An Explanation of the ICALT Instrument’s Measurement of Teaching Quality in Relation to Teacher Education and Policy in South Korea

Abstract

The rapid development of South Korea’s educational system has attracted international interest. The country is well-known for its high student achievement, as indicated by the OECD PISA research, yet the causes for the high achievement remain unclear. Many argue that high teacher quality is an explanatory variable, even though accurate and rigorous measurement of teaching quality at both the practical and theoretical levels has yet to be established. The ICALT (International Comparative Analysis of Learning and Teaching) developed by van de Grift and colleagues in the Netherlands was recently utilized to assess the teaching quality of Korean teachers, and the results demonstrated a high level of teaching quality when compared to other countries. In this chapter, we discuss the relationship between the ICALT’s reported high level of teaching quality and teacher education and policy in South Korea. Several components of teacher education and policy are identified as factors that lead to the quality of the teaching force. They are the well-developed teacher training system, higher level of teachers’ socioeconomic status, in- & external-school supervision for enhancing teacher competency, and efficient personal administration for teachers including homeroom teacher, rotation and promotion.