M & E Teacher Performance Improving teaching effectiveness

1. M & ETeacher PerformanceImproving teaching effectiveness Capacity Building Workshop on ‘Monitoring and Evaluating Progress in Education in the Pacific’ (with the technical assistance from SPBEA, UNICEF and PRIDE) 27-31 October 2008 Tanoa Hotel, Nadi, Fiji Islands

2. Assessment • Collecting evidence about pupils’ achievements • Collecting evidence of teachers’ teaching • Apply the principles of effective assessment to the appraisal of teachers • What are the most direct measures of the effectiveness of teachers?

3. Key Questions • What is it for? • Who is it for? • Does it serve these purposes? • Does it make a positive return? • Formative vs Summative

4. Sources of indication of teacher performance • The Classroom • The Planning • The Pupil achievements • Others ?

5. Teaching Effectiveness Indicators 1 The Classroom • Does it convey an atmosphere of vibrancy rather than lethargy? • Does it convey a feeling of ownership by pupils and teacher with clear respect for displayed work and infrastructure?

6. Teaching Effectiveness Indicators 2 The Planning: • Teachers cannot progress from day to day in an ad hoc manner. Does the teaching plans indicate short, middle, long term and well focussed planning? Are they revised regularly? • Curriculum documents make clear the anticipated learning outcomes for pupils. Without the curriculum documents the teacher and all pupils are travelling on a ship without a rudder. Does the teacher have the up-to-date curriculum documents? • Are lesson plans clearly structured on identified learning outcomes, and the pupils must have a strong vision of what learning outcomes they are striving for.

7. Teaching Effectiveness Indicators 3 The pupil achievement: • Perhaps the most significant indicator of teaching effectiveness is provided by the achievement indicators of pupils. • Does the measurement of pupil achievement clearly reflect the students achievement levels of the learning outcomes? The measure use must be meticulously designed and planned, and it is likely that experienced teachers may not be accustomed to monitoring the achievements of their pupils. • Each school should ensure that there is a formalised mechanism for recording the achievement levels of pupils.

8. WHAT? • Teachers must be clear on what it is they are being asked to do and hence what they will be assessed against – assessment criteria. • What do we mean by ‘effective classroom teaching’? • How should we define the standards to be applied when assessing teacher competence in teaching?

9. HOW? • The teachers being assessed should be offered a proper opportunity to ‘show whatthey know and can do’ against predefined competency levels. • These competency levels would have been developed over an extended period of time after much trialling and modification, thus one could say that they have been reliably set and there is sufficient relevant information available for valid conclusions to be reached.

10. HOW? (cont) • Teachers would rate themselves against agreed competenciesand discuss these with peers or Principals in the school. After each assessment, strengths and areas for improvement are identified. • Teachers and Principals may then prioritize the areas that need to be improved and identify intervention strategies to realise the improvements. • The competencies so designed will describe what every teacher should possess in order to teach effectively.

11. Achievement vs Competency Levels • Competency level is set … • Achievement (Performance) level is what the assessee attained

12. Formative role • About helping teachers to improve and enhance their skills • Review of performance and enhancement of professional growth • About self-development and organisational improvement and effectiveness

13. Partnership to Effective Teaching • Effective teaching should be an institutional (school) goal. • It should be achieved through co-operative actions between teachers and management • It should be the product of support and collaboration, and a source of institutional pride.

14. Table of self-assessment

15. Table of self-assessment

16. Sample competency levels

17. Conclusion Teacher should: • Be involved in self assessment, peer and internal school appraisal processes for improved competencies of teachers to be developed. • Ensure that in their schools assessment is an integral part of the teachers job and not a peripheral role. • Advocate for improvements in ‘internal assessments’, more outputs based assessments and reporting, less assessment for high stakes purposes.