Abstract
Boyd & Ronald (1989) identify two major goals of teacher evaluation, i.e.
assessment of teacher competence and encouragement of teacher
professional development.
The present study investigates the perception of lower secondary
school teachers in Hanoi about the teacher evaluation through the current
teaching assessment-criteria, which are used in Hanoi. Survey
questionnaires were collected from 30 teachers who are teaching English in
lower secondary schools and 10 teachers’ evaluators from different districts
in Hanoi.
The survey was followed by semi-structured interviews with 7
respondents in an attempt to find out their thoughts about the current
teaching assessment criteria in terms of their objectivity, practicality and
assessibility.
With regard to the role of teaching evaluation, the teaching assessment
criteria make a good contribution to the effectiveness of teaching English at
schools in Hanoi. However, more detailed indicators of the assessment sheet
should be designed and the peculiarities of the subject should be concerned
to make the teaching assessment more effective.
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Part A. Introduction
1. Background
In Vietnam, English is now most widely taught throughout the
country, and it is more popular in big cities such as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh
city. Teachers of English are said to find jobs easier than teachers of other
subjects because English is taught systematically at schools from grade 3.
However, it is revealed that after ten years learning English at schools and
even after finishing the university, our students cannot be self- confident
enough to communicate with foreigners or to apply for a job that must deal
with foreigners without studying any further English courses.
Therefore, the issue of quality in English language teaching in

and teacher assessment have been renovated. Based on the Teaching
Evaluation Criteria of the Ministry of Education and Training; Hanoi
Department of Education and Training has applied the criteria to evaluate
English teaching as well as other subjects. Twenty teaching evaluation
criteria in the observation sheet, which is mainly used for assessing teachers
after having one or two periods of class observation is so called teacher
evaluation anually. However, after 6 years of its application, the evaluation–
criteria are somehow causing different oppinions.
Theoretically, there have been lots of teaching evaluation models
designed by native speakers and other nations around us such as Britain,
America or Singapore. Many research in this field have been done by
universities or institutes in the world like the Research in Improving Teacher
Evaluations with Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation by American
Institutes or Guidelines for Evaluating Teaching by the University of
Michigan and others. In Vietnam, there is not a standard tool of teaching
evaluation system. That explains why teacher evaluation has not achieved
success in teaching development and in teacher encouragement. It is known
that the MOET has been carrying out the experiment of the teaching
evaluation for primary school teachers since 2003 and it is still in the first
stage of being applied in the South. For the lower secondary school teachers,
the assessment for their teaching depends on their own district.
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In this situation, the researcher would like to focus on this field to find
out a better approach to the evaluation of teachers including its purpose, the
rules and regulations that apply, the target group to be evaluated, the
domains to be covered, the procedures and methods to be employed, the
instruments to be used, the persons to be involved, and the types of reports
and feedback to be provided. However, there is no one complete source for
information on one’s teaching, and no single technique for gathering it.
Moreover, the techniques need to be sensitive to the particular teaching

The qualitative approach, which involves survey questionnaires,
interviews and document analysis, is employed combined with quantitative
one which data analysis will be processed by the level of agreement marked
through the 4 options.
The subjects of the study are a sample of 30 teachers teaching English
and 10 teacher evaluators from 10 Districts working in Education and
Training Services in Hanoi.
- Document analysis (the teacher evaluation criteria applied in Hanoi)
is the first stage of the study.
- The survey questionnaire is the second stage and then 5 teachers and
2 teacher evaluators are chosen randomly and voluntarily for semi-structured
interviews to provide an insight into the statistical findings made from the
questionnaire.
5. Organization of the study
Three parts will be presented: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion. In the introduction of the study the background of English
teaching evaluation is presented and the aims, the scope, the methods and
the organization of the study are also mentioned. Part B or the development
is the most important one with three chapters which show the nature of
teaching, the teaching evaluation and the study. The final part summarizes
the findings of the study and some implications for further research are also
mentioned.
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PART B. DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1 - The Nature of Teaching
1. Teaching - a special work
Labaree (2000) indicates that teaching is an enormously difficult job
that looks easy. Generally speaking, the nature of teaching is the process of
transferring knowledge from the teacher-the former to the students-the latter,
that makes the process of becoming a teacher not so complicated. It is said

