Graduation Year
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Degree Granting Department
Educational Measurement and Research
Major Professor
Jennifer Wolgemuth, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Liliana Rodriguez-Campos, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Jane Jorgenson, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Tony Tan, Ed.D.
Keywords
observation, pedagogy, ratings, feedback, value-added model (VAM)
Abstract
In education, it is essential for stakeholders like district leaders, teachers, and government officials to collaborate and create a plan of action that would support K-12 instruction. Collaborations as such have been used for decades by policymakers and researchers to express philosophies, values, and beliefs about education to make improvements and/or push for change. Therefore, the educational system will continue to evolve with current and upcoming research findings. For example, evaluating teachers effectively has been one of the most controversial topics in education. According to Boyd (1989), teacher evaluations were constructed to measure teachers’ competences and promote professional development. Today, teachers’ evaluation processes were not only for teachers’ competences and professional development, but it also included the measures of students’ academic growths. I conducted this research to find out how K-12 teachers feel about the teacher evaluation process which included the following: observations (pre, post, formal, & informal), the rubric/domains, feedback, performance ratings, written evaluation, and the value-added model (VAM/students’ academic growths).The purpose of this study was to find out how K-12 teachers feel about the teacher evaluation process, then investigate and share insight into their perceptions with readers, educational stakeholders, and/or government officials. It was important to conduct this study to contribute to previous research on the teacher evaluation process by advancing awareness through new viewpoints.
Through qualitative research methods including interviews, data coding, descriptive development, and thematic analysis, information was gathered and analyzed to support this research. The following arts-based methods were used: poetic inquiry, narratives, tables, and figures, animated pictures, and collages to organize information relating to K-12 teachers’ thoughts and experiences with the teacher evaluation process, including a narrative approach to share my thoughts and experiences with the teacher evaluation process. This approach was chosen to reflect on individual experiences with the teacher evaluation process with the hope that the readers would be able to understand and connect with my viewpoints as well.
The findings in this research represented similar and different experiences and perceptions about the teacher evaluation process. Participants referenced the teacher evaluation as being subjective. Teachers felt that administrators showed favoritism by giving teachers they liked high ratings. In addition, when asked about feedback, most participants felt that it was not specific or useful for them while one participant felt the feedback was helpful. Overall, all participants mentioned spending time planning their lessons, enjoying interacting with their students and monitoring how students interact with each other.
Scholar Commons Citation
Murphy, Trinicia S., "Reflections on the Teacher Evaluation Process: Experiences Told by K-12 Teachers" (2024). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10655
