A Study to evaluate the teacher evaluation matrix of Al-Shola schools in Sharjah – UAE from the perspectives of school members and in relation to students’ results
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Date
2016-05
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The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
Teacher evaluation represents a great challenge encountered by school leadership. The complexity of such evaluation is derived from the complex nature of the teaching and learning process, in addition to the diversity of definitions introduced to describe effective teaching. These challenges require a high level of awareness by school leaderships about the need to evaluate the multi-dimensional teaching performance through compatible evaluation systems that are not limited to the scene inside the classroom.
This research was conducted as a case study to evaluate a multi-lateral teacher evaluation matrix that was designed and applied by a chain of private schools in Sharjah UAE. The researcher followed a triangulation to combine three study phases. Both, qualitative and quantitative approaches were used during these phases. The perspectives of school leadership and teachers were incorporated through an interview and a questionnaire; in an approach to evaluate the matrix against good-practice criteria extracted through literature review. Quantitative analysis of the relationship between teachers’ performance evaluations and students’ results was used as an additional approach to evaluate the matrix and to support the analysis of school members’ perspectives about the targeted system. This analysis was also conducted in an attempt to fill the gap found in previous studies; where quantitative analysis to study the relationship between teachers’ evaluations and students’ results was lacking.
The study findings revealed a shared support of the teacher evaluation matrix among school leadership and teachers. The diversity of the measurements used in the matrix increased the validity and reliability of evaluation; moreover, it facilitated evaluation-based professional development. The quantitative analysis proved a strong positive relationship between the evaluation matrix’s results and students’ results, indicating the efficiency of the matrix as a valid teacher evaluation system that is related to teacher’s influence on students.
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Keywords
teacher evaluation, United Arab Emirates (UAE), school leadership, effective teaching, teaching performance, private schools