Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Elementary school teachers Rating of Victoria'

In order to assess current practices in the teaching of conflict resolution, this study examined (through survey methods) the perceptions of teachers in three Oregon school districts of similar size regarding the techniques they use to teach conflict resolution skills to their students, teachers' perceptions of the frequency of the use of those techniques, and teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of those techniques. This study also compared the responses of teachers in school districts which provided teachers with staff development for the teaching of conflict resolution with the responses of those teachers from districts without that staff development. In addition, the survey examined the impact of cooperative learning on the teaching of conflict resolution. Data were reported in terms of frequency distribution, Spearman Correlation analysis, Chi Square, and Phi Correlations. The results indicate that elementary teachers use a wide variety of techniques to teach students how to get along with one another. Although they favor certain techniques, they do not use one technique to the exclusion of another. The hypothesis that demographic criteria may be linked to teachers' responses to the use of certain techniques was also rejected. Comparisons between responses of teachers from districts which supplied staff development for the teaching of conflict resolution and responses from teachers from districts which did not do so are inconclusive. Possible reasons may stem from different but, perhaps, equally enriching programs for the teaching of conflict resolution. Cooperative Learning is not primarily used as a method to teach conflict resolution. Those who use it, however, indicated that they saw increased conflict resolution skills as a by-product of that teaching method. The data gleaned in this survey would indicate that the following be considered when implementing a program for the teaching of conflict resolution: Conflict is a natural state which accompanies change and can act as a constructive force. Conflict in the classroom can provide a creative tension which helps to inspire problem-solving. Well-handled conflict can have benefits for increasing student motivation and may result in higher achievement and greater understanding of the subject. Conflict itself may prove to be an effective component of specific lessons. One apparent advantage to teaching appropriate use of conflict resolution is that if students know from their own experience that social relations need not be adversarial and that they can share power without losing influence, children may be better prepared to grow as global citizens.

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions,)[ elementary school principals of teacher evaluation practices in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Specifically, the current study was guided by the following research questions: 1) What are the perceptions of elementary public school principals regarding the effectiveness of teacher evaluation in public elementary schools? and 2) To what extent do elementary school principals' perceptions of the effectiveness of teacher evaluation vary by selected demographic variables (e.g. socio-economic status (SES), Academic Performance Index (API) score, student ethnicity makeup, and size of school)? The collective bargaining agreement for the school district was reviewed and the perceptions of the different principals regarding teacher evaluation practices as well as their specific evaluation procedures at the site level were compared. Results revealed that the collective bargaining agreement did not place serious limitations on evaluation practices. Results of this study also demonstrated that elementary school principals indicated overwhelmingly that teacher evaluation needed to be improved to be more comprehensive, including more informal observations and feedback to be taken into account during the evaluation!on process. In addition, concerns were present regarding the consistency of how the teacher evaluations were conducted and the meaningfulness of the teacher evaluation process. In addition, concerns were present regarding the consistency of how the teacher evaluations were conducted and the meaningfulness of the teacher evaluation process. Results further indicated that time constraints and other factors limited the ability of principals to provide meaningful feedback to teachers. The results of this survey reflect a desire on the part of elementary school principals to see the teacher evaluation process changed to become more effective. This change in the teacher evaluation process will help principals make a difference for everyone- principals, teachers, and students alike.

With the new goal of K-12 education being to prepare students to be college and career ready at the end of high school, education needs to start changing at the elementary school level. The literature suggests that teachers need reflective professional development (PD) to effectively teach to the new standards and to demonstrate change to their current instructional practices. This mixed-method multiple-case study investigated the impacts of a reflective professional development (PD) in changing elementary school teachers' instructional practices. Teachers Instructional Portfolios (TIPs) were scored with a TIP rubric based on best practices in teaching mathematics problem-solving and science inquiry. The TIPs were also analyzed with a qualitative coding scheme. Case descriptions were written and all the collected data were used to explain the impacts of the reflective PD on changes in teachers' instructional practices. While we found no predictive patterns in relation to teachers changing their classroom practices based on the reflective PD, we claim that teachers' desire to change might contribute to improvements in instruction. We also observed that teachers' self-assessment scores tend to be higher than the actual TIP scores corroborating with the literature on the usage of self-assessment to evaluate teachers' instructional practices.

