The Comparative Research And Enlightment On Beginning Teacher Evaluation In The UK And America

Beginning teachers are one of the special groups of teachers with its own features. While we provide some effective guides and supports during induction period, we should pay more attentions to the right evaluations on them in order to promote their professional development and teaching quality. In this paper, through the analysis and comparison of the beginning teacher evaluation in America and the UK, a good evaluative system on beginning teacher which becomes the bridge of beginning teacher's training before teaching career and professional development at the beginning of teaching career is aimed to be researched so that it can provide some advices and reflections about the way how to employ beginning teachers, how to provide inductions and how to evaluate beginning teachers. The main research is composed of the following four parts:The first part: induction period—the critical period of teacher's professional development. Firstly, such basic conceptions as induction period and beginning teacher evaluation are introduced. Then the plights of beginning teacher's professional development are analyzed. Finally the importance of the beginning teacher evaluation is emphasized through the discussion of the relationship between teacher evaluation and beginning teacher's professional development.The second part: beginning teacher evaluation in America. Firstly, the background and two basic modes of evaluation which are named with competence-based teacher evaluation and performance standards-based teacher evaluation are stated. Then evaluative standards on beginning teachers and the relative evaluative organizations are introduced, and the qualification test known as Praxis System is stressed, which shows the feature of combining the abstract standards and the concrete tests in America. Finally the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program (BTSA) indicates that the American beginning teacher evaluation has unified regulations and flexible implementations.The third part: beginning teacher evaluation in the UK. Firstly, the ideological backgrounds and relative theoretical researches are presented. Then the revised standards for the recommendation for qualified teacher status (QTS) are introduced, which pinpoint the professional attributes, professional Knowledge and Understanding, and professional skills. Finally the Induction Support Program for Newly Qualified Teachers, the Induction Standards, and the career entry and development profile are detailedly analyzed. In England, the beginning teachers are specially evaluated by different standards during different periods, and the beginning teacher evaluation has become the guarantee of induction.The fourth part: the enlightments on beginning teacher evaluation. After the comparisons of beginning teacher evaluation in America and England, the following recommendations and reflections are provided: the grading tests and evaluations on beginning teacher are necessary, they should be distinctively evaluated with clear evaluative aims and effective evaluative standards. Meanwhile, the cooperation among schools, government and universities should be encouraged, and the reflective self-evaluation should also be considered.