Date of Award

2010

Thesis Type

PhD

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Education

Department

Department of Educational Management, Planning and Policy

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

Continuous improvement in teacher performance is the key to enhancing the quality of education. Teacher performance must be monitored and evaluated by school administrators to provide constant feedback and to assist teachers in achieving the common goals of educating individuals in schools. The purpose of the study was to investigate how administrators in national primary schools carried out teacher evaluation practices and to ascertain the influence of the evaluation process on teacher performance. The qualitative case method examined the purpose of teacher evaluation; the methods and instrument used; the utilization of findings; and the contextual factors that affected the implementation of the school-based teacher evaluation practices. Data obtained through interviews, observations and document analysis were managed using the NVivo 7 computer software program. A comparative analysis of the data provided an interpretation of the phenomenon in the four cases. First a within-case analysis was conducted for each case and this was followed by a cross-case analysis using a pattern matching strategy to build an explanation about the findings which emerged from the four cases. The findings revealed that there was no clear policy on establishing a comprehensive school-based teacher evaluation system in the selected national primary schools. Furthermore, the administrators and teachers had diverse views on the reasons for evaluating teacher performance in school. The administrators indicated that the school-based teacher evaluation system was implemented to improve instructional practice and to reward teachers who performed well in schools. On the contrary, the teachers considered the evaluation system as a checking and controlling mechanism to penalize those who were not performing according to the administrator’s expectations. The most prevalent theme that emerged from the study was that the school-based teacher vii evaluation practices had very little influence on teacher performance in schools. This was because the school administrators had sole control over decisions pertaining to teacher evaluation practices and the teachers were not involved in the designing of the school-based teacher evaluation system. Several other causes included the lack of transparency in the methods of evaluation, inadequate instruments, minimum feedback, limited professional development based on evaluation and underutilization of evaluation findings. It was evident that the teacher evaluation practices in the four schools were carried out to meet administrative requirements rather than to improve overall teacher performance. The implication of this study indicated that if the school-based teacher evaluation system intends to be a more meaningful and effective system to improve teacher quality, then there must be clear policies on establishing a well-designed teacher evaluation system based on a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Education, school administrators and teachers.

Initial

khm

Additional Information

Thesis (PhD) – Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya, 2010.

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