16УДК 378
Ли Бин Li Bing
Аспирант graduate student Игна Ольга Николаевна Igna Olga Nikolaevna
доктор педагогических наук, доцент, профессор Ph.D in Pedagogical Sciences, Docent, Professor Томский государственный педагогический университет
Tomsk State Pedagogical University
THE RESEARCH ON TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM OF CHINESE PRIMARY AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS
ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ СИСТЕМЫ ОЦЕНКИ УЧИТЕЛЕЙ НАЧАЛЬНЫХ И
СРЕДНИХ ШКОЛ
Abstract. How to carry out teacher evaluation is a challenge for teacher education research. This study takes Foucault's "govemmentality" as the research framework, and focuses on four aspects: governance environment, governance rationality, governance plan, and governance effectiveness and shortcomings in order to analyze the reform of the Chinese teacher evaluation system. The results of this study indicate that the reform of the teacher evaluation system needs to convince individual teachers to make self-adjustments to fit into the governance rationality. The teacher evaluation system should consider the improvement of teacher quality as a governance rationality, and the integration of various incentives and multiple evaluations methods in the governance plan to gain the support of the teacher group.
Аннотация. Оценка качества учителей - проблема в области педагогического образования. В этом исследовании в качестве исследовательской основы используется «правительственность» Фуко, и основное внимание уделяется четырем аспектам: среде управления, рациональности управления, плану управления, а также эффективности и недостаткам управления, чтобы проанализировать реформу китайской системы оценки учителей. Результаты данного исследования показывают, что реформа системы оценки учителей должна убедить отдельных учителей в необходимости саморегулироваться, чтобы соответствовать рациональности управления. Система оценки учителей должна рассматривать повышение качества учителей как рациональность управления, а также интеграцию различных стимулов и множественных методов оценки в план управления, чтобы заручиться поддержкой группы учителей.
Ключевые слова '. Китай, качество учителей, оценка учителей, система оценки учителей.
Keywords : China, teacher quality, teacher evaluation, teacher evaluation system.
Teacher evaluation appears with the emergence of teachers. At this stage, the teacher evaluation system is an important governance measure for governments to manage the professional quality of in-service teachers. China's teacher evaluation system started late. In the new century, the Chinese government has repeatedly emphasized the importance of teacher evaluation, and proposed that its main purpose is to improve the professional quality of the teacher group and promote the professional development of teachers [1]. This research takes the Chinese teacher evaluation system
as the research object, uses the literature research method, and discusses the governance logic of the Chinese teacher evaluation system with the help of Foucault's "govemmentaHty" viewpoint.
1. The teacher evaluation system as a governance technique for teacher management
The connotation of "governance" comes from Foucault's understanding. The so-called governance is to place "things" in the correct way to achieve a certain convenience, rather than seeking goodness [2]. In other words, the connotation of governance is that the governor uses various strategies to achieve a certain goal. In addition, Foucault also emphasized that governance is not simply forcing the governed to act according to the will of the governor, but to achieve the goal of governance through self-adjustment of the governed. Governance should meet the needs and desires of the governed through various technologies, strategies and mechanisms, and make governance more reasonable [3]. Therefore, Foucault finally gave a concise definition of "governance", which is the "conduct of conduct" [4].Governance activities are calculated by governors. In order to achieve the purpose of governance, governors need to influence individual behaviors through governance techniques, allowing individuals to start from themselves and achieve the purpose of governance through self-governance.
Today, the concept of "governance" has become a basic way for people to think about political activities, providing a theoretical framework for analyzing the design, implementation and effectiveness of the education system. Since the 1980s, improving the quality of teachers has become a core issue of education governance. From the perspective of Neo-Weberian's "social barriers" [5], the maintenance of teachers' professional status and the improvement of their professional qualities need to rely on a complete and exclusive institutional arrangement. Through the monopoly of resources and opportunities and the elimination of unqualified persons, a professional distinction is established between the teacher group and the general public. This means that it is necessary for the government to govern the course of teacher education and the career of teachers, and to ensure the improvement of the overall quality of the teacher group by means of constructing a teacher education quality assurance system. The teacher evaluation system is one of the important governance measures aimed at promoting the professional quality of in-service teachers.
