Teaching quality has an impact on learning effectiveness, so evaluating and ensuring teachers meet quality criteria is essential for institutions if they are to maintain teaching and learning quality. But how quality is defined and evaluated is open to multiple interpretations depending on what is to be evaluated and by whom. For teachers, a significant difference exists between evaluations from outside perspectives (institutional leaders, colleagues, students), and evaluations of teaching quality from their own inside reflection on their classroom practice and its outcomes. This paper presents teaching quality and its evaluation from the point of view of teachers in institutions, and highlights issues inherent in different perspectives: the institution, the teacher, others. Questions that can guide institutions in determining teaching quality are suggested, along with ways to find a more balanced process of quality evaluation.

Author Profile(s)
Dr David Sansom is an EFL teacher and teacher educator, and the Deputy-Director of the MPI-Bell Centre of English, Macau Polytechnic Institute. He has worked with students and teachers in Europe and China, and has been in Macau for almost 10 years. He is interested in how and why teachers change or don’t change; he is currently investigating the effects of institutional teaching contexts on inservice school teachers in China, and the influence on intended changes to classroom teaching. He is also curious about how teachers teach and how learners learn English writing.