Australian universities are mandated to implement non-academic on-entry evaluations for all initial teacher education candidates. Universities have introduced interviews, written applications, psychometric tests, and more recently, simulation. This research sought to determine if simulation as an evaluation tool had utility as a measure of…

Peer review of teaching has become an accepted educational procedure in Australia to quality assure the quality of teaching practices. The institutional implementation of the peer review process can be viewed as genuine desire to improve teaching quality or an imposition from above as a measure of accountability and performativity. One approach is…

Romania's education system has made impressive strides over the past two decades, with an increasing share of students mastering the basic competencies that they need for life and work. But these average improvements mask significant disparities in learning outcomes and attainment, with an increasing share of students leaving education early…

This paper discusses the most relevant issues concerning teacher evaluation in primary and secondary education by reviewing the recent literature and analysing current practices within the OECD countries. First, it provides a conceptual framework highlighting key features of teacher evaluation schemes. In particular, it emphasises the importance…

The introduction of performance management in South Australian public schools raises a number of issues regarding the structure, purpose and control of the process itself and the consequences of teacher evaluation. Performance management has the potential to shape teaching and the culture of schools according to what it values and what it ignores.…

In this article, the "researcher" narrates the issues faced by novice researchers in choosing the correct lenses to conduct research when searching for the truth via the use of qualitative methodology. It is argued that choosing an appropriate research approach and methodology can be described as an "arduous" journey. For the…

Much of the current focus on maximizing the potential of ICT to enhance teaching and learning is on learning tasks rather than the technology. These learning tasks increasingly employ a constructivist, problem-based methodology especially one based around authentic learning. The problem-based nature of history provides fertile ground for this…

Purpose: Teaching and unit evaluations surveys are used to assess the quality of teaching and the quality of the unit of study. An analysis of teaching and unit evaluation survey practices in Australian universities suggests significant changes. One key change discussed in the paper is the shift from voluntary to mandatory use of surveys with the…

The use of evaluation to examine and improve the quality of teaching and courses is now a component of most universities. However, despite the various methods and opportunities for evaluation, a lack of understanding of the processes, measures and value are some of the major impediments to effective evaluation. Evaluation requires an understanding…

Presents the results of a teacher evaluation research project in Australia. (LN)

The use of data from student surveys has become a common element of universities' and governments' strategies to assure the quality of university teaching. With the introduction of a new government policy in Australia in 2005, these survey-derived teaching performance indicators now determine the distribution of many millions of dollars of funding…

A systematic exploration of the nature of teacher evaluation is presented. After a critique of the widespread impositional (or "dominant") mode of teacher evaluation, two alternative forms of teacher evaluation, referred to as "educative," are proposed. These educative teacher evaluation approaches, "horizontal"…

In recent years there has been a marked change in the inspector's functions, with increased emphasis on professional advice and leadership. However, it has not been possible to eliminate elements of incompatibility between the inspector's dual role of assessor and that of adviser. (Author)

Literature on assessment in Australian tertiary institutions during the past five years is examined in light of: who and what are assessed and in what way and for what purpose assessments are made. Conferences on assessment are noted and a 50-item bibliography is included. (LC)

Measurement of the quality of teaching activities is becoming increasingly important since universities are rewarding performance in terms of promotion, awards and bonuses and research is no longer the only key performance indicator. Good teaching is not easy to identify and measure. This paper specifically deals with the issue of good teaching in…