The problem of this study is concerned with the relationships between selected requirements for admission to elementary teacher education and teaching performance. The purposes of this study were (1) to investigate the relationships between teaching performance, as evaluated by a principal, and five selected admission criteria (the GPA at the time of admittance to teacher education; achievement test scores in reading, language, mathematics; and instructor appraisal of the student during the first education course); (2) to determine whether or not the five selected admission criteria used singly, or in some combination, predict success in teaching performance.

While student populations are growing, the gatekeeping devices of teacher certification examinations prevent many who want and are trained to teach from entering the profession. If failing these exams predicted failure to teach well, blocking students who do not pass certification exams from entering the profession might be a well-reasoned policy. However, many studies indicate that there is little correlation between certification test scores and quality of teaching. The present study investigated the effectiveness of a program to improve the scores of Texas elementary preservice teachers on a required certification exam. The program consisted of one-on-one coaching of preservice teachers upon the completion of coursework and prior to their taking the state's certification exam. Subjects' scores on a representative form of the certification test were used as pre-treatment measures. The content of the treatment program was individualized for each subject and determined by the specific items missed by each subject on the representative form. The post-treatment measure was the subject's score on the certification exam. Scores on the representative form and on the certification examination were compared to determine if there were significant differences between scores of preservice teachers who had been coached and those who were not coached. Since subjects voluntarily enrolled in the treatment, initial differences between coached and uncoached groups were controlled through analysis of covariance and pairwise matching. Descriptive statistics, t-tests for dependent samples, repeated measures analysis of variance, and univariate analyses of variance and covariance all indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the scores on the certification test of coached and uncoached students. Coached students showed greater improvement in scores than uncoached, with Hispanic subjects showing greater improvement than Caucasian subjects. Analyses that examined the differences between the coached and uncoached subjects on the domain and competency scores that make up the raw scores failed to indicate the sources of the differences in raw scores.

Underachievement among secondary students in Tanzania is tragic: the failure rate on the national exams after the fourth year is between 65 to 100 percent (Mushi, 2011). The literature affirms that student learning is primarily improved by enhancing quality classroom instruction while the second most impactful strategy is consistent school leadership to ensure that effective practices are utilized in the classroom (Blase & Blase, 2004; Chenoweth & Everhart, 2002; Fink & Markholt, 2011; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004; Leithwood, Harris, & Strauss, 2010; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005). Despite the research, the researcher's pilot study revealed that there is currently little or no oversight of classroom instruction in most Tanzanian secondary schools. This paradox yielded two research questions: 1. Can Tanzanian schools leaders improve the quality of classroom instruction in order to enhance student learning and performance by employing systematic, fair, and culturally relevant teacher evaluation techniques? 2. Are the teacher evaluation tools developed for American school systems suitable to serve the Tanzanian school system or must they be adapted into the Tanzanian cultural context? Using a Problem-Based Learning [PBL] method, the researcher field-tested and refined The Curriculum for Training Secondary School Leaders, and a workshop in which it was taught. The workshop and its curriculum provided instruction in Evaluation and Supervision of Classroom Instruction (ESCI) to Tanzanian Head Masters and Mistresses (HMs), or as commonly referred to as principals in America, in an effort to develop their pedagogical leadership skills. During the workshop, HMs refined the American-designed evaluation tools to make them culturally relevant to a Tanzanian context. After attending the six-day intensive ESCI workshop, participants indicated in surveys that they felt capable of providing support and coaching to their teachers and capable of assisting teachers in their efforts to improve their pedagogical skills. The researcher provided additional workshops for teachers and HMs at their school sites to support educators in the implementation of ESCI. Qualitative research demonstrated teachers also had favorable post-workshop reactions to ESCI. Though the implementation of the product and training will be further assessed in 2014, the initial qualitative results from post-workshop surveys strongly confirmed that HMs developed confidence, skill, and competence in employing ESCI, thus increasing the likelihood that HMs would employ ESCI in their own schools in the year to come.

