Appraisal: valuing difference,
fostering self-responsibility
Chris Thornley, New Zealand Teachers Council
Kerry Mitchell, The Education Group
Workshop One: Situating appraisal in the New Zealand
context
Evaluation
An international picture: what’s missing?
TALIS findings (2009) from secondary schools in 20 OECD
countries indicate that:
• 44% of teachers viewed their appraisal as fulfilling
administrative purposes only
• In a number of countries using appraisal and feedback to
establish a development plan is less common than simply
reporting the outcomes to the teacher
An international picture: stronger
processes
•
Teachers reported that appraisal and feedback
contributed to their development and had a strong
positive influence on them and their work
•
Teachers rated their knowledge and understanding of
their subjects and related pedagogy as moderate to
high importance in the feedback they receive
•
Strengthening systems of appraisal relied on improving
links between school evaluations, teachers’ appraisal,
goal setting, feedback, professional learning and
development
An international response
• Grattan Institute in Australia has developed ‘a new system of
appraisal and feedback’ for use in schools
• Some jurisdictions in the USA implement a summative
approach where teachers are appraised using rubrics
• In Finland appraisal is characterised by the high level of
confidence placed in schools and teachers as professionals.
Evaluation
Since 2007
Since 2007, the practice of New Zealand teachers has been
considered against a set of standards developed by their
professional body with input from the profession. High trust
models for appraisal have been preferred:
• The Graduating Teacher Standards
• The Registered Teacher Criteria
Cultural locatedness and identity
Cultural competencies:
Ako: practice in the classroom and beyond
Whanaungatanga: relationships
Tangata whenuatanga: socio-cultural awareness
Manaakitanga: values, integrity
Wānanga: communication
Mārama –graduating teachers
Mōhio-knowing how to affirm Māori and iwi
culture
Mātau: being able to lead and engage others in
affirming
Evaluation
Teachers’ positioning toward an
innovation
The degree to which teachers perceive that any innovation
reflects their identity impacts on the likelihood that they will
take on and drive the innovation
Teacher agency and ownership work positively together when
teachers make sense of the innovation and identify with it
Fostering a self-responsibility
Goals, roles and responsibilities
Scaffold the change-move slowly
Consult at each stage
Value contributions, build ownership
70/20/10 rule
•(70) Informal learning – on the job (challenging tasks)
•(20) Social learning - (relationships and networks)
•(10) Formal
What are the professional learning and development
opportunities that occur at your school?
Appraisal of Teachers Project
New Zealand Teachers Council
Early childhood education and schooling in English and Māori
medium settings
18 month pld of workshops and webinars and independent
inquiry
17 locations nationally
Bringing all the pieces togetherThe profession
The system
Discipline: subject
areas
Professional
leaders
Professional
teachers
Students
The system
Making the links
Strategic direction
Inquiry into
practice
(Professional
teachers and
professional
leaders)
Appraisal
Professional learning
opportunities
Twelve core elements of Employee Engagement
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
They need to know what is expected
Have the necessary materials and equipment
Have the opportunity to use their talents everyday
Receive recognition for accomplishment
Feel someone in the organisation cares at a personal level
Know that personal development is encouraged
(Buckingham and Coffman)
Twelve core elements of Employee Engagement
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Feel their opinions count
Feel their work is important to the organisation’s mission
Have co-workers committed to doing quality work
Have good relationships with colleagues at work
Have talked to the leaders regularly about their progress
Have opportunity to learn and grow.
