In higher education, student evaluation of teaching is widely used as a measure of an academic's teaching performance despite considerable disagreement as to its value. This paper begins by examining the merit of teaching evaluations with reference to the factors influencing the accuracy of the teaching evaluation process. One of the central assumptions on which student evaluation of teaching is based is that there is a relationship between student achievement and student rating of teachers. However, the findings of the majority of studies do not support this assumption. The absence of a strong link between student achievement and teaching evaluations suggests that there is scope for examining other approaches to measuring effective classroom dynamics. This paper presents such an approach based on the notion of transformational classroom leadership.
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This article provides two 'portraits' of headteachers in primary schools in England and Hong Kong, derived from semi-structured interviews with these individuals. Contrary to some claims that such a small sample is worthless, this article argues that what is most meaningful is sometimes derived from the singular and unique; that generalisations in education are as likely to be useful if they are 'fuzzy' generalisations as if they are from scientific or statistical generalisations; and that the individual case can strip away the clutter of large contexts and allow recognition of a common shared humanity. What these portraits also show is that responses to larger contexts are heavily dependent on personality and local context, and that if policy implementation and professional development are to have impact, then an attention to the personal and the local are going to be critical factors in any success in these areas
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This paper focuses on the differential predictability of Maslach's three burnout components on the intention to quit the teaching profession among Chinese teachers in Hong Kong. A sample of 379 teachers participated in the current study, which provided data on the associations among social support, burnout, and intention to quit. Results from structural equation modeling confirmed that the three components of burnout acted differently on intention to quit, with emotional exhaustion as the dominant factor, while the other two components exerted no effect. The findings concurred with those from US research. Support from a supervisor has a direct influence on the teacher's intention to quit and an indirect effect through emotional exhaustion. In contrast to the findings in the West, the effect of support from colleagues was shown to be minimal in this study.
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Interaction and feedback on performance are essential elements of the language learning process. On a distance-learning course, since opportunities for interaction may be limited, feedback plays a crucial role in opening and maintaining a dialogue between tutors and students. Using text analysis, questionnaire and interview data, this study explores both tutor and student perspectives on the feedback offered on a distance language course. It finds that there are considerable individual differences in the feedback offered by tutors and there is also variation in the type of feedback the students want and their reported uses of it. The article suggests that more training for both tutors and students is necessary to adequately exploit feedback's potential in a distance-learning context.
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The paper focuses on teachers' cognitions (their beliefs, feelings, and under standings) about subject matter. The teachers discussed in the paper teach English to secondary students in Hong Kong. Their cognitions are all concerned with grammar and grammar pedagogy. Drawing on analyses of quantitative and qualitative data, the paper addresses four questions: 1. Are there associations between particular cognitions about subject matter and specific factors of teacher background? 2. Are there associations between particular cognitions about subject matter and levels of knowledge of subject matter? 3. Are there general patterns in teachers' cognitions about subject matter? 4. Are there patterns of association between teachers' cognitions about subject matter and their perceived pedagogical practice? In relation to the first two questions, survey data from 170 teachers revealed no significant associations between their cognitions about subject matter and such background factors as years of teaching experience and place or subject of first degree. There were, however, interesting patterns of association between the data about the teachers' beliefs and test results indicating those teachers' levels of language proficiency and explicit knowledge of grammar and grammatical terminology. Interviews (supported by classroom observation) were the main source of data relating to the third and fourth questions. Data from 17 teachers revealed patterns of cognitions about subject matter, which appeared to associate with certain pedagogical practices. At the same time, there was considerable variation between individuals. A follow-up paper will examine the uniqueness of the individual teacher's cognitions and of their association with pedagogical practice, using a case-study approach involving classroom data and interview.
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This paper adopts a qualitative approach to study the perceptions of six secondary teachers from two schools with a similar background and history of school-based management (SBM). The study aims to explore the views of the teachers in the following areas: changes in school administration and the structure of the school under SBM; changes in the role of teachers and the activities of the Parent-Teacher Associations; the challenges facing principals; and teachers' worries and concerns under SBM. The study is significant as it supplements the limited number of researches on the roles of teachers and principals under SBM in Hong Kong. As serving teachers now play increasingly important roles in schools and work closely with their principals in administrative and educational matters, they can provide invaluable insights into the new era of change.
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This paper seeks to explore, by studying their personal stories, how Hong Kong secondary school teachers make sense of who and what they are in difficult situations, especially when such situations arise as a consequence of their being a part of the institution of education. Teachers' conceptual mappings of self will be investigated via their linguistic realisations within a context of discourse. Results show that the metaphorical construction of the teacher's self is largely paradoxical. There is co-creation of a negative self and a positive self. For the negative self, the underlying principle for the coherence of the paradoxical metaphors is the highlighting of the negative aspects of the vehicle domains to explain the 'grounds' for understanding the topic in terms of the vehicles. It is constructed out of teachers' encounters with students' discipline problems, poor inter-personal relationships in the school, inadequate managerial skills of the principal and heavy demands of the education authorities. On the other hand, the positive self is constructed through the metaphorical use of reference terms understood on specific cultural basis. It is commitment, care and a great sense of responsibility which resemble those of parents that have helped to motivate and sustain teachers when they face challenges. It is suggested that teachers should be encouraged to share their experience in coping with paradoxical roles and construct a positive self in culturally appropriate terms and live by that self.
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Changes that occur in teachers' careers are typically conceptualized in research as occurring in several demarcated and sequential stages/phases. This study examines secondary schoolteachers' understandings of their careers and whether they could identify stages/phases in their career development. It is based on experienced teachers' recall of their career development and their in-depth interviews. The findings demonstrate the need to acknowledge the individual ways in which teachers develop as well as the need for the use of multiple frameworks for describing teachers' career development. Using a single a priori model to describe their career development, as has been common in certain previous research, does not do justice to teachers' understanding of their own careers. Furthermore, the findings of this study shed light on the contextualized nature of experience and expertise. Accordingly, implications for teacher education and policy-making in the area are drawn.
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