Teachers' perceptions of appraiser-appraisee relationships

Teacher appraisal procedures may lead to formative (teacher development and improvement of teaching) and summative (managerial decision) outcomes. Elementary school teachers in Hong Kong (N=527) responded to survey items on formative outcomes, summative outcomes, perceived purposes of appraisal, overall effectiveness of appraisal, and summative purposes such as promotion and dismissal of staff. Principal components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis yielded the two a priori outcome factors, each of which was significantly correlated with perceived overall effectiveness of appraisal. Analysis of variance found that senior teachers appraised by the school principal (SP) perceived that appraisal had formative purposes and this perception was stronger than for those teachers appraised by senior staff (TS). Teachers in the TS group did not perceive the importance of the promotion purpose as did the other groups. Teachers appraised by the principal (TP) perceived that appraisal had dismissal purposes whereas teachers in the TS group did not. Although the three groups did not differ in their perceptions of formative outcomes, summative outcomes, or overall effectiveness of teacher appraisal, the appraiser-appraisee combination did make a significant difference in teacher perceptions of the purposes and appropriateness of the appraisal. Copyright © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.