Teacher Effectiveness

Abstract

This chapter examines teacher recruitment, selection, and evaluation policies in South Korea and explores how teacher quality and effectiveness are understood, ensured, and assessed in the country. To show how the concepts are understood in Korea, the chapter starts with an analysis of the goals of education, of the kind of education perceived by the Korean government and citizens as high quality, and of the way effective teachers are defined by the goals they achieve. The analysis illustrates the historical, political, economic, and cultural backgrounds that have shaped Korean perspectives on the goals of education. Subsequently, the chapter describes policies and practices in the recruitment of teacher candidates, the selection of public school teachers, and the evaluation of in-service teachers' teaching quality and effectiveness. Lastly, it discusses the effectiveness of these policies and practices.