POSSIBLE DETERMINANTS OF TEACHER RECEPTIVITY TO EVALUATION
| Pages | 148-171 |
| Published date | 01 February 1982 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009859 |
| Date | 01 February 1982 |
| Author | NAFTALY S. GLASMAN,PAULINE J. PAULIN |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME XX, NUMBER
2
SUMMER,
1982
POSSIBLE DETERMINANTS OF TEACHER RECEPTIVITY TO
EVALUATION
NAFTALY
S.
GLASMAN AND PAULINE
J.
PAULIN
This paper summarizes two exploratory case studies
of
teachers' perceptions about
their receptivity
to
evaluation
and
about possible determinants
of
this receptivity.
The first study explores relationships
of
receptivity
to
teacher controllability
of
evaluated behaviors.
It
surveys perceptions
of
elementary school teachers
and
suggests
the
existence
of a
strong positive relationship
in
activities associated with
motivating students.
The
study also offers
a
discussion
of the
significance
of
controllability as
a
possible determinant of receptivity. The second study extends the
investigation
of the
relationship between receptivity
and
controllability.
It
surveys
perceptions
of
secondary school teachers. Specifically,
it
explores relationships
between receptivity and controllability over two kinds
of
decision: those associated
with teaching activities and those associated with evaluation of these activities. The
study also explores
the
effect
on the
above relationships
of
trust
and
confidence
which teachers have
in the
expertise
of
their evaluators.
The
former
two
relationships
are
found
to be
positive.
The
first,
but not the
second,
is
found
to be
affected
by
trust
and
confidence. Selected implications
of
the findings
are
offered.
Evaluation is closely linked to organizational goals and decision making.
In a labor intensive industry such as education, evaluation of teachers is
central to the development and pursuit of educational goals and to the on-
going decision-making process in schools. The literature of teacher
evaluation has expanded in recent years not only in the area of
methodology and instrumentation,1, but also in the area of purpose and
utilization. 2 The impetus for the expansion has been the emergence of
evaluation of teachers as a key issue in the politics of education.3 One form
of the current work on evaluation is within the context of the relationship
between the educational system and the lay world. Another is within the
context of the internal dynamics of the educational system
itself.
As a consequence of these developments, the previously encountered
difficulties associated with methodologies and instrumentation have now
become embedded in added complexities.4 One set of complexities relates
to state and federal regulations which emanate from the politically
NAFTALY
S.
GLASMAN
is
professor
of
educational administration
and
Dean, Graduate
School
of
Education, University
of
California, Santa Barbara.
Dr
Glasman (B.A. Wesleyan
University, M.A.
and
Ph.D., University
of
California, Berkeley) has authored close
to 100
articles
and
monographs
in
English, Hebrew
and
German.
He is a
former high school
principal
and the
current editor
of
Review
of
Educational
Research.
PAULINE
J.
PAULIN
(B.A.,
M.A.,
Ph.D., University
of
California, Santa Barbara)
is
director
of
evaluation
services, Santa Barbara High School District, Santa Barbara, California,
and a
former high
school teacher.
Glasman/Paulin 149
motivated evaluation mandates.5 Another relates to local district
implementation of these mandates and particularly teachers' suspicions
and resistance.6 Among these added complexities are conflicting goals of
evaluations, lack of clarity about the use of evaluation results,
controversies over the nature and extent of teacher involvement in the
evaluation, and lack of conviction as to which specific behaviors are to be
evaluated. This is not to suggest that a resolution has been found to the
long standing controversy over whether anything at all other than student
performance may constitute a measure of teacher evaluation.
While constituting, at least in theory, one cornerstone of the current
controversies, teacher receptivity to evaluation has not been examined
systematically.7 Not only can this receptivity be assumed to affect teacher
attitudes and behaviors in and outside of the classroom, but it can also be
assumed to influence the nature of the implementation of mandated and
non-mandated evaluation conducted by local school administrators. It
may be suggested that teacher receptivity to evaluation will become one of
the key determinants of the future role of evaluation in education.
Examining determinants of teacher receptivity to evaluation has, thus,
both theoretical significance and practical values.
Why might teacher controllability of the evaluated behavior be a possible
determinant of teacher receptivity to evaluation? A behavior which is
submitted to an evaluation entails some sort of a self-presentation. The
presentation of self has to be determined, at least in part, by the personal
motivation of the evaluatee. The motivation itself has to be associated,
again at least in part, with the potential outcome of the evaluation as
perceived by the evaluatee.8 Thus, the overall motivation of a teacher to
make a self-presentation may probably be a function of three factors as
follows: the teacher's expectancy that his/her effort will lead to
performance; the teacher's expectancy that his/her performance will lead
to an outcome; and the value which the teacher attributes to this outcome.
It has also been suggested9 that the teacher's motivation must be related to
the extent to which s/he sees the outcome as being a result of personal
efforts as opposed to unchangeable factors such as ability and external
controls. Thus, teacher control over the behavior which is to be evaluated
has been suggested as an ethical requirement for appropriate personnel
evaluation in education10 and also as a possible determinant of the
teacher's receptivity to evaluation.11
THE FIRST CASE STUDY
This pilot study12 investigated the possibility that a relationship exists
between receptivity to evaluation and controllability of the evaluated
behavior. The study did not assume that personal controllability is the sole
determinant of receptivity. Nor did it assume that receptivity is
uninfluenced by personality characteristics and by organizational
variables.13 Only one elementary (K-6) school district in Southern
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