also work very hard at their teaching and continually try to improve. That is
really not easy.
Therefore, not so as it is understood, teaching is not simply a process
of transfering the knowledge from the former to the later. It is a special work
that is like an art. The teacher will get success only when he/she acts
wonderfully before his/her students.
2. Teaching - a creative work
Despite the difficulties inherent in teaching, the profession is generally
seen to be relatively easy even among teacher candidates because of many
reasons that teachers have spent a great deal of time as students observing
teachers practise their trade. The time of observation shows them a lot about
what teachers do and the perception of substantive skills and teacher’s
knowledge is thoroughly ordinary. A good teacher is the person who makes
her/ his business unnecessary that means he/she can make his/her
empowering learners learn without the teacher’s help.
Teachers have a right to participate in all decisions that affect them or
their work. The educational interests of students are best served by teachers
who exercise their professional judgement.Teaching, like any forms of
creative invention, is situated in person, and professional growth is an
intensely private affair. In a landscape without bearing, teachers create and
internalize their own maps. Although curriculum designers aim to create
particular kinds of learning experiences for students, they can anticipate only
partially what particular children will bring to instruction and how easily
they will learn. Teachers necessarily select from and adapt materials to suit
their own students. . Curriculum materials are seen to be a guide but to be a
constraint and control both knowledge and teaching, limiting students’
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opportunities to learn. Teachers who invent lessons are said to be creative
and imaginative. Their invention will make the lessons more interesting than
the textbook itself. Therefore, good teaching involves more than the simple

students’ understanding of presentations and responses to assignments. They
routinely provide detailed feedback, but not necessarily in the same way for
all students. And they must realize that what is learned is more likely to be
remembered and used in the future if it serves students’ purposes beyond
meeting school requirements.
Although teachers are human, not machines; effective teachers should
take time for reflection and self-evaluation, monitor their instruction to make
sure that worthwhile content is being taught to all students, and accept
responsibilty for guiding student learning and behavior. Effective teacher
should talk less and teach more. Students always believe in the teachers who
both start and end the class on time. It is important to note that effective
teachers should condition students to respond to their arm motions from day
one and be specific when giving instructions…short, concise information.
Teachers have different perspectives, approaches and objectives to achieve.
However effective teachers should not speak in generalities and should
never work too long on the problems of one section or one structure. On the
other hand, they must know when to practice complete passages vs.
practicing “spots” in the reading lesson and be consistent in correcting their
students’errors and faults. One more important is that teachers should use
the blackboard (whiteboard) to clarify problems. Nowadays, some of the
teachers are not used to using blackboard. They prefered modern facilities.
Finally, students are very sensitive about criticizing. Therefore,
teachers should be careful when giving criticism or praise. Effective teachers
know how to criticize and when to do it. They should never criticize or
praise the same students. And their students must always believe that each
day is new day with them.
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4. Effective teaching
Effective teaching is the basis of successful learning. Effective
teaching identifies and builds on prior knowledge, makes real-life

eye contact, to reinforce their comments.
Effective teaching is not the same with all the grades. Effective
college teaching that emerge in Joseph Lowman (1996) are the two main
dimensions: interllectual excitement which consits of enthusiasm,
knowledge, inspiration, humor, interesting view-point, clarity and
organization, and interpersonal concern or effective motivation which
emerges in concern, caring, availability, friendliness, accesibility,
helpfulness, encouragement and challenge. They are also the marks of the
effective teacher.
Besides, a number of writers Grasha (1996) and Lowman (1996) have
observed differences in styles among teachers. They classify them according
to a number of dimensions that represent how teachers approach their
students, the way in which they think learning takes place, and personal
strengths and preferences. Examplary teachers are those who are highly
proficient in fundalmental sets of skills: the ability to offer presentations in
clearly organized and interesting ways or to relate to students in ways that
communicative positive regard and motivate them to work hard to meet
academic challenges. Effective teaching is together with teacher
development. A key element in the process of teacher development is
feedback. The most effective teachers employ information on their teaching
from students. Individual teacher will naturally exhibit different style, and
there are many ways to make her/him do effective teaching. However, a
good teacher always makes questions to herself/himself “why you are here
today” when entering class. As it is said above that teaching is not right or
wrong, good or bad, effective or ineffective in any absolute, fixed or
determined sense. On the contratry, some characteristics of good teaching
are defined and in common way quality teaching is that activity which
brings about the most productive and beneficial learning experience for
students and promotes their development as learners. In the material
Teaching Assessment and Evaluation Guide of York University (2002), all

