Abstract:
Despite the abundance of teacher assessment and evaluation models found in the literature, few have been designed for tertiary teachers - lecturers - at higher education institutions. Similarly, there are virtually no competency-based assessment models for lecturers in Vietnam to date. Generating criteria for formative and summative assessment of university teachers in Vietnam, therefore, is both a breakthrough in the country's education reform and quality assurance system and a big challenge to assessors. Such criteria, besides being measurable, valid and reliable, should capture the teachers' various duties and responsibilities stipulated in the Education Law, the multiple roles they play in the changing society and educational environment as well as the essential, context-bound attributes of the profession. They must also be research based, empirically tested and deemed appropriate by lecturers and other educational stakeholders. They must reflect current knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning as well as professionalism in higher education. These criteria will have to be compromises between Confucianism and Constructivism; between teacher creativity, innovation, autonomy and teacher mundane duties, standardization as well as centralization; between genuineness and social desirability, etc. Such criteria will render more accountability to the assessment model.