Student Corner Teacher Evaluation Is Necessary Evil
By Son Hee-suk
In the past, teachers' authority in Korea was absolute and students dared not act against it. However, today, as students' awareness level has become higher, their perception of teachers has changed. They think that many teachers lack knowledge in their own subjects and they cannot teach students effectively ― even the education ministry agrees with this opinion.
Solutions to strengthen public education and make students trust it had to be arrived at, and so the teacher evaluation system was suggested. Even though teachers protested strongly to this because of several reasons, teacher evaluation is a necessary evil to enhance public education and should be established.
First of all, teachers are saying that the assessment could cause unnecessary competition between teachers, ultimately creating serious distrust between them and students. However, they don't need worry about unnecessary competition because the assessment is not a comparative evaluation, but an absolute one. In addition, distrust is going to be resolved, not caused, if a reliable method to guarantee the quality of public education is offered.
If teachers are really worried about public education and their students' future, they should look at the system as a positive feedback for their profession and public education and help its establishment proactively. Actually, the teacher assessment system can give a revaluation of the teaching profession and pointers for professional growth. The growth of teachers' professionally is going to push the growth of public education at the same time.
In addition to the worry about competition and distrust, opponents of the teacher assessment system say that the fact that students grade their teachers is ethically wrong and reduces the teachers' dignity.
However, it should be regarded just as an issue related to the quality of public education, not as a problem related to ethics or dignity. If evaluating teachers is really ethically wrong, then the professor evaluation system, which is actively being operated in most universities, also should be concerned ethically wrong. Furthermore, the time that dignity of teachers controlled students is gone. What controls students most effectively today is charisma.
Finally, opponents of the system say that it should not be applied because there's no reasonable standard to evaluate teachers. Though no evaluating system is set as an international standard, many researchers suggest objective yardsticks and methodologies to effectively assess teachers' quality. For example, Douwe Beijaard and Nico Verloop in ICLON classified the domains of teacher assessment into six categories and suggested a direct and authentic method in their research.
If the education authority has an evaluation method based on a reliable scientific base and the reference to it is open, trust in that system will be enhanced. In conclusion, even if more than half of teachers refuse, a grading policy for teachers should be considered carefully and established to improve the quality of public education.
Education should be considered looking a hundred years into the future. However, with the establishment of the teacher evaluation system, it seems that many teachers who have the responsibility are just concerned about their benefits, not an improvement in public education. It is like looking just at the tree, and not the forest.
In establishing the assessment system, teachers and students should play the most important role, while government should play a complementary role by running an additional system that can give feedback and promotion to teachers. If the three ― the teachers, students, and authorities ― make efforts together, public education quality can be enhanced.
Son Hee-suk is a student of Information and Communications University in Daejeon.