An Enterprising Approach to
Self-Evaluation
User Guide
(Autumn 2009)
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................. 3(
WHO SHOULD USE THE RESOURCE? ...................................................................................................................................................... 3(
USING THE RESOURCE FOR SELF-EVALUATION ....................................................................................................................................... 3(
A FLEXIBLE APPROACH .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4(
SUGGESTIONS FOR USE ........................................................................................................................................................................ 5(
APPLICATION OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................. 6(
GETTING STARTED ............................................................................................................................................. 7(
A: DOWNLOADING THE APPLICATION FROM THE INTERNET ...................................................................................................................... 7(
B: USING THE APPLICATION ON CD-ROM ................................................................................................................................................. 7
GETTING TO KNOW THE APPLICATION ........................................................................................................... 8(
PAGE LAYOUT ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
RESOURCES ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
SELF-EVALUATION ................................................................................................................................................................................ 9
RESULTS ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 11
THE REPORT....................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
CREATING A CUSTOM VERSION ............................................................................................................................................................ 13
QUITTING THE APPLICATION ................................................................................................................................................................ 13(
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Introduction
This user guide outlines what An Enterprising Approach to Self-Evaluation offers and provides
suggestions on how it can be used.
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You may be familiar with the earlier version of the resource . This enhanced version has been
developed taking into account feedback from users, introducing new features and incorporating recent
national resources and key websites. It articulates with the ever-growing body of knowledge and
understanding of learning and teaching, educational pedagogy, and social and economic trends.
The underlying concept of An Enterprising Approach to Self-Evaluation is the provision of a creative and
flexible resource. You will be able to draw on the contents of the resource and, in conjunction with data
and reflections from your experiences and those of others, generate reports and plan improvements for
your school or centre.
Who should use the resource?
The resource can be used in a variety of settings: local authority, all centres – from pre-school through
to college – and outside mainstream education in the wider community. Your learners will be able to
share in its application to review the quality of their educational experiences.
Using the resource for self-evaluation
An Enterprising Approach to Self-Evaluation helps you to reflect on your centre’s performance. Your
practice is considered in the context of a sub-set of quality indicators selected from How Good is Our
School? (version 3) and the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence.
It is envisaged that the resource will meet your needs by providing a framework to examine practice,
helping you to:
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be more enterprising
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explore new ideas
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experiment with the ways you undertake self-evaluation
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spark off new trains of thought and actions
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recognise skills and good practice
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take account of evidence gathered from a range of sources, wider than your own experience,
allowing you to corroborate your judgements
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work collaboratively with all stakeholders in the learning community
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build on your own knowledge
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interrogate your own knowledge and practice, and that of others
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adapt and innovate teaching and learning.
Improving Enterprise in Education: a self-evaluation tool, HM Inspectorate of Education, 2008
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A flexible approach
Throughout the self-evaluation process you are offered choices of pathways of inquiry. You can use the
resource to evaluate aspects of educational performance in your centre by choosing the ‘enterprise’ or
the ‘generic’ option. There is also a facility to customise the resource to focus on any aspect you wish.
You may choose to evaluate the effectiveness of your centre’s or local authority’s delivery of broad
strategic aspects of enterprise in education, or focus in on specific aspects of learner experiences. You
may wish to work systematically through all the selected quality indicators and Curriculum for
Excellence capacities. Alternatively, you may prefer to choose particular quality indicators or capacities
through which to consider progress achieved in a specified curricular activity.
Whatever use you make of An Enterprising Approach to Self-Evaluation you should find it supports
innovation and improvement. It aims to increase the effectiveness and impact of self-evaluation,
highlighting the achievements of learners and confirming targets for improvement. Its purpose is to
enhance the quality of learning and teaching, resulting in improved experiences and outcomes for all
learners.
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Suggestions for use
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APPLICATION OVERVIEW
The application features a number of 'card stacks'. Each card stack represents a different How Good is
Our School? (HGIOS?) quality indicator (QI) or Curriculum for Excellence capacity. Each individual card
carries a statement relating to an aspect of the relevant QI or capacity.
At the start of the process you need to choose a topic, and hence a card stack, for self-evaluation. You
are then taken to a 'board' divided into six columns, matching the six-point scale of HGIOS? from
'excellent' to 'unsatisfactory'. You are presented with each card in turn, and have to decide where to
place each one based upon how well you consider your centre is performing. There is a space on the
board for any cards which are not relevant to your circumstances.
Once the self-evaluation process is complete, you are provided with a summary which you can review
and amend. You can add your own evidence and development plans to the evaluation by cutting and
pasting content from other sources and then save it as a report for further editing or printing at a later
date.
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GETTING STARTED
If you are using the application on CD-ROM please skip to section B.
A: Downloading the application from the internet
To download the application from the Learning and Teaching Scotland website, click on the download
file. Depending on your computer, the file will either automatically download to your desktop or ask you
to select a destination.
If you are asked if you want to open or save the file, you must select
'save'.
Once downloaded, the file will appear in its destination as a .ZIP file. Double-click
on the file icon. Depending on your software, the files will either be extracted
automatically or your compression software will be activated.
If your compression software activates, select the downloaded file and click on the
'extract' button. The file will start to ‘unpack’ or ‘unZip’ itself.
Once opened, the download will create a folder called
'Enterprise in Education'. If you decide to move the
application at any time, you must move the entire folder to its
new location.
