Chinese Secondary School Teachers' Perceptions of Teacher Candidates' Teaching Ability and Performance

: This study investigated secondary school teachers' beliefs about teacher educators’ teaching competencies and performance. Additionally, it compared the differences between the perceived importance of teaching competencies and the teaching performance level among teachers from different backgrounds. The Delphi method was first used to identify teaching competency items followed by a questionnaire survey to collect data from secondary school teachers in Hebei Province, China. Out of 700 questionnaires that were sent out, 539 valid questionnaires were returned. Secondary school teachers were highly aware of the importance of teaching competencies but did not possess these competencies. An importance-performance analysis (IPA) showed that 16 of the 31 assessed professional competencies were categorized into the ‘continue to maintain zone’, one in the ‘improve zone’, 9 in the ‘low-priority zone’ and 5 in the ‘overemphasis zone’.