A standard recently, teacher evaluation across the globe has become a major focus in educational policy debates. With international league tables guiding the general judgment of a successful school, there is pressure on school leaders to increase the quality and capability of their teachers.
One mechanism used by school leaders to improve the quality of teaching is the provision of professional development (PD). However, the evaluation of their Professional Development (PD) programs is often overlooked by leaders.
While it goes without saying that the only way to measure the success of your staff PD program is to comprehensively evaluate it, simply soliciting feedback from teachers is not sufficient. Evaluation needs to be more extensive and deeper.
According to the Kirkpatrick’s model of training effectiveness, there are four components to measure PD training;
Let’s quickly explore these.
Through the use of a survey teachers provide data on their satisfaction of the PD. Questions on how engaged they were in the PD and whether the content was relevant to them offers. How satisfied were you with this course? While this data is used to identify how the teacher felt about the activity it is only part of the evaluative picture
The evidence of learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience. This being so, then evaluating the learning the teacher achieved as a result of the PD is pivotal to the leader. The two key methods used by educators to determine if learning has occurred is either a written test or a performance test. Having deep knowledge of the teacher’s performance prior to the implementation of the PD will enable the school leader to discern whether an improvement in knowledge and skills has occurred.
There is research that concludes that if you don’t implement new learning within 48 hours, it is unlikely to be implemented at all. Simply knowing new knowledge is only half of the story. The other half is having the learning embedded into the teacher’s teaching repertoire. There are a number of ways that the level of the application can be assessed including performance benchmarks, observation, surveys, and even peer review. To obtain a more accurate picture how the teacher is using the new learning it is recommended that you assess the teacher’s application three or more months after the PD program has finished.
Ultimately, all that we do in school should lead to improved student outcomes. This part of the Kirkpatrick model uses data to identify if the PD program has met school expectations. School leaders will study student achievement data. They may even look at the costs of the PD program to weigh up the cost-effectiveness to the school.
In working in a school improvement mindset, the school leader needs to ensure the merits of all programs across the school. This includes the effectiveness and impact of the school PD program. Data gathered across these four components will allow the evaluation of the school’s PD program to be comprehensive and will lead to greater school outcomes.
Dr. Jake Madden is the Principal of Al Yasat Private School, Abu Dhabi. After graduating with a primary teaching degree majoring in physical education, Jake has enjoyed a successful teaching and leadership career across four educational systems throughout Australia and in the international school sector. He has been a principal in five schools over the last thirty years building and leading learning communities.
He is passionate about leadership and the positive difference that it can make to teacher and student learning outcomes. Over many years, Jake has led and facilitated the professional learning of principals and staff at school, national and international level in the area of leadership, school improvement and curriculum development.
He is widely published in the area of teachers as researchers, authoring four books and a number of journal articles showcasing his experiences and research into leading educational change.
He is currently on the editorial board for the International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change.
Please do not post:
Thank you once again for doing your part to keep Edarabia the most trusted education source.
Unfortunately some PD ignores what we already know about how people learn, often trying to apply a transmission model that teachers know does not always help their students to develop understanding.. The urge to evaluate the effectiveness of PD too soon often reinforces the mistaken idea that important development can be mastered quickly and that the effects can be seen almost immediately. At EducatorsAbroad, we prefer to develop the competence of lead mentors who work with teachers and other mentors to monitor the effectiveness of PD over time.and adapt it to meet individual needs.
By Dr Norman Blackett (Feb, 2018) |
Dear Mr. Jakke Madden, An excellent professional analysis of the Teacher PD evaluation. This article motivated me to implement ideas and practices acquired through intensive and continuous PDs.
Among the four components the last one is very important-Achievement of Goals. After all these training with a lot of pressure on school Heads and teachers, how the achievement of goals to be analysed. School leaders will analysed this using students achievement data.
But should use the real data rather than a fabricated date to show the false achievement to satisfy the school board or the MOE. So my opinion is evaluation should be done by considering teacher's professional behavior changes and student's learning behavior changes through live observation along with data analysis.
Thanks.
By GEORGE ANTONY (Feb, 2018) |
Twitter
KAP study can get max improvement
By Asif Mustafa Memon (Mar, 2018) |