The Principals’ Corner:

Bendel’s definition of “teaching” is quite different from what is often found in the research on effective teaching.  We see teaching as a tri-partite activity that encompasses three separate but closely related which reflects before, during and after-class performance by the teacher.  In other words, teaching includes:

1. the preparation of an appropriate set of lessons or units (curriculum planning)
2. the delivery of an engaging set of strategies in the classroom (instruction)
3. the assessment of student learning after the planning has been done and the instruction delivered (evaluation of student achievement)

Too often teaching has been equated with instruction only.  This tripartite division has enormous implications for the evaluation of teacher performance.  Long gone (or should be) are the days when a classroom teacher was visited by a principal and a performance evaluation was constructed on that visit focusing on the instruction only.  But to get to a more meaningful, data-based evaluation report, principals need to find ways of gathering information on each of the three parts of the teaching act – no matter what the formal evaluation form for the district or province or state looks like.  Subsequent parts of this series will cover those possibilities in detail.

But for now, let’s look at what the district, province, state or you are looking for in these three areas. It seems to me that the best way to start is to do a deep analysis of the document to be used as the final report and start coming up with your own look-fors or indicators in these three areas.  In some cases, those look fors will be sadly lacking for areas 1 and 3 above (planning and evaluation) but will likely have a good deal to say about the second area (instruction) so part of the job should already be done for you.

So, let’s give you a start by putting down five questions for these two areas which may be lacking:

Curriculum Planning

1. Is there evidence of detailed unit and lesson planning?
2. Is the content of those lessons in keeping with any guidelines that have been issued by the district, the school or the province?
3. Are the objectives for the lessons and units written in terms of student learning outcomes?
4. Is the content logically organized in terms of scope and sequence?
5. Is there reference in the planning to alterations to be made for students with special needs?

Instruction

1. Is there a high level of student engagement in the learning?
2. Is there an equally high level of time-on-task?
3. Does the classroom reflect an orderly learning atmosphere?
4. Is there evidence of the teacher including all students in the learning regardless of race, gender etc.?
5. Does the room show ample evidence of resources that support the learning and are integrated into the instruction per se?

Evaluation of Student Achievement

1. Is there evidence of the use of formative as well as summative assessment?
2. Do the various evaluation instruments reflect a variety of different learning and presentation styles?
3. Are there references to, or examples of, scoring rubrics?
4. Is the vocabulary used in the assessment instruments or instructions appropriate to the grade level?
5. Is there complete alignment in the test or assignment between what is taught and what is tested?

These are just a very few questions that can start principals off defining more clearly (and ultimately communicating to staff) what they mean in specific terms by quality teaching.  There are, of course, endless list of these qualities but some thinking about the ones that need to be emphasized above all others in this kind of process is time well-spent.  If principals do not have that image of effective teaching in their minds, how can they convey sincerely what they are looking for when speaking to teachers?  A little soul searching and re-affirming of these qualities may be the first order of the day.

See you next week.

Dr. Dan

Check out our Education Services under Individual Coaching and Contracted Services.  There’s a wide range of Teacher Appraisal topics including:  Writing Effective Performance Appraisals; Conducting Effective Evaluation Conferences with Teachers; Having Hard Conversations; and more.