Teacher appraisal

Abstract

Teachers in Norway benefit from extensive professional autonomy, but they have few opportunities to receive external feedback on their teaching practice. The national regulations state that teacher appraisal must be implemented but the processes for appraisal are not regulated by law and there are no national performance criteria or reference standards to guide the process. Teacher appraisal is not considered to be part of the national quality assessment system (NKVS). As the employing authorities for teachers, school owners are free to establish their own frameworks for teacher appraisal but few of them have systematic frameworks in place to appraise the quality of teachers’ practice. This limits the possibilities for teachers to receive professional feedback from their employer and a validation of their work by an external entity. The most common source of feedback for teachers in Norway is an annual employee dialogue, which normally takes the form of a conversation with the school leader. There is no guarantee that all teachers have their teaching practice observed and receive feedback for professional development. Without a clear link to professional development, the impact of teacher appraisal on performance will be relatively limited. The absence of career opportunities and recognition for effective teachers is likely to further undermine the role of teacher appraisal in incentivising high performance.