Make appraisal a natural part of what we do

Learning from theory, research and each other

The bolt on inspection, observation or appraisal, undertaken in clip-board mode by an expert, “to improve performance” is usually mistrusted, often resented and even refused. This is because there is nothing more frustrating, for a competent professional, than an outsider telling them what to do, especially when the professional already knows. A bolt-on appraisal by a senior colleague implies that colleagues are operatives who need to be judged, then praised or corrected. And yet this bolt on approach to evaluation persists despite our profession knowing that self evaluation and self correction has become the natural process of our best learners.

The most successful teachers and leaders are professionals not operatives – we are learners too. This is not opinion, it is now established wisdom. Years of experience and acres of theory and research show that sustainable school improvement thrives in a culture of self-evaluation. Just two significant sources from many:

Michael Fullan noted in The Challenge of Change, Corwin Press. (2009) “At best, schools, as professional learning communities should be ‘cultures for learning’ where professionals learn together”. Only a year later John Hattie wrote his 6th and final conclusion to Visible Learning – Routledge, “School leaders and teachers need to create school, staffroom, and classroom environments where error is welcomed as a learning opportunity, where discarding incorrect knowledge and understandings is welcomed, and where participants can feel safe to learn, re-learn, and explore knowledge and understanding”.

I have a simple mantra, to capture this spirit of interdependent learning. “Looking at what we do with a view to doing it better next time, is part of what we do.” Imagine a school, where all working there – students, teachers, senior staff, teaching assistants, governors and non teaching staff can say that. How do we embed such a culture?

Keep it simple it will get complicated anyway start complicated and you don’t stand a chance

A quick trip down memory lane and then 5 solid suggestions ensuring self-evaluation, and therefore appraisal, becomes a natural part of what we do.

As a young adviser/inspector for Nottinghamshire in the 1980s, I saw schools overcomplicating their improvement planning processes. School Improvement, if it existed, was a set of bewildering separate cycles, each with its own language… (targets, objectives, success criteria, aims, goals, blah, blah, blah..) each in a separate box. Even the most organised of schools seemed to view teaching and learning as one cycle of development, curriculum development as another and professional development as a third. Very few had overall School Improvement Plans. Indeed when the Inspection and Advisory Service required them, it was viewed by some as an irrelevant imposition. Remember this was pre-Ofsted.

I noticed that the more senior the colleagues writing the plans the more complicated they became. I used to compare and contrast a simple lesson plan with a school improvement plan. Ignoring the fact that (usually) the former is vertical and the latter horizontal, it is obvious their essentials were identical – plan what you are going to do, do it, review its effectiveness. I began a career long advocacy of PLAN-DO-REVIEW as the simplest virtuous cycle for development.

Work in schools of all phases, from Special Measures to Outstanding, led me to look for and, when I had the authority, encourage 5 key ingredients to set a culture for learning:

1. Have a simple, universal cycle and common language for all development activities.

REVIEW-PLAN-DO and back to REVIEW remains my favourite.