize by their peers and the parents and their students at the end of their carreers as the best, can informally evaluate their peers.  The best can recognize the best.  The official evaluation method would give the higher score to approximatly the median of the real distribution of teaching skill.  The will favor mediocrity and the too good and too bad candidates will be reject for the mediocrity.  The mediocre thrives with the application of ''evaluation method''.  They simply objectify the standard mediocrity and assign the higher score to it and that with the false pretence to favor excellence.  Not it destroy excelence and only favor mediocrity.

No matter has matured we are in the teaching profession, there is the need that our methods are evaluated. This is important because it validates our teaching methods for the inexperienced teachers to learn from them. It is the best means to hone the time-tested approaches of experienced teachers for them to be close to perfection as shining examples in the field. 

Dickson Adom 

Above all, a sincere and honest self evaluation is much more effective than imposed ones.

The monitoring of a professional area is always important (from teachers up to medical doctors). For me at the same level I'll put also best practices and daily experience.  Instead of evaluation of experienced teachers, in my view what we need is a great non-invasive monitoring system or quality control system. Performances are important, but only if professionals are conscious  and able to self evaluate their job, we will get a great service from them. We need more training programs on self assessments and best practices rather than things that has to be full filled as mandatories. 

Great topic congrats!

Antonio,you mention

I agree that is my point too specially if the issue is set for "education professionals".

Regards

Accountability is important. It starts with the individual professional. As teacher preparation faculty, we can start by being selective about who we prepare. Carefully tailored interviews using questions and problem-solving scenarios that allow prospective teachers to speak at length about their experiences, values, and reasons for becoming a teacher can start the process of accountability. Teacher preparation courses that address ethical issues related to teaching serve to create a climate of responsibility for effective teaching. Those individuals responsible for hiring teachers can use similar but more advanced interview techniques to determine who is likely to be able to self-assess their own teaching competence. 

Another factor in accountability is the process used to assess teaching effectiveness. A careful search of research and best practice literature may offer some clues that institutions could use to create a process for evaluating teaching effectiveness. It is likely that teachers would be more likely to engage in school-initiated accountability activities if the emphasis is placed on using assessment to inform and/or improve teaching.

Dear Shirley,

Quite right what you say.

Beyond these important starting points, when it comes to teaching a group of individuals, teachers need to adapt their skills to fit the individuals in their classes - teachers need to be innovative and sensitive to any feedback they receive from their students. Often, what we teachers take for granted about some of our students, can turn out to be  false; so we may need to backtrack and rethink our lesson plans to match reality.

Definitely yes. It is not the "past teaching" that is to be evaluated but the "current teaching". And besides, we may learn on the evaluation of experienced teachers.

Evaluar en educación tiene que ver con la recogida de información sobre el proceso de enseñar y de aprender. analizar, interpretar, constatar y hacer propuestas de mejora es una consecuencia de dicho proceso, que en definitiva tiene como finalidad la calidad de la enseñanza. Entre los profesores experimentados, quizás más reticentes al proceso de evaluación sobre ellos mismos, puede reafirmar su estilo y metodología y servir de ejemplo para los demás.

Evaluating in education has to do with collecting information about the process of teaching and learning. analyze, interpret, verify and make proposals for improvement is a consequence of this process, which ultimately has as its purpose the quality of teaching. Among experienced teachers, perhaps more reluctant to evaluate themselves, can reaffirm their style and methodology and serve as an example for others.

Yes it is needed because it lets you know the level of the teacher's knowledge in his area of specialization

Dear Chuck Arize,

The level of a teacher's knowledge should already be known at the time they are hired.

Although your question is very simple, the academic community has not yet found a socially acceptable way to assess the validity of teachers. One of the a priori goals of every social community is the need for the work of teachers of general type (teachers in primary schools) and teachers of special subjects (teachers in middle and high schools) to be quality. A poor quality teacher ruins many generations while a poor quality doctor ruins many fewer people. Since social administration, according to the knowledge now available to researchers in mathematics education, does not understand the essence of teaching and learning, it mostly constructs (often completely meaningless) tests for which it then claims that they enable the assessment of teachers' competencies. How is it possible that people who are almost unaware of some of the areas of human activity that students are taught in the school system can evaluate teachers who know much more about them?