of the effective teaching.
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5. The role of the teacher in the language class
Teachers are said to play a very important role in teaching. It is said
that good teachers will give good students. Teachers in language classes are
not the exception. Teachers at different levels have the different roles with
students. In elementary schools teachers are supposed to be surrogate parents
for students. They instruct students steps by steps and must always take care
of them. As the students get older, the roles teachers play change. Education
itself moves to the forefront, and students try to fill their minds with facts,
dates, and ideas as they prepare for high schools and colleges. Teachers are
no longer their mothers, but their guider or counselor. Students need
someone to listen to them and tell them everything would be okay. In the
language class, the teacher is like her/his students’ friend. The learners want
to break out the mole and use language for themselves. They may not be
accurate but they use language as it should be used to say something or to
communicate. The notes of encouragement the teacher give them play an
important role in motivating them to study. In colleges or universities, both
the educational and pesonal impact of the teachers are brought to a higher
level. Students work with teachers in their chosen field, getting to know
them as both instructors and as people. Experienced teachers can maintain
diverse roles in their relationship with students and educate their love for the
languge they are studying besides their mother tongue.
Generally speaking, the first role of the teacher in every class is the
“gatekeeper” of knowledge, the person of authority in front of the room. The
second role of the teacher in a language class is to make her/his students as
active as possible in expressing their own ideas in the new languge and
finally, the teacher must do is assessing her/his students’ progress and giving
them opportunities to share their views of things. People often said that good
teachers were born, not made. Some certain characteristics, such as humor

coherence of the curriculum, the depth and breadth of content covered, the
range of teaching techniques used, the quality and variety of materials
employed, the types and frequency of students’ assignments, the quality of
instruments used for student assessment, the kinds of feedback students
receive on their work or their appropriateness of these techniques for
individual student and for the classroom context as a whole.
Teacher evaluation should be a small but significant part of the larger
strategy for school improvement which would see staff development take
place prior to evaluations. Although agreement on a clear set of criteria on
which a teacher’s performance in class can be assessed has been elusive,
most current evaluation methods seem to be characterized by an allegiance
to a rational or scientific approach to inquiry. In this approach, the
observer’s judgement of teaching behaviours takes precedence, while little
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or no consultation with the teacher or reflection on the teacher’s and
students’ interpretations of their classroom experiences, is considered.
Teacher evaluations should be dialogical rather than hierarchical.
Evaluators should know the subject matter, pedagogy, and classroom
characteristics of the teacher being evaluated, as well as take into
consideration the fact that experienced and excellent teachers are capable of
pedagogical performances that educational theory and research can neither
explain nor predict.
For many young teachers, the teacher and students take on “artificial
roles” that they believe to be appropriate to the occasion when the class is
being observed; For many experienced and tenured teachers, yearly
evaluations have been more a matter of pride than a job security which
causes evaluation to become an empty, time-stealing ritual. However, there
is general agreement among education writers that teacher evaluation must
satisfy two competing individual and organizational needs. One is the
process of control and surveillence performed hierarchically; the other

purposes is designed to stimulate growth, change and improvement in
teaching through reflective practice. Evaluation, in contrast, is used for
summative purposes to give an overview of a particular instructor’s teaching
in a particular course and setting.
Informed judgements on teaching effectiveness can best be made
when both assessment and evaluation are conducted. In this study, teaching
assessment and evaluation of the lower secondary school teachers are the
focus of interest through reporting the results of the assessment criteria.
Just as there is no simple system for evaluating the quality of research,
there is no simple system for evaluating the quality of teaching. However, by
thinking carefully about the purposes of evaluation, and by crafting multiple
methods of evaluation that suit those purposes, one can devise evaluation
systems that are reliable, valid, and fair. Equally important, the process of
discussing and crafting evaluation systems focuses attention on the practice
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of good teaching and helps to create a culture in which teaching is highly
valued.
Some principles of teaching evaluation should be considered. The
most important consideration in teaching evaluation, both for improvement
purposes and for personnel decisions, is the use of multiple methods of
teaching evaluation involving multiple sources of data. Evaluation system
adopted is credible and acceptable when faculty members have a strong hand
in its development. Before departments and schools adopt teaching
evaluation system, the faculty members should determine their criteria for
effective teaching. Departments and schools can then take responsibility for
developing their own evaluation methods and evaluation criteria. Different
disciplines require different methods and criteria for evaluation. Teaching
evaluation systems can be flexible to accommodate diversity in instructional
methods for example lecture, discussion, lab, case study, small group
interaction, etc.

these kinds of questions better than the students themselves? Among the
sources of information described here, students are the best source for
understanding the immediate effects of our teaching, that is, the process of
teaching and learning.
Moreover, evaluation of student learning is particularly useful in
improving teaching. Faculty members may act as “classroom researchers”,
gathering measures of student learning in order to provide examples of
student learning as evidence of their teaching effectiveness for personnel
decisions. As the intended beneficiaries of all teaching, students are in
unique position to help their teachers in the evaluation process.
Colleagues who have expertise in the discipline being taught and
training in what to observe can provide important evaluative information
through classroom visits and review of course materials and instructional
contributions. The evaluation process is enhanced when the syllabus and
course-related materials are reviewed by colleagues and course goals and
class objectives are discussed with the instructor. In addition, discussion
among colleagues about the effectiveness of teaching can lead to a better
techniques on teaching and learning.
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Self-reflection or self-monitoring is what people do semi-
automatically and semi-consciously whenever they teach. Most of their
mental activity is concerned with making the presentation or leading the
discussion. But one portion of their mental attention is concerned with “How
is it going?” ; “Are they with me?”; “Am I losing them?” “Are they
interested or bored?”. The first value of this is that is immediate and
constant. You do not have to wait a week or a day or even an hour to get the
result. It happens right away. Hence adjustments are possible right away.
The second value is that this information is automatically created in terms
that are meaningful to the teacher because it is the teacher who creates the
information. It is the teacher, not someone else, who looks at the situation