Open the folder and click on the purple HMIe icon. The
application will now start, revealing the ‘splash page’.
For further instruction, please skip section B and go to the
'page layout' section.
B: Using the application on CD-ROM
As soon as you insert the CD-ROM into your PC or Mac the
application should automatically open. If this does not happen, locate
the CD-ROM contents on your computer, open the 'self-evaluation'
folder and click on the purple HMIe icon. The application will now
open, revealing the welcome 'splash page'.
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GETTING TO KNOW THE APPLICATION
Page layout
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On each page of the resource it is worth checking for any green
text, as this provides instructions and hints.
•
On many pages there is a 'quit' button, enabling you to leave the entire resource at any time. You
will be warned if you choose to quit during an evaluation before saving, as any data will be lost.
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On several pages you can click a 'minimise' button. This allows you to access other items on
your computer. This is particularly useful when you wish to cut and paste data from other files
into your report.
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On selected pages there is a 'back' button, enabling you to revisit the process and make
changes. The system will warn you if selecting 'back' will mean the loss of data.
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There are two main areas of the application: resources
and self-evaluation, selected by clicking on the
relevant button.
Resources
The Resources page contains links to useful
documents and websites. Moving the cursor over the
titles will bring up thumbnail images in the small box
on the right of the page. Using the scroll bar in the
bottom right-hand corner of the screen will reveal the
full list of documents.
Clicking on a document title will bring up an internet
browser window. If you are connected to the internet,
the item will automatically load into the window. It can
then be saved to your computer via the standard
browser controls (File menu/Save As…).
If you are not connected to the internet, the browser will show a 'page not found' warning message.
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Self-evaluation
The Self-Evaluation home page provides the list of
'card stacks' from which you may choose a QI or
capacity to evaluate.
Note: you can also select the 'create custom
version' button - see the relevant section on
page 13 below.
Before you begin, you must enter your name or that
of your centre into the box in the top left of the screen.
This is the name that will appear on subsequent
pages and in the self-evaluation results.
First, you need to decide whether to opt for the 'generic' or
'enterprise' version of the resource.
Select the version you want by clicking on the appropriate button.
Now you can select a topic to evaluate by clicking on the chosen one.
Click the 'start' button. The page will refresh, to reveal the self-evaluation 'board'.
The QI or capacity you selected is shown in
the title together with a full definition.
On the right of the screen is the card stack,
containing the pile of statement cards with
the top card revealed. The number of cards
varies from topic to topic, up to a maximum of
13.
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Following the instructions on the screen, click
and drag each card onto the relevant part of
the screen.
If you change your mind, you can move the
cards to a new position at any time whilst you
are on this page.
If a statement is not relevant, drag the card to
the box at the bottom right of the screen.
Once you are happy with the position of the
cards, you can print a copy of the screen by
clicking the 'print screen' button.
At a later stage you can return to the page to
make further changes if you wish.
When the last card in the stack has been placed, a 'continue' button is revealed.
Click this to view the first of three results screens. The content of all three can be
saved and/or printed at the end of the process.
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Results
The results 1/3 screen summarises the
statements you positioned at levels 4 to 6, as
your strengths for the relevant QI or capacity.
These appear in the left-hand column.
If the card stack was a QI, a middle column
displays the relevant Level 5 Illustration from
HGIOS? as a point of reference.
The right-hand 'evidence' column provides you
with space to add your own supporting
information to enhance your final report. You can
type directly into the column, or cut and paste
data or text from other documents.
Click the 'continue' button when you are ready.
The results 2/3 screen summarises the
statements you positioned at levels 1 to 3, as your
areas for improvement for the relevant QI or
capacity. These appear in the left-hand column.
If the card stack was a QI, a middle column
displays the relevant Level 2 Illustration from
HGIOS? as a point of reference.
The right-hand 'next steps' column provides you
with space to add your own development plans or
actions. You can type directly into the column, or
cut and paste data or text from other documents.
Click the 'continue' button when you are ready.
The results 3/3 screen contains useful general
points of reference, including the ten dimensions
of excellence, and aspects of Determined to
Succeed.
The right-hand column contains purposes of
Curriculum for Excellence, specific to the QI or
capacity evaluated.
Click the 'continue' button when you are ready.
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The report
This page contains all the information displayed in
the three results pages, laid out as it will appear in
a report. Your name, or that of your centre,
appears at the top.
You can now save the report to your computer as
a Word file.
You may also choose to print the report. However,
as it is likely to be several pages long, it is
recommended that you save the report first, then
edit it to suit your needs.
You can now return to the start of the process and choose
a different topic for self-evaluation.
A warning message will appear, in case you have not
saved your report.
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Creating a custom version
A 'create custom version' button is located on the selfevaluation home page.
Note: to use this function you need to have Microsoft
PowerPoint installed on your computer.
When you select this button, PowerPoint will automatically
open a blank version of the self-evaluation board. This can be
edited and customised using the usual PowerPoint functions.
You can input your own centre’s details and evaluation topic.
You can then create and edit your own statement cards - 15
blank cards are included, but you can add more if needed.
Full instructions are included within the PowerPoint file.
Quitting the application
Click the 'quit' button. A warning will appear to
remind you to save any data you wish to keep.
When you click the 'Yes' button the
'acknowledgements' page will appear. Click 'quit'
again and the application will close.
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