Competency Frameworks and Implications for Teacher Assessment

摘要

English teachers across the world, in common with teachers of other subjects, are coming under ever-increasing pressure to respond to rapid changes in society, to become more responsive to the needs of their students and more accountable for their learning outcomes. The demands foraccountability have led to an increasing emphasis in the educational discourse on teacher competencies, deriving from a belief that specifying more precisely the knowledge and skills effective teachers should have will lead to enhanced teacher quality and, in turn, improved student learningoutcomes. This paper reviews competency frameworks developed for general education as well as specifically for teachers of English as a foreign language and ICT. Though competency frameworks can fulfil a useful function in focusing on the development of expertise in pedagogical practice, theyrarely allow scope for consideration of factors beyond the classroom or school which affect educational success. The paper thus concludes that caution must be exercised in the use of competency frameworks for teacher assessment.