Schools and universities in the United Kingdom are coming to accept performance appraisal as a fact of life. The first part of this paper discusses appraisal policies as "negotiated ambiguities." Ambiguous criteria concerning wording subject to misinterpretation has created reservations on the side of the National Union of Teachers. This…

In 1985-86, a study was conducted to assess the instruction-related development needs of the faculty of South Carolina's two-year technical colleges. The study involved a survey of a sample of master teachers (N=120) in nine major discipline clusters at each of the system's 16 colleges to determine their perceptions of the instruction-related…

A model for improving instructional skills was developed to offer guidance for administrators or supervisors responsible for overseeing the performance of first year teachers. Developed from research findings on the nature of teaching and learning and the characteristics of an effective teacher, an integral component of the instructional…

The National Teacher Examination (NTE) validation and cut score determination procedures for use in teacher certification in Arkansas are discussed. The NTE area examinations to be validated were selected by the Arkansas Department of Education, which compared the state's certification requirements with the NTE's rationale, content, and scope…

Teacher career development deals with changes teachers experience throughout their careers, in: (1) job skills, knowledge, and behaviors; (2) attitudes and outlooks toward teaching; and (3) job events and advancement. A growing body of research indicates that teachers have different job skills, knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and concerns at…

Perspectives on the improvement of college teaching and the contribution of high technology teaching tools are discussed. After reviewing some definitions of excellence in teaching found in the literature, the following competencies that are characteristic of "good" teachers are proposed: excellent knowledge of subject area; good organization;…

Efforts since 1974 to create an acceptable merit pay system at Bowling Green State University's Department of Educational Foundations and Inquiry (EDFI) are described. Construction of the activity-point merit approach that has been used since 1980 began in 1979. Each of the 24 faculty in the EDFI department listed activities or products that they…

A statutory requirement that Georgia revise its beginning teacher certification process to reflect on-the-job performance rather than work performed in college was enacted in 1973 as part of the Adequate Program for Education in Georgia (APEG). Following a statewide survey, 33 teacher competency statements were accepted for incorporation into five…

As part of a larger study to investigate the backgrounds and professional inservice needs of part-time adult vocational teachers in Pennsylvania, research was conducted to identify and assess adult vocational teacher competencies. Following a literature review, a survey instrument was devised which listed thirty-four competencies (basically…

In the summer of 1981, 92 participants of 2 Migrant Personnel Training Projects, 20 participants of a local school district Migrant Education Summer Program, 14 participants of a university class studying school supervision and administration, and 209 participants of 7 summer Migrant Personnel Training Institutes were surveyed, using the Migrant…

A growing body of research indicates that teachers have different job skills, knowledge, behavior, attitudes, and concerns at different points in their careers. Many of these changes seem to follow a regular developmental pattern from which three stages can be discerned. Stage I is the survival stage, during which beginning teachers are concerned…

This study measured the extent to which physical education student teachers demonstrated each of 39 role competencies. Eighty one college seniors were assigned to public schools for teaching experience. The student teachers, cooperating teachers, and college supervisors pretested and posttested the competency statements for each student teacher,…

The paper specifies competency domains for multidisciplianry teams involved in vocational and technical education for handicapped secondary learners. Six competency domains (including collaborating with other professions and parents in the student assessment process and identifying available assessment instruments) are listed, and 10 common skills…

In studies dealing with classroom environment, functions and meanings of teacher interventions, and student behavior, several variables reflect teacher effectiveness. Presage variables concern the characteristics of the teacher; product variables concern the outcomes of teaching; and process variables concern the activities of teaching. Studies…

An overview of the assessment of the basic skills of prospective secondary level education students at Pennsylvania State University is provided in this paper. Assessment in the areas of reading, writing, and speaking was conducted as a response to public criticism of teachers' skills and as a means of meeting a competency requirement in the…