Academic practitioners are judged and evaluated by the different academic institutions and by government regulators associated with these institutions. There are various criteria for evaluating the work of faculty members in the areas of research, teaching, and contribution to the department, the academic institution and the community. In Israel,…

This article is a commentary on the seven articles in this special issue of EJTE on teacher quality from international perspectives. In the article, Marilyn Cochran-Smith points to differences as well as common themes and details across the articles in the issue. The article discusses the emergence of teacher quality as a global concern, including…

As part of a larger mixed-method study on teacher evaluation, this paper explores how cultural and socio-political contexts of the Israeli Arab public schools inform principals' high-stakes evaluation processes for attaining tenure. Concepts from micropolitical theory were used to analyse data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with twenty…

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's (IEA) mission is to enhance knowledge about education systems worldwide, and to provide high-quality data that will support education reform and lead to better teaching and learning in schools. In pursuit of this aim, it conducts, and reports on, major studies of student…

The paper reviews research that describes good teaching in several cultures, focusing on teachers and teaching in China, England, Israel, Norway, and the United States. A root metaphor is used to describe good teaching in each culture. In China, good teacher are described as virtuosos because their art is teaching, and there is very little…

This paper examines the relationship between quality of instruction of faculty members as assessed by students and the assessment periods involved. It is based on analysis carried out in Israel's largest public college. Our aim was to explore whether investments to improve the quality of instruction of faculty members are cost beneficial. The…