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360 Degree Performance Appraisal In Schools: A Means Of Quality Education

 By Swaleha.A.Sindhi

27 September, 2013
Countercurrents.org

Introduction

According to Flippo “performance appraisal is the systematic, periodic and an impartial rating of an employee's excellence in the matters pertaining to his present job and his potential for a better job. Moreover, it improves employee job performance; encourages employees to express their views or to seek clarification on job duties; broadens their outlook, capacity and potential, promotes a more effective utilization of manpower and improves placement; facilitates selection, reward and promotion of the best qualified employee, prevents grievances and increases the analytical abilities of supervisors.” Appraisal should not therefore be viewed as a mechanism for fault finding and criticizing, but as a means of building the teacher's positive self-image and motivation to be as good a teacher as possible. As education is becoming more learner-centered than before, on the basis that pupils need to become actively involved in their own learning processes, in order to learn and develop to the full and they need to participate in their own development, becoming able to analyze and reflect on their competencies, so that they become independent thinkers and doers so all the high achieving schools have started new performance appraisal. The new appraisal system called ‘360 degree' performance appraisal appeared to be the perfect fit for the systematic objective and comprehensive teacher appraisal. These schools tried to develop 360 degree performance appraisal system to support individuals planning their own personal development and to enhance performance.

360 degree Performance Appraisal

360 degree performance appraisal is the most comprehensive type of appraisal. It comes from the systematic collection and feedback of performance data on an individual, or possibly a group, derived from a number of stakeholders on their performance. It measures in detail behaviors and competencies and can be used for self-development and individual counseling, as well as for organized training and development. It provides people with a good all-around perspective. In deciding from whom the data will be gathered the following criteria should be taken into consideration:

•  Data needs to be collected from at least three source groups

•  There should be reasonable number of respondents from each of the groups chosen.

•  Respondents should have an adequate knowledge of the school and the teachers' role. They should also have had at least one year interaction with the teacher.

Sources of feedback in 380 degree appraisal

The objective of the performance appraisal and the particular aspects of performance that are to be assessed must be established before determining which sources are appropriate. In a school, the sphere, of 360 degree feedback sources consists of;

•  Superiors (supervisors, coordinators, principal),

•  Peers (co-teachers, office staff),

•  Subordinates (Part time teachers, non-teaching staff)

•  Customers (Students, Parents, Community) and

•  One self

Superiors/Principal

Superiors are best source for collecting information related to teaching learning process. The supervisor visits the classrooms and observes the lesson and records the information on the observation sheet, and also goes through the daily log books which the teacher are supposed to prepare before entering the classroom wherein they plan the whole lesson along with the teaching aids they are planning to use in the classroom.

PEERS

Peer-to-peer appraisals need to focus on a peer stepping up to help another learn how to be successful in the future. Colleagues understand the quality of the performance in depth better than the superior does. They know the people who really make a positive contribution and perform, and they understand the living reality of the attitudes and beliefs and underpinning values of those to whom they are feeding back information (Bahra, 1996).

Subordinates

The feedback from subordinates is particularly effective in evaluating the supervisor's interpersonal skills. Combining subordinate ratings, like peer ratings, can provide the advantage of creating a composite appraisal from the averaged ratings of several subordinates. Apart from students there are other subordinates from whom information can be collected like the part time teachers and the non-teaching staff.

Customers

The internal customers are the users or groups within the school who use the products or services supplied by the teacher; here the internal customers are students. External customers are outside the organization who receives the service i.e. parents and society at large. The student's ratings provide particularly valuable data on performance elements – behavior, effectiveness and consistency. However, there is usually great reluctance, even fear, concerning implementation of this rating dimension. Student's feedback can help in identifying performance indicators with respect to teaching skills, behavior, class management, attitude and disposition, objectivity, mentoring skills and neutrality in handling student issues.

Self

Employees (teachers) rate themselves on a number of criteria, they help to clarify their own goals, and expose areas of weakness so they may be worked on. The self should look for ways to relate personal growth and development of his/her own passions and interests outside of work, to his work, and the benefits this sort of development will bring to the institution. The process does not end at collecting information but further leads to designing strategies to bring improvement in teacher's performance. Improvement is not possible unless and until the information collected is communicated to the teachers for whose improvement the whole process is carried out. Hence the feedback is very important aspect of performance appraisal process.

Advantages of 360 degree Performance Appraisal

•  The system is more comprehensive in that responses are gathered from multiple perspectives.

•  Quality of information is better. (Quality of respondents is more important than quantity.)

•  It complements TQM initiatives by emphasizing internal/external customers and teams.

•  It may lessen bias/prejudice since feedback comes from more people, not one individual.

•  Feedback from peers and others may increase employee self-development.

Feedback an Important Aspect of Appraisal

To make this performance appraisal effective and lead to meaningful improvement in the quality of teacher and in turn quality of education it has to be communicated to the teacher. According to Sullivan and Glanz (2000), “Whether or not any positive change occurs, depends primarily on the quality of feedback about the work that will help him or her improve. While giving feedback the principal should take care that they clearly indicate the areas in which teacher needs to improve like content up-gradation, instructional methodology, human relation, use of technology etc. The feedback and the resultant discussion with the teacher concerned must be considered as a reflection on the teaching learning process of the school.

For 360 degrees to work, the organization climate should be supportive. In a wrong environment if 360 degree is implemented without providing training to the raters to enable them handle the process effectively, it can have a deleterious effect on the well-being of the organization.

(Ms.Swaleha.A.Sindhi is Assistant Professor at Department of Educational Administration, The M.S.University of Baroda. She can be mailed at [email protected])

 



 

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