A comparative study of the perceptions of novice Iowa public school teachers towards the effects of the Iowa Evaluator Approval Training Program

摘要

Teacher evaluators in the state of Iowa were required to take part in the newly created Iowa Evaluator Approval Training Program (IEATP) in the 2002-03 school year. The IEATP was designed to train evaluators in teacher evaluation based on the Iowa Teaching Standards and Criteria. This research surveyed novice teachers from Iowa public schools regarding the five attributes of teacher evaluation using a modified Teacher Evaluation Profile (TEP) originally designed by Stiggins and Duke (1988). The attributes were defined through a number of different traits: (a) self as a teacher, (b) evaluator, (c) evaluation processes, (d) attributes of the feedback, and (e) context in which the evaluations occurred;Data were also collected regarding the concept of potential bias in teacher evaluation based on the gender of the teacher and/or the gender of the evaluator. A comparison was made from year one of the study, before the implementation of IEATP (2001-02), to year two of the study, after the implementation of IEATP (2002-03);Descriptive statistics included t-tests, pairwise comparisons, multivariate tests, within-subjects tests, and multiple analysis of variance [MANOVA]. Following Bonferroni correction, significant differences were observed in the study. Traits and non-traits of each of the five attributes of teacher evaluation emerged through an analysis of the data. In addition, a statistically significant gender interaction favoring female evaluators regarding a number of traits was also observed in the study. A comparison of changes in novice teacher perceptions from 2001-02 to 2002-03 revealed changes in perceptions in the attributes of self as a teacher and in the evaluation processes;Suggestions for future research include the need for emphasis on training evaluators to identify specific behaviors that are a part of quality instruction. This is currently a knowledge and skill expectation in training Module One that needs additional attention in follow-up training. In addition, to increase training efficacy, real world application to the learning elements is needed to meet the needs of adult learning theory.