Developing a professional performance evaluation system for pre-service automobile repair vocational high school teachers in Taiwan

Abstract

Educational quality is one of the most important factors for having well-trained human resources that support the productivity, competitiveness, and economic growth of a nation. Teachers have always played dominant roles in ensuring education quality. Thus, teacher education is becoming ever more important. However, scholars have long warned about the ineffectiveness of teacher preparation. Indeed, a significant gap still exists between current pre-service teacher education and ideal training. Thus, a new professional performance evaluation system for pre-service teachers will be very helpful in resolving long-term public dissatisfaction with schools. To resolve this problem, developing a performance evaluation system that contains professional standards, performance evaluation criteria, and a precise performance evaluation mechanism is essential to guarantee the highest teacher quality in Taiwan. The authors designed a two-stage research effort for a professional performance evaluation system for Taiwanese pre-service teachers of automobile repair. In the first stage, the Delphi method is introduced to develop pre-service teachers' professional standards and key evaluation criteria using two iterations of Delphi processes and 14 iterations of focus group meetings based on experts' opinions. In the second stage, a professional performance evaluation and review mechanism for pre-service teachers is developed using focus group meetings to collect opinions from six vocational education experts. The final performance evaluation system will enhance the quality of pre-service teachers in vocational high schools and serve as a useful model for other countries and economies.