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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
This study aimed to investigate the meanings attributed by teachers on intensive recovery policy and its implementation in a state school in elementary school in São Paulo.Specific objectives were defined: to know as intensive recovery policy was implemented in school, in relation to the characteristics and forms of organization of educational work as well as understand the challenges faced by teachers in action with students of intensive recovery class and the possibilities of action to deal with the problems encountered in the educational process. The research set up with a case study and was based on the Theory Historical-cultural. Three teachers participated in this study and used procedures involved semi-structured interviews, participant observation and records in field diaries. The results indicated that: a) The intensive recovery policy was perceived positively in terms of their objective, but there were critical especially on the need to do it as soon as difficulties are evidenced learning and not in later years; b) Significant changes in the organization of pedagogical work in school; c) the challenges encountered involved aspects such as heterogeneity of learning difficulties presented by the students, conflicts with the management team, discontinuity in the educational support offered by assistant professors because of high turnover; d) Were observed individual forms of resistance and actions and group that aimed to build strategies to deal with the problems encountered in the process. The teachers evaluated that although students have achieved significant progress in relation to learning, many still could not meet the expected requirements for the year were enrolled. It is concluded that intensive recovery policy, as it is configured, can not achieve its goals, which points to the need to critically examine the many factors involved in the production and perpetuation of not learn in school.
Este estudo visou investigar os sentidos atribuídos por professores sobre a política de recuperação intensiva e sua efetivação em uma escola pública estadual de Ensino Fundamental do interior paulista. Como objetivos específicos foram definidos: conhecer como a política de recuperação intensiva foi implementada na escola, no que se refere às características e formas de organização do trabalho pedagógico, bem como compreender os desafios encontrados por professores na atuação com os alunos da classe de recuperação intensiva e as possibilidades de ação para lidar com os problemas encontrados no processo educativo. A pesquisa configurou-se com um estudo de caso e pautou-se na Teoria Histórico-cultural. Participaram desta pesquisa três professoras e os procedimentos usados envolveram entrevistas semiestruturadas, observação participante e registros em diários de campo. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que: a) a política de recuperação intensiva foi percebida de forma positiva no que tange ao seu objetivo, mas existiram críticas especialmente sobre a necessidade de realizá-la logo que sejam evidenciadas dificuldades de aprendizagem e não em anos posteriores; b) ocorreram mudanças significativas na organização do trabalho pedagógico realizado na escola; c) os desafios encontrados envolveram aspectos como heterogeneidade de dificuldades de aprendizagem apresentadas pelos alunos, conflitos com a equipe de gestão, descontinuidade no suporte educacional ofertado pelos professores auxiliares em virtude de alta rotatividade; d) foram evidenciadas formas de resistência e ações individuais e em grupo que visaram construir estratégias para lidar com os problemas encontrados no processo. As análises ainda mostraram que para as professoras, embora os alunos tenham conseguido avanços importantes em relação à aprendizagem, vários ainda não conseguiam atender aos requisitos esperados para o ano que cursavam. Conclui-se que a política de recuperação intensiva,tal como está configurada, não consegue alcançar as suas finalidades, o que aponta a necessidade de se analisar criticamente os múltiplos fatores envolvidos na produção e na perpetuação do não aprender na escola.

