Teacher evaluation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's (KSA) schools : moving forward

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) educational enhancement is one of the primary goals being targeted. This is exemplified by the Tatweer project, initiated and guided by the late King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz's initiative. Educational enhancement is not a single activity; it contains many app...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Alharthi, Ebtesam Fahad
Other Authors: Woollard, William
Published: University of Southampton 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.720178
Description
Summary:In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) educational enhancement is one of the primary goals being targeted. This is exemplified by the Tatweer project, initiated and guided by the late King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz's initiative. Educational enhancement is not a single activity; it contains many approaches, one of which is the evaluation of the professional practises of teachers. Teachers are the providers of educational opportunities, and consequently there should be quality evaluation for teachers to ensure continuation of good professional development. Currently, teachers in Saudi Arabia are evaluated by their principals based on predefined assessment standards, set by the Ministry of Education. These standards are outdated and, for instance are not set within a framework for teaching. The need for enhancing educational output in Saudi Arabia's schools, by providing formative evaluation methods and standards for teachers, is the professional motivation for undertaking this research study. A review of the existing literature did not identify the implementation of any framework for teaching or use of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) in the KSA, in the context of teacher evaluation. This study uses Danielson's Framework For Teaching as a mechanism through which to evaluate the professional actives of the sample of teachers. It investigates teachers' concerns and attitudes about using a 'showcasing' tool - (e-portfolio) and identifies the affordances and constraints of adopting and using the tool, to begin the process of moving from summative assessment to formative evaluation. The research consisted of three phases, first the investigation phase, which used the Concerns Based Adoption Model's Stages of Concern questionnaire (SoCQ). The second, the operational phase, engaged the sample of teacher with the e-portfolio system and a second distribution of the SoCQ. The final and most significant stage is the evaluation phase, which used observation of the teachers' online activity and interview with the participating study sample teachers, who engaged with the e-portfolio system experience. The findings identified a number of affordances and constraints associated with the teachers use of e-portfolio to evidence their professional achievements within a framework for teaching. Related to these findings The analysis of the collected qualitative, rich data produced valid findings. A number of recommendations are made for policy makers in the KSA, as well as strategies that can be adopted within schools to support teachers' professional development, consequently assisting the Kingdom to advance its educational settings and practices.