2. The governance logic of Chinese teacher evaluation system
2.1 The governance environment of Chinese teacher evaluation system
(1) The public's attention to the quality of education. The role of education in personal growth and future life has received more and more attention. While pursuing education equality, people also put forward higher requirements for the quality of education. Therefore, the public demands to know and control the quality of education. And the first way to know the quality of education is to evaluate the quality of teachers and their work.
(2) The government attention to the quality of education ultimately rests on the requirements for teacher s teaching quality. The focus of education reform was initially concentrated on the basic education curriculum and teaching plan, and then gradually settled on the quality of teacher s teaching work. In China, teacher evaluation system
is regarded as a kind of rules and regulations, and even written into relevant laws as a kind of law. Teacher evaluation has become an important measure for the government to know the status of the teacher group and monitor the teaching process in the basic education.
(3) Modern basic education has changed from teacher-centered to student-centered. Teachers have changed from knowledge transmitters to student counselors and helpers. The change of role puts forward higher requirements for teachers' professional quality, so it is necessary to provide high-quality teachers for school teaching through teacher evaluation.
In addition, the "Opinions of the State Council on Strengthening the Teacher
Group" ( ) [6]issued in 2012, and the
"Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of the Building of Teacher group in the New Era" ( ) [7]
issued in 2018 affirmed the importance of teacher evaluation to the improvement of teachers' professional quality and education quality, and put forward clear requirements for improving the quality of teacher evaluation in the basic education stage. And also pointed out that in order to improve the evaluation system of primary and secondary school teachers, it is necessary to respect the main status of teachers in the evaluation process, and effectively improve teachers' enthusiasm and cooperation in participating in the evaluation work.
2.2 Chinese teacher evaluation system governance rationality
The "Teacher Law" of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulates the governance rationality of the teacher evaluation system: First, teacher evaluation aims to enhance the professional ability of the teacher group and promote the professional development of teachers; encourage teachers to improve their professional skills in a purposeful, targeted and continuous manner; improve the efficiency and quality of teaching activities, and make reasonable career planning. Second, improve the construction of school teacher group and provide high-quality teacher guarantee for the development of basic education. Third, the purpose of teacher evaluation is to identify the qualifications of in-service teachers, and at the same time to certify their professional qualification categories, and to determine the salary and professional promotion of various teachers based on this, so as to improve the quality of the teacher group and its social prestige.
2.3 The governance plan of Chinese teacher evaluation system
(1) Types of teacher evaluation and their implementation
The teacher evaluation is managed by the country and local education administrative department, and the school specifically organizes and implements it. Based on the evaluation purpose and its content, there are currently two different types of teacher evaluation in China:
The first type is the evaluation of teachers' professional ability, including teacher competency evaluation, teacher performance evaluation and teacher effectiveness evaluation, which are organized and implemented by the school.
Teachers' competency evaluation. Assessing the qualities or competencies required by qualified teachers, that is, what the teachers should know. It is usually done in the form of written tests in the schools.
Teacher performance evaluation is to evaluate the performance of teachers at work, that is, teachers' behavior, in order to know the quality of teachers' work. Usually through classroom observations at work, subjective evaluations are made by school leaders, colleagues, students and parents.
The evaluation of teacher effectiveness is to evaluate the influence that teachers exert on students, that is, to evaluate the progress of students in important educational goals under the influence of teachers. It is usually evaluated by the difference between the pre-test and the post-test of the same measurement tool, while considering the original situation of the school and class, and the regression equations is used to predict the progress that students should make, then compare it with the actual progress made by students to draw conclusions.