people, which is sometimes very difficult for them to find by themselves. It
is an effective way in improving teachers’ work and let they know where
they are.
Especially, classroom observation is quite useful for some young
teachers, for they seldom learn how to teach, why to teach, and how to
organize the class, and they need experienced teachers’ help. They need
observations to find out how well they can teach and in which way they can
improve. Observation of experienced teachers has always played an
important role in teacher education. It is proved by young Chinese teachers
in the research about self-development through classroom observation (Qun
Wang and Nicola Seth, 1998) that first of all they did not expect to benefit
so much from the classroom observation they were involved in, but then
they realized the value of classroom observation help them much. They
enjoyed the post-lesson discussion most. Through the discussion and
feedback sessions, they were brought in front of a mirror to look at
themselves carefully and thoroughly. The observers helped them find out the
problems and bring up suggestions and advice which are very constructive
for future teaching. And they wished to have more classroom observation in
the future. (ELT Journal Volume 52/3 July 1998)
Traditional views of observation argue that through observing how
teachers conduct their lessons, solve problems of classoom management, and
interact with students, novice teachers can apply good techniques in their
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own teaching. Besides, observation of students’ work habit and their
involement in instructional activities, their patterns of errors, their strategies
for communicating with limited linguistic knowledge, and the questions they
ask about the content could provide an insight into problems with
instructional plans. This can lead to changes in instructional purposes and /or
plans so as to make instruction better suited to the students.
In addition to that, classroom observation both helps to train the

by the teacher with the students, and therefore there may not be enough
accurate reflection of their overall contact with them. For this reason, it is
best to have two or three observations of the teaching with different groups
in order to ensure the validity of their actions. Classroom observation has
acquired a bad reputation in the ELT profession because of its subjective,
judgemental, and impressionistic nature. Many teachers resent being
observed at short notice by “important people” who judge their performance
according to their own, not necessarily appropriate criteria, and make
unwelcome “suggestions” for change. It seems as if these observers have the
last word on whether their work is good or bad, right or wrong.
The presence of the observer in the room may affect the behavior of
both the teacher and the class. The teacher may put on a special show that
leaving the students very impressed, but leaving the observer with very little
to comment upon regarding improvement. On the other hand, some teachers
are so nervous that students do not want to make questions even though
they do not understand the lesson very well.
In some cases, even very good teachers may be unnerved during a
formal observation session. Sometimes they break off their lecture to explain
to the observer what they are doing and why. They waste time on giving
more details of the lessons than usual that they do not have enough time for
other necessary activities.
Observation will be valid only when teachers do not appear to be
unduly affected by the presence of an observer as the purpose of observation
is purely for personal feedback.
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It is easy for an observer to form an initial impression based on the
first few minutes of a session and then allow that impression to color their
view of subsequent events as they unfold. For example, a good introduction
may mask a less- than-ideal session structure. Similarly, a tentative start may
have the observer looking for further evidence of presumed impending

the administrators of education for teacher evaluations.
In Hanoi, lower secondary schools are evaluated every year to grade
how successfully they have achieved after a year. A part from giving
assessments to different school activities, teaching assessment must be done
first and foremost.
Most of the teachers of the assessed school must be evaluated after
being observed one or two lessons. Most of the observation is formal and
planned.
Other activities of the school, teachers and students are evaluated
through the porfolio. This kind of school evaluation is somehow like
formative evaluation while it is summative evaluation with the students.
Therefore teaching assessment consists of both formative and summative
evaluation. The results of the evaluation will be recorded as porfolio to grade
the school and teachers. Many teachers will be awarded ‘Excellent
Teachers” at the end of each school year basing on the results of the annual
evaluation.
As an English teaching advisor in Hai Ba Trung Department of
Education and Training, one of the 14 districts in Hanoi, the researcher has
experienced two main objectives of teacher evaluations and teaching
assessment every year: First is to capture teacher practice as well as to
provide on-the-spot mentoring through dialogues in teaching innovation;
Second is to assess the educational operation of the school and professional
development activities carried out by the administrators as well as to check
how carefully the school administrators and teachers plan their work
throughout the school year;
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