Using Ireland as an example, this paper explores the rationale behind various selection criteria currently used to select suitable candidates for initial teacher education courses. It investigates and discusses patterns of association between second-level student teachers' background characteristics on entry to their teacher education programme…

The readiness and expectations questionnaire (REQ) assesses first-year students' expectations and preparedness for their first year in university. This measurement instrument is useful for educational policy and curriculum development; it can also be used to predict the outcomes of the first year of college. This instrument was initially developed…

The use and abuse of course and lecturer rating websites such as RateMyProfessors.com[TM] is a highly relevant topic for universities' evaluation and assessment policies and practice. However, only a few studies have paid attention to the actual influence of teaching evaluation websites on the students themselves--that is, their perceptions of a…

Research on teachers' professionalism and professional development has increased in the last two decades. A main focus of this line of research has been the cognitive component of teacher professionalism, i.e., professional knowledge. Most of the previous studies on teacher knowledge--such as the Learning Mathematics for Teaching (LMT) (Hill et…

School inspection is used by most European education systems as a major instrument for controlling and promoting the quality of schools. Surprisingly, there is little research knowledge about how school inspections drive the improvement of schools and which types of approaches are most effective and cause the least unintended consequences. The…

In the Swedish educational system, teachers have the dual responsibility of assigning final grades and marking their own students' national tests. The Government has mandated the Swedish Schools Inspectorate to remark samples of the national tests to see if teacher marking can be trusted. Reports from this project have concluded that intermarker…

The global spread of national assessment testing activities, and the growing pressure to move beyond basic measures of participation in educational monitoring, means that student achievement measures are likely to become increasingly relevant indicators of systemic progress in the developing world. Using data from the CESSP project in Cambodia,…

The Anglo-Saxon countries have implemented Management by Objectives (MBO) complemented with school-based management (SBM) fairly rapidly. Although these countries are considered something of a benchmark of stability, research on principals reveals that they experience high levels of stress and that this is associated with poorer job performance.…

This paper attempts to provide an overview of the key assumptions underpinning the "Whole School Evaluation" (WSE) inspection policy developed in Ireland since 2003. Beginning with a documentary analysis the paper argues that the capacity to generate useful self evaluative data in schools was seen as being at the heart of the model of school…

The purpose of the study was to develop an improved teaching evaluation questionnaire based on students' learning experiences and selected teacher characteristics identified as indicators of teaching quality. Teaching evaluation questionnaires are commonly designed either based on agreed indicators of teaching excellence, students' suggestions of…

Using Singapore as an example, we argue that schools need to equip and encourage teachers to adopt authentic assessment in teaching and learning so as to develop the students' higher-order thinking. The importance of teaching and assessing higher-order thinking in Singapore classrooms is encapsulated in the vision of "Thinking Schools" launched by…

This study assessed the extent to which nine elementary physical education teachers implemented the quality of teaching practices. Thirty physical education lessons taught by the nine teachers to their students in grades K-5 were videotaped. Four investigators coded the taped lessons using the Assessing Quality Teaching Rubric (AQTR) designed and…

Teacher educators piloted the use of the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP), a peer observation instrument associated with increases in learning in science and mathematics teacher education courses. Faculty participants received a series of trainings in RTOP use and rated each other's teaching during multiple peer observations. The…

This paper introduces an empirical study that examines how teachers evaluate pupils' responses. The study draws on research undertaken at four secondary schools in the Czech Republic. It transpires that feedback has a stable position in the structure of communication; however, it is used only to verify pupils' responses and not to elaborate them.…

Principal evaluation has become a key component of national policy debates on developing effective leaders. To contribute to these debates, this study draws on survey data to explore how principals in Michigan and metropolitan Beijing behaved differently in enacting leadership related to teaching and learning, and how they were evaluated…