Teacher appraisal and student feedback on teacher professional development and practices

Abstract

Nowadays, the number of English students is on the rise and English teachers need to be well-equipped with knowledge and flexibility so that they could have the best practices in their classroom. The teachers being appraised and getting feedback from students are able to adapt to different teaching contexts and to ensure that their students have profound understandings of what is taught thanks to increased teaching motivation and social recognition. The major aim of teacher appraisal and learner feedback is to develop teachers professionally in order to improve their delivery of lessons in schools. The effectiveness of the process of teacher appraisal and learner feedback is, however, dependent on the perceptions of the teachers themselves. Teacher appraisal gives teachers the motivation to move forward, but in some cases, it creates an invisible barrier for teachers as a result of their subjective thought. Likewise, feedback from students proved to be positive occasionally affects teachers in negative ways. With a view to addressing this problem, a study in this field was conducted with both qualitative and quantitative methods of research, which were employed to give the answers to the mentioned question, namely questionnaires and interviews. These instruments were delivered to 7 high school teachers, 18 English teachers and 100 students at an English language centre in Can Tho. The study aimed to identify whether teachers develop profession and accordingly assist English teachers in realizing how appraisal affects teachers’ feeling and how to adjust their practices in the real settings exposed to learner feedback.