Evaluating teachers? Not as straightforward an idea as you would think.
October 6, 2013
Of course we all want our children to have teachers who are compassionate, flexible, perceptive, good communicators, and experts in the subjects which they teach. In other words, we want our teachers to be almost superhuman.
Under the Race to the Top initiative of which the Common Core State Standards are a part, the desired qualities of a teacher are being identified and incorporated into evaluation rating systems or rubrics. In this process, however, the qualities we parents would like emphasized may not be the same qualities promoted by the education elites. You would think that mastery of the subject being taught would be very high on the list of desired traits, but it is not.
The frameworks for teaching being developed are based on a “constructivist” view which emphasizes that children should construct their own knowledge and discover their own methods. Direct instruction of information is discouraged.
Professor Cliff Mass of the University of Washington disagrees with the constructivist view of teaching. Read his article in which he asserts that teaching is much more effective when the teacher has complete mastery of the subject matter.
Tags: Common Core State Standards, Mathematics, Race to the Top, teacher evaluations
Of course we all want our children to have teachers who are compassionate, flexible, perceptive, good communicators, and experts in the subjects which they teach. In other words, we want our teachers to be almost superhuman.
Under the Race to the Top initiative of which the Common Core State Standards are a part, the desired qualities of a teacher are being identified and incorporated into evaluation rating systems or rubrics. In this process, however, the qualities we parents would like emphasized may not be the same qualities promoted by the education elites. You would think that mastery of the subject being taught would be very high on the list of desired traits, but it is not.
The frameworks for teaching being developed are based on a “constructivist” view which emphasizes that children should construct their own knowledge and discover their own methods. Direct instruction of information is discouraged.
Professor Cliff Mass of the University of Washington disagrees with the constructivist view of teaching. Read his article in which he asserts that teaching is much more effective when the teacher has complete mastery of the subject matter.
Tags: Common Core State Standards, Mathematics, Race to the Top, teacher evaluations