碩士
臺北市立師範學院
國民教育研究所
88
The purposes of this study were to survey the elementary school teachers’ opinion for student rating, and to investigate how their opinion are influenced by the demographic variables and schools’ environmental variables. This study included a document analysis and a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire developed by the author was administered to 507 randomly selected samples from 65 elementary schools in Taipei City and Taipei County with a return rate of 75.11%. Data were analyzed by frequencies, percentage and Chi-square. Based on the findings, the conclusions are as follows: 1. With the concept of student rating, teachers think that (1)“provide a reflective opportunity for teachers”is the advantage getting most teachers’ consensus,(2)“students purposefully rating the low score to the teacher whom they don''''t like”is the shortcoming most teachers worry about,(3)most teachers agree that“even if elementary students’ maturation isn’t sufficient, the result of student rating also deserves of teachers'''' consideration”. 2. At the aspect of student rating practices, teachers think that (1)the criteria of evaluation survey should be made by school administrators and teachers collaboratively,(2)the person who conducting the evaluation survey should be another teacher,(3)the place of conducting evaluation has better be in the classroom,(4)the survey are more appropriate for students at higher grades, (5)the result of survey should be delivered to the teacher only,(6)unpublished paper is the best way to show the result of survey,(7)the best way to use the survey result is to provide feedback to teachers. 3. With regard to the attitude of teachers, teachers think that (1)they may have some positive feeling toward student rating, because it will help them to reflect their teaching,(2)they also have some negative feeling, because it will give them pressure and uncomfort. 4.At the aspect of student rating criteria, teachers think that the criteria must include(1)the interaction between teachers and students,(2)teachers’ communicative skills and expressive ability,(3)the ability of classroom management,(4)instructional skills,(5)teachers'''' concern for students,(6)teacher’s enthusiasm at their job,(7)teacher’s professional knowledge, (8)teacher’s course organization and arrangement,(9)the methods of teachers'''' assessment, (10)students'''' self-assessment. 5.At the aspect of student rating restrictions, teachers think that(1)The maturation of elementary students isn’t so sufficient, (2)students don''''t fill the questionnaire recklessly, (3)the reliable and valid evaluation tools need to be developed, (4)schools are unable to provide enough support and feedback, (5)most teachers resist this kind of idea, (6)the ability to analysis and evaluate the data of student rating need to be cultivated. 6.At the aspect of student rating supplemental measures, teachers think that (1)the people who will implement the evaluation must have professional training,(2)we should create right ideas or concept for students,(3)we should provide some service for teachers to improve teaching skills,(4)the school should have the practice program,(e)the educated agency should support and implement the policy and try to provide practical help,(f)the school should plan some training seminars for student rating. 7.At the aspects of student rating feasibility, most teachers think that student rating is not feasible in elementary school now. 8.Student rating in elementary schools should emphasize the formative evaluation. 9.Students opinions should be more emphasized by teachers in elementary schools. 10.It should be carefully to transfer the practice of "Student rating" from colleges to elementary schools.