The evaluation of teachers' professional ability focuses on combining student evaluation, colleague evaluation, school leadership evaluation, parents' evaluation, and teacher self-evaluation. Finally, the school's evaluation team conducts a staged summary comprehensive evaluation. The evaluation team should pay attention to the evaluation results given by students, colleague, parents, and the results of teacher self-evaluation, establish a sound coordination mechanism to ensure the accurate transmission of evaluation information. The members of the evaluation team are composed of school leaders, class teachers, teacher representatives, etc., and they are specifically responsible for formulating plans, organizing assessments, and reviewing assessment results.
The second is the evaluation of teachers' professional titles (certify their professional qualification categories). The current teachers' professional titles have five levels: three-level teacher, two-level teacher, first-level teacher, deputy senior teacher and senior teacher. The application is made by the individual teacher, and the application is submitted to the school in accordance with the corresponding teacher level evaluation standards designated by the state and local authorities. The school will then recommend candidates based on the teacher's past assessments, and finally the expert team will follow the evaluation standards and methods, to evaluate the candidates recommended by the school. After the evaluation result is publicized, it shall be reviewed and confirmed by the school administrative department and the local education administrative department. Discipline inspection and supervision departments and teachers play a supervisory role to ensure fair and standardized evaluation procedures.
(2) Principles and Reference Standards of Teacher Evaluation
In the process of teacher evaluation, the following principles should be followed: adhere to the people-oriented principle, respect the main status of teachers in the evaluation process, attach importance to teacher self-evaluation, and follow the growth law and professional characteristics of primary and secondary school teachers, improve the professional status of teacher group, and promote the all-round development of teachers; adhere to the principles of democracy, openness, competition, and selection of the best, and encourage outstanding talents to stand out; adhere to the emphasis on
teacher ethics, ability, their performances and contributions, and encourage teachers to improve their teaching and educating level; adhere to the principles of combining self-evaluation with other evaluations, and combining routine evaluations with regular evaluations to improve the effectiveness and credibility of teacher evaluation; adhere to the principles of diversified openness, scientific rationality, and scientific fairness to ensure that the evaluation subjects are diversified and the teacher evaluation is more scientific and comprehensive.
Teacher evaluation standards are an important foundation and main basis for teacher evaluation activities. Teacher evaluation standards are designated by local education administrative departments or schools based on a series of documents such as "Professional Standards for Primary and Secondary School Teachers" and "Teacher Law", combined with local and school characteristics, and their content covers the evaluation of teacher quality (including political quality, knowledge quality and professional quality) and teacher work results.
(3) Use of teacher evaluation results
The "Teachers Law" of the People's Republic of China stipulates that the result of teacher evaluation is an important basis for determining the professional promotion and salary level of teachers, as well as the implementation of rewards and punishments [8]. Teachers who fail the evaluation will face the termination of the labor contract with the school or accept the retraining arranged by the school. Teachers who pass the teacher evaluation will receive corresponding teacher titles, their salaries will rise, and their chances of getting a career promotion will increase accordingly.
(4) The governance effectiveness and shortcomings of Chinese teacher evaluation system
The development of teacher evaluation has effectively supervised, guided and promoted teachers, further improved the quality of their teaching work, and promoted the improvement of the quality of basic education. Research surveys show that teachers generally hold a positive attitude towards teacher evaluation, and 86.2% of teachers support the development of the teacher evaluation. They believe that teacher evaluation has played an important role in improving the professional quality of teachers and the quality of basic education [9].
But so far, the Chinese teacher evaluation system still has the following problems [10; 11; 12].