(Buckingham and Coffman)
Your experience
Think about an appraisal that had a positive effect
on your practice as a teacher
Describe the process to your partner and what made it
successful
Now repeat for an appraisal that had either no effect or
a negative effect on your performance
Workshop Two: A Framework for appraisal
Conceptual Framework for Appraisal
Ako
•Trust
•Valid
information
•Commitment
to action
•Inquiry into
practice
o
Open to
learning
conversations
Evaluative
Capability
Performance
Management
Responsibility
Whanaungatanga
Wānanga
•Alignment
•Professional
growth
Ako
•Self
•Joint/shared
Manaakitanga
Tangata whenuatanga
Ako
Performance
Processes that develop, strengthen and make best use of staff skills,
knowledge, training and talent in ways that maximise learning
outcomes for students:
• Staff appointments
• Induction
• Professional/staff development
• Appraisal
• Career support
• Competence and discipline processes
• Code of ethics
Performance
Coherent performance management for performance growth:
appraisal and attestation
A coherent
Approach
Attestation
Registration
Salary review
Competence
Conduct/ discipline
Making the links
Appraisal for
Learning
Criteria and exemplars of effective
practice aligned to RTCs and Tātaiako
Exemplars of effective practice
Evidence of actual practice against
agreed criteria of effective practice
Developmental goals based on
outcomes for learners
Self and peer evaluation
Observation
Professional learning opportunities
Teaching as inquiry
Career pathways
Open to Learning
Open to learning disposition
It’s about a recognition that we are all learners and learning
takes place when there are high levels of:
•
•
•
•
•
Trust
Respect
Inquiry
Conversation
Action
Open to Learning
Key values in open to learning conversations
Open to Learning
What makes these conversations tough?
Open to Learning
How do people typically deal with this?
Open to Learning
How do people typically deal with this?
Self-responsibility
Joint responsibility
Professional
Teacher
responsibility
Joint
responsibility
Professional
Leader
responsibility
Self-responsibility
Joint responsibility looks like…
Shared understanding
Clarity about criteria for desired practice
What actual practice looks like
Co-construction of descriptions of practice and agreement
about what that practice demonstrates
Disposition towards examining and improving practice
Active learners taking responsibility for improving teaching and
learning and demonstrating commitment to improvement.
Evaluation
The evaluative (appraisal ) process
1. Describe what ‘good’ looks like
2. Develop indicators, exemplars, illustrations, rubrics, to
shape a full understanding
3. Ask the evaluative question: How well does my practice
meet each of the RTC and overall?
Evaluation
The evaluative (appraisal ) process
4. Determine the sources of evidence I might collect that
can be used to answer this question
5. Use suitable processes to gather the evidence
6. With my professional leader, use the evidence to examine
my practice
7. Answer the question by reaching a reasoned conclusion
i.
Jane’s Story
http://tekotahitanga.tki.org.nz/Videos/Teacher-stories/Jane-s-story
Appraisal Report
Appraisal components
Performance Management
• Overall evaluative
judgements/statements
• Key strengths
• Next steps/concerns
• Support to be provided
• Re-registration ( every 3 years)
• Attestation (annual for pay
progession)
• Appraisal (annual for growth
and development)
Appraisal Discussions
Process:
• Interpreting evidence
• Affirmation
• Feedback
• Next steps
• Criteria established
• Goal setting
• Indicators of success
identified
• Timeframes and actions
identified
• Support to be provided
Evidence Collected (learning
portfolio)
• Teaching as Inquiry
• Observations /feedback
• Evidence of learning
• Student voice
• Contribution to wider
school - feedback from
other staff
Registered Teacher Criteria
Botany
Botany Downs School
Evaluation
Workshop Three
Evaluation
Analysing evidence
sources
RTC
&
Tātaiako
presentation
perspectives
Evaluation
Analysing the evidence
How does this meet
the RTC/Tataiako?
Reflection: What does this mean for
next steps teaching and learning?
Identification: What stands out? Where are
the patterns? For me, my group of akonga
and individual akonga/priority learners?
From everyday practice: What is available as evidence?
Registered Teacher Criteria
Backward mapping to the RTC
From big to small-starting with teaching and learning
From small to big-understanding the criteria
From small to big-identifying next steps and goals
Scenarios
Scenario One – Appraisal conversations at SGHS
http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/content/professionalleaders-employers
Scenario Three – Kelvin’s story
Website links
http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/content/professionalleaders-employers
www.educationgroup.co.nz
Reference List
Refer handout for resources, links articles and research reports