碩士
元智大學
管理研究所
91
For few decades, the service rating of public senior high school teachers doesn''t have any source basis. And we can investigate the development of the service rating of public senior high school teachers, we can find the method is to primary quote from the law official business. Investigating the teachers’ work performance of the year by issuing the executive order. Sythesize the whole content of the method of the service rating, we can hardly find the purpose of the method. In other way, we find the method that it can’t not only solve the difficulty of the teaching, but also it can’t promote the profession growth of the teachers. Because of the reasons, Ministry of Education is drawing up a strict method of the service rating of public senior hight school teachars. Ministry of Education hopes that the method can evaluate the teachers'' work performance exactly and combine with incentive system. So the research on the service rating of public senior high school teachers is valuable.The methods of the research are “the depth interview” and “literature review”.The Research hopes to find the origins and problems of the system. The researcher interviewed three personnel directors, two teachers of the rating committees,an educational administration director, a vice-director in a Taoyuan country government Personnel Department, a chief of activity. All of them are the members of the rating committees. From their talking, the researcher finds that : (1)The service rating of Junior and elementary teachers emphasizes in the summary appraising, and did not practice the formation appraising. (2)The operation of the rating committees becomes formalistic at many schools. The teachers of the rating committees lack of the observation chance to understand the performance of all the teachers. (3)Most teachers are satisfied with “the cash award”, and they also think that the method doesn''t have the function of praising good teachers and eliminating ineligible teachers. (4)Most interviewees think that the purpose of 360 degree feedback is to persue professional growth of the teachers in Junior and elementary schools will be better. If the purpose of the system is to understand the teachers'' performance, maybe it will fail. (5)Most interviewees think that the information about the teachers''performance from different sources will be more objective than one source. But they also think that system doesn''t fit the environment of junior and elementary schools. The reasons are as follows: (1)The peers'' friendship is the consideration basis of the teachers''appraising. (2)The students of junior and elementary schools don''t have the ability to appraise their teachers. (3)About self assessment, the teachers of junior and elementary schools think that the rewards will affect the outcome of self assessment. (4)About upward appraising, most interviewees think that the feedback is the purpose of giving suggestions to the administrative person could be executable. But if the outcome is for performance appraising, many administrative person will cater for the teachers and don''t enforce many policies. In the other way, many appraisers dare not to do the hoest appraising. Because they are afraid of revenge of the administrative person. Because of the reasons, upward appraising is not so correct and doubtful.

碩士
國立新竹教育大學
教育學系碩士班
100
Developing Rating Scales for Pre-service Teachers’Teaching Abilities in Elementary School —A Case of the Department of Education in NHCUE. Abstract The goal of this research is to develop ” Rating Scales for Pre-service Teachers’ Teaching Abilities in Elementary School”. The main purposes of this research are: (1) Developing rating scales for pre-service teachers’ teaching abilities in elementary school. (2) Testing and checking the application of ” Rating Scales for Pre-service Teachers’ Teaching Abilities in Elementary School”. (3) Making adjustment of the rating scales and user's guidance for examining pre-service teachers’ teaching abilities. To achieve all the purposes mentioned above, this research adopted Delphi Technique in first phase, which inquired 17 scholars of there importance judgments on ”Rating Scales for Pre-service Teachers’ Teaching Abilities in Elementary School”. The data was conducted by SPSS 17.0 Statistics Software to analyze the “arithmetic average” and “quartile deviation”. In the phase two, 8 pre-service teachers and 3 adjudicators were invited to the research to make improvement of the scale. The consequence of adjudicators’ identical test and interviews of adjustment indicators were analyzed by Kendall 's ω statistics. According to the analysis of the data, the conclusions of this study are as follows: 1. ”Rating Scales for Pre-service Teachers’ Teaching Abilities in Elementary School” including 4 perspectives and 20 indicators of Teaching Design, Teaching Methods and Techniques, Teaching Materials and Communication, Classroom Managements with Teacher-student Interactions. 2. ” Rating Scales for Pre-service Teachers’ Teaching Abilities in Elementary School” with five levels of behavioral indicators, which contains perfect, well, acceptable, need improve and unattainable. 3. The application and guidance of ” Rating Scales for Pre-service Teachers’ Teaching Abilities in Elementary School” were discussed. Some advices were made for further use of this study: 1. Advises for the educational administration. (1) To develop the test of teachers’ Teaching Abilities. (2) To develop the rating scales for the test of teachers’ Teaching Abilities. 2. Advices for the Department of Education in NHCUE. (1) Making use of the test of teachers’ Teaching Abilities for developing pre-service teachers’ teaching abilities. (2) Increasing the test of teachers’ Teaching Abilities in other different stages. 3.Advices for the researchers of educational backgrounds. (1) Developing rating scales for other requirements of different purposes. (2) Increasing questionnaires and making judgments from videos of pre-service teachers can further understand the use of ”Rating Scales for Pre-service Teachers’ Teaching Abilities in Elementary School”. (3) Subsuming the Fifth grade students in the test of teachers’ Teaching Abilities will be more effective to the application of teachers’ teaching abilities. Key words: Pre-service teachers, teaching ability, teaching ability test, rating scale construction, teacher education