Personally, I am very convinced based on many years of research in mathematics education that social administration is not interested in the real state of affairs regarding the quality of school teaching. That is why the administration in charge of education designs tests so that the test results can be presented in tables and graphs, thus convincing the community that the money they spend is justified. Over the last thirty years, the academic community has become increasingly convinced that such data collection does much more harm than good.

It is not easy to estimate in which direction the observed phenomenon will develop in the future.

Dear Daniel and Ben,

I totally agree with your answers.

But to go further regarding standardized tests, I am pleased to report that the University of California no longer uses standardized tests as part of their admissions process.

I have long felt that people with the same capability can score drastically differently on the same standardized test: If one of them is lucky enough that his/her limited domain of knowledge matches the limited domain of questions asked, then they will score high; If, on the other hand, another person's limited domain of knowledge does not match the limited domain of questions asked, then they will score low.

So, the resultant score on any standardized test, for the average person can be a matter of luck - or worse still a matter of studying or being tutored specifically for a given standardized test.

Of course people who have little knowledge about the subject being tested will score low; and, conversely. people who have a vast knowledge about the subject will score high. But these cases are outliers.

As to teaching, it is a profession that is not only imparting knowledge to students, but is an art form - something that teacher training cannot instill in a teacher who lacks this gift, and is something that cannot be tested for.

To me, the society evaluates everyone equally. A medical doctor is evaluated by the number of people looking for consultations. Experienced teachers are evaluated by the mean score of students in his or her class. An engineer is evaluated by number of projects one is supervising or designing. A pilot by the number of hours he is flying. The list is endless...

I am not inclined to accept a populist approach to the evaluation of the competencies of the expertise in different domains of human activities. Maybe it is something that makes sense for politicians and administrative officials in government agencies. There are many very good doctors, especially internists, who are not kind to patients, which is probably why their popularity is not at the highest level. Their quality is confirmed by the fact that their diagnoses have not been refuted.

The teacher establishes student competencies in each individual domain of knowledge by testing student and (eliminatory) dialogue with each student. This is demanding and (very) delicate for the teacher as there is a possibility that he may be suspected of non-transparency in the process. The quality of teachers, whatever they mean by that, is very important for every social community and especially for its academic community. It is not uncommon for teaching activity to have a historical impact on his teaching students. This historical influence enables the formation of a critical scientific mass of that academic community.

It is necessary to see if "functionaires" of education keep up with current trends of the subjects they teach ,also the textbooks of the relevant .

Dear Constantine,

I agree with you that "functionaires" need to keep up with changes and follow (what should be) their credo of LIFELONG LEARNING.

Unfortunately, in long-established institutions (e.g., education, religion, government, large corporations) there is a tendency towards protecting their practices against change. This may be due in part to laziness, disillusionment, a closed mind, or a lust for power.

I think they should, because it is a way of monitoring performance and recommending professional development in line with the need.

Professional, experienced or novice, there is need for evaluation.

Evaluations are measures of growth and needs assessment.

Dear Antonio Lucero . Yes because no one is perfect and advice always needed for all . So the evaluation will be very helpful.

Good or bad teachers should be always periodically evaluated to avoid intellectual laziness which arises oftenly after years of teaching; it also keeps students alert for their benefit.

It is always good to have the consumers evaluate the product.

In this case at the end of each class, the students should submit a narrative evaluation of their teacher.

But the administration should not do the evaluations; they should, however, keep a record of the history of the narratives and discuss them with the teacher. If it is clear from the narratives that a teacher is lazy or incompetent, the administration should take remedial action that could lead to the firing of such a teacher - citing the history of narratives as the cause.