Despite the possibility of poor teacher performance causing damage to pupils and to a
school?s reputation, the subject has rarely been studied. This article examines, within
the Israeli context, who the poor performing (referred as ?challenging?) teachers are.
Based on interviews with 40 elementary school principals, over 7 per cent of staff
members were defined as ?challenging?; mostly these were veteran teachers who
manifested either insensitive attitudes towards pupils or had low motivation. The
larger proportion of these teachers taught in deprived schools with inexperienced
principals. |