This study is an exploratory investigation on teachers' perceptions of the extent to which the national examinations that are written at the end of primary schooling in Rwanda influence their curriculum practices. The study used a structured questionnaire for data collection, and simple descriptive statistics for data analysis. The study, firstly, examined teachers' views on the link between national examinations and the aims of primary education. The results showed that teachers perceived the national examinations as assessing the prerequisite knowledge for secondary education, on one hand; and to some extent social skills needed for life in the community and society. This is in line with the aim of primary education in Rwanda according to government policy. Secondly, the study explored the impact of the national examinations on teachers' practices as well as on teacher self image. Findings were that a good success rate in these examinations was the main goal-direction for teachers and had a major influence on the curriculum practices. Most teachers indicated that they aimed to produce a large number of candidates who were classified highly on national scale, and were socially well skilled. The impact of the national examination on their practices is evident in some of the strategies they use in negotiating and mediating the curriculum: the focus on the main examination subjects, on the previous examination topics, and on academically good and borderline students who have a greater chance of scoring high grades in the national examination. Finally, the study explored factors that teachers perceived to influence candidates' success and failure in the national examinations. Teacher commitment to preparing candidates for the examinations was most frequently reported, as a factor associated with student success, whereas the very limited places I available in pubic and subsidized secondary schools was the most contributing factor to poor results.
Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership styles adopted by school principals and their influence on the job performance of primary school teachers in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The study was designed to gain insight into the kinds of leadership styles presently used, the leadership preference of principals, the perceptions of the teachers and principals regarding the leadership styles of the principals and the effect of the leadership styles on teachers’ performance. The main research question that guided this study was: Which leadership styles are most commonly used by primary school principals in the Tigray region and what is their effect on the performance of teachers? A mixed-methods research design was used with questionnaires as well as a focus group interview as means of data-collection. One hundred and seventy eight principals and 446 teachers comprising 69% male and 31% female teachers participated in the study. The path-goal leadership questionnaire as well as a self-constructed questionnaire to measure teacher performance was self-administered to collect data from the selected principals and teachers, which secured a 97% response rate. During the qualitative phase, eight supervisors participated in the focus group interview. The questionnaire data were analysed using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) software. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted and presented in a clear and logical manner. The principals and teachers indicated that all the leadership styles, except the directive leadership style, have a positive impact on the teachers’ performance. Furthermore, the supportive leadership style is the most frequently used style. Importantly, age, qualifications and experience as independent variables had an effect on teachers’ performance. The data also indicated a statistically significant relationship between the job performance of teachers and the leadership styles employed by the principals. The study results make a contribution to the research on the relation between leadership styles and teachers’ performance, especially since no study has been conducted on this issue in the Tigray region of Ethiopia before. It was possible to make several meaningful recommendations for implementation in the Tigray region.
Educational Leadership and Management
D. Ed. (Education Management)

The study measures the productive vocabulary size of Grade 6 English Second Language learners and teachers in 16 township schools in Gauteng Province. Data from learners (n-881) and teachers (n-19) were collected by testing the participants with versions C and A respectively of the Productive Vocabulary levels Test of Controlled ability. In addition, samples of learners’ written work were examined. Interviews and lesson observations with a sample of teachers were conducted to triangulate the data. Using SPSS version 23, means for each word level were calculated. The ANOVA, t-tests and post hoc tests were performed. Bonferroni corrections were applied. Results indicate that both learners and teachers have not mastered the vocabulary at the levels tested. The results also indicate that poor vocabulary teaching methods and poverty contribute to poor vocabulary development among learners.
Linguistics and Modern Languages
M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