Firstly, the subject of evaluation is still based on the evaluation of school leaders. Although the importance of teacher self-evaluation has been unanimously recognized by all parties, it has not received due attention in the process of practice;
Secondly, many schools use students' test scores as the main evaluation content. Affected by Chinese exam-oriented education, schools use students' academic performance as the almost only evaluation index for teachers' teaching excellence, which makes teachers unable to learn and add new teaching knowledge, instead of spending more time on making up lessons and supervising students, and even supervising parents on tutoring homework for students, and makes the teacher's work and development deviate from the direction;
Thirdly, the current teacher evaluation pays less attention to the professional development of teachers. The purpose of evaluation in most areas or schools is not to
promote teachers' professional development, but to facilitate teacher management. The motivation for carrying out educational evaluation is not pure, the unity of teacher evaluation is overemphasized, the direction of the evaluation plan is not firm enough, and the analysis and utilization of the evaluation results are not fair enough;
Fourthly, the current teacher evaluation is less caring for teachers and violates the people-oriented principle;
Fifthly, teacher evaluation has an adverse effect on teachers' teaching work. Teachers are tired of coping with periodic school assessments, causing them to distract part of their energy on teacher evaluation.
3. Comprehensive discussion
According to the system analysis framework of "govemmentality", it is not difficult to find that individuals have autonomy in the process of governance. How to persuade individuals to adjust themselves to conform to governance rationality is the core of governance. As far as the teacher evaluation system is concerned, its governance rationality and governance plan need to think about how to ensure that the entire system design of teacher evaluation can obtain the support and participation of teachers.
3.1 The governance rationality of the teacher evaluation system: the improvement of teacher quality
The effectiveness of Chinese teacher evaluation system shows that improving teacher quality (promoting teacher professional development) as the governance rationality of the teacher evaluation system is the basis for reaching a consensus between the government and the teacher group. The teacher evaluation system and professional qualification certificate system guaranteed by government authority can create a "social barrier" between qualified and unqualified teachers to ensure the professional status of the teacher group. Individual teachers can continuously improve their professional knowledge to obtain corresponding professional qualifications under the encouragement of relevant systems. Since the 1990s, European and American countries have realized that the purpose of teacher evaluation is not only to "assess the work of teachers", and its ultimate purpose is to promote the professional development of teachers and improve the professional quality of teachers. At the turn of the century, the Chinese government also regarded the teacher evaluation system as a governance measure to manage the professional quality of in-service teachers, and emphasized that the governance rationality of teacher evaluation lies in promoting the professional development of teachers and improving the professional quality of teachers. In summary, it has become an international consensus that the governance rationality of teacher evaluation must be consistent with the internal demands (professional development) of the teacher group, and the promotion of teacher professional quality as the governance rationality of the teacher evaluation system has a certain legitimacy.
3.2 Governance plan of teacher evaluation system: rational use of incentive mechanism and evaluation methods
As far as the governance plan of Chinese teacher evaluation system is concerned, its people-oriented principle has established the tone for the development of evaluation activities: teachers are the main subject of evaluation activities, it's important to use scientific methods to evaluate the quality of teachers and promote their professional
development. From the perspective of incentive mechanism, in the process of formulating a teacher evaluation system, Chinese government uses a combination of "reward and punishment evaluation" and "developmental evaluation" to seek teachers' support and participation. The former has the intention of accountability, while the latter highlights the orientation of development. As Firestone said, in order to ensure the participation of teachers, the teacher evaluation policy should not reduce the autonomy and trust of effective teachers while removing ineffective teachers, and should provide teachers and policy makers with effective feedback on promoting teaching [13].
The governance of the teacher evaluation system does not impose the will of the government on the teacher group, forcing the teacher group to change its own behavior to conform to the government's governance rationality. If the government's authority overrides the interests of the teacher group, it will lead to the teacher group's dissatisfaction and even resistance to the evaluation activities. On the contrary, the core of the governance of teacher evaluation lies in how to reach a consensus between the governance rationality of the government and the needs of the teacher group. As far as the governance rationality of teacher evaluation is concerned, governance aimed at improving the quality of teachers is more likely to be recognized by the teacher group. In terms of the governance plan for teacher evaluation, the only way to grasp the tension between "reward and punishment evaluation" (external incentives) and "developmental evaluation" (self-motivation) is to comprehensively apply multiple evaluation strategies to teachers' professional standards based on teacher professional standards. A reasonable evaluation of quality can make teachers truly benefit from the evaluation process, and strive to improve their professional quality to meet the expectations of the government.
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