New methods and perspectives on teacher evaluation: Who evaluates what and for which purposes?

Abstract

"To be a teacher is to learn to talk and how to keep quiet, and to learn to keep quiet and how to talk." "To be a teacher is to hide a smile and look a little angry, and to hide anger and give a smile." "To be a teacher is to listen to the thoughts behind the words, and to listen to words without thoughts." "To be a teacher is to teach pupils to respect teachers, and to learn to respect pupils." These sentences are selected from a list received by e-mail from an unknown source who obviously knows much about teaching. The statements present the complexity of teaching and the very tactic nature of the profession. From an assessor's point of view, the above characteristics of a teacher make it difficult, if not impossible, to define teaching as a construct that can easily be evaluated. Nevertheless, this chapter deals with evaluation of teaching. © 2005 Springer.