Many schools in South Africa face challenges of poor teacher performance as a result of implementing performance evaluation systems that are not developmental. In an attempt to resolve the current implementation challenges of the South African Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) which is theoretically aligned to the TQM principles, the focus in this study is on the perceptions of school-based managers and educators regarding the effectiveness of the developmental supervision model as a possible tool for improving the quality of teaching. A mixed methods research design characterised by the explanatory sequential design was used to address the research questions. Out of the 350 randomly selected participants in all 15 districts of the Gauteng Province responded to the quantitative phase in the form of questionnaires. This was followed by analysis of the qualitative data from three focus group interview sessions that were conducted in Sedibeng East, Sedibeng West and Johannesburg North districts of the Gauteng Province in order to get in-depth explanations on perceptions of school-based managers and educators. Each of the three focus group interviews comprised of ten purposefully selected participants embracing two principals, two vice principals, two HODs and four educators per district. The results indicate that school-based managers and educators strongly believed that the developmental supervision model is an excellent tool for improving quality of teaching by applying implementation strategies comprising of the clinical supervision, self-directed supervision, peer supervision and connoisseurship strategies. These results were based on the opinion of the participants that the characteristics of the developmental supervision implementation strategies align with the Total Quality Management principles which were perceived to have a positive influence on improving the quality of teaching. The same supervision strategies were also found to match different levels of teacher development according to their levels of expertise and commitment. In contrast, the IQMS performance evaluation process, which also involves self-evaluation and peer evaluation, was believed to lack compliance with the developmental supervision strategies and the TQM principles during practical implementation because of characteristics related to the traditional inspection approaches to professional development. It is therefore recommended that the developmental supervision model should be introduced in South African schools to effectively implement the IQMS in order to ensure improved quality of teaching.
Educational Management and Leadership
D. Ed. (Education Management)

This dissertation of a limited scope focuses on the Heads of Departments’ perceptions of the Integrated Quality Management System for teachers at selected quintile 5 Primary Schools in the East London Region of the Eastern Cape Province. It reveals the positive and negative aspects of the staff appraisal system, its implementation and purpose, as well as views on its improvement. By means of a qualitative case study and the Cognitive Evaluation Theory as theoretical framework, the researcher has determined that the Performance Measurement component of the appraisal system has a detrimental effect on the intrinsic motivation of teachers and that it should be separated from the Developmental Appraisal. Individual interviews with the Heads of Departments revealed the need for revising the assessment rubric in order for Performance Measurement to be conducted effectively.
Educational Leadership and Management
M. Ed. (Education Management)

The purpose of the study was to investigate the practices and challenges faced by primary schools in the Western Cape province when implementing the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) policy. The study concentrated mainly on monitoring and evaluation processes; as well as the relevance and appropriateness of the measures in place for refining the IQMS. In 1994, the attainment of democracy in South Africa brought radical transformation to the education system, which resulted in the development of various educational policies. One of these policies was the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS), which was introduced in 2003. The IQMS was aimed at improving quality education delivery. However, based on learners’ academic and quality results in terms of progression over the past two decades, the South African education system may not have achieved all of its desired outcomes. The school development teams, especially those in rural and previously disadvantaged schools, do not comply with the principles of the IQMS policy and, as a result, fail in their mandate. The empirical approach employed in this study was successful in obtaining information from participants about the challenges they faced in implementing the IQMS policy. The study used qualitative approach. Participants included post-level one teachers as well as members of the school management team at five different schools. The research findings indicated that some schools only implement the IQMS to comply with the department requirements and to ensure that their educators receive the salary increments based on IQMS. Consequently, there is no real school development taking place. The study made a number of recommendations to consider with regard to effective implementation of IQMS in schools. It is recommended that the School Development Team (SDT) and the School Management Team (SMT) employ a well-adjusted approach to whole school evaluation, with a resilient effort on both professional development and performance appraisal in the engagement of whole school development. The study also suggests the appointment of Senior Education Specialists who will be based at every school and become part of the SDTs in order to assist the schools in converting evaluation into school development. Further suggestion is also made for performance agreements and targets linked to salary increments.
Educational Management and Leadership
Ph. D. (Education Management)