Excluding Peer Evaluation in Teacher Assessments This Year... Filtering 'Abusive Language' in Descriptive Responses

Teacher Competency Evaluation System to be Implemented at School Level from November
Webpage Launched for Mobile Evaluation Participation
Remote Class Activity Materials Can Substitute for Class Disclosure

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The 'Teacher Competency Development Evaluation System,' in which students and parents evaluate teachers, will be implemented in the second half of this year. Peer teacher evaluations will not be conducted this year, and narrative responses containing abusive language will be filtered out so they are not delivered to teachers.

On the 22nd, the Ministry of Education informed metropolitan and provincial offices of education about the improvement plans for the Teacher Competency Development Evaluation System and the evaluation implementation plan through the 2nd School Daily Recovery Support Group meeting. Each metropolitan and provincial office of education will establish the 2021 academic year Teacher Competency Development Evaluation implementation plan by early May and conduct evaluations at each school starting in November.

From this year, a mobile webpage will be created to allow students and parents to participate in satisfaction surveys via smartphones and other mobile devices. The Ministry of Education will build the mobile webpage and improve the system before the evaluation and conduct a pilot operation until August.

The Teacher Competency Development Evaluation will be conducted as a student satisfaction survey targeting grades 4 through 12 and a parent satisfaction survey targeting grades 1 through 12. It evaluates teachers' learning and life guidance as well as school management by vice principals and principals, consisting of evaluation items checked on a 5-point scale and free-form narrative evaluations.

To reduce the evaluation burden on teachers, the 'peer teacher evaluation,' where teachers evaluate each other, will not be conducted. A filtering system will also be introduced to prevent inappropriate language such as abusive words in narrative responses from being delivered to teachers.

This year, to reduce the burden on school educational activities caused by COVID-19, example evaluation items reflecting special circumstances will be prepared. If teachers provide remote class activity materials, it will be possible to substitute for open classes, and the methods of providing educational activity information will be diversified.

Deliberations by other committees operating within schools are allowed, and the burden of forming evaluation management committees has been eased. Evaluation results will be used as feedback materials for teachers' educational activities, and education offices and schools will use them to support teacher professionalism and establish educational plans for the following year.

Meanwhile, teacher organizations are demanding that the Teacher Competency Development Evaluation not be conducted considering the COVID-19 situation. The Korea Federation of Teachers' Associations pointed out, "Since face-to-face and non-face-to-face classes are still being conducted in parallel, open classes for evaluation, parent attendance, student counseling, and life guidance cannot be properly carried out. If teacher evaluations are conducted out of inertia, poor evaluation materials will be provided to evaluators, and evaluation results are likely to be distorted, further reducing effectiveness and reliability."

The Federation added, "Evaluation preparation and the production and distribution of guidance materials for students and parents inevitably increase the overall workload for teachers, and the evaluation burden and related administrative tasks may cause disruptions to student education and quarantine. The 5-point scale method of the satisfaction survey does not provide appropriate information, and teacher evaluations should be changed into a practical feedback system."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.