Teacher appraisal: Missed opportunities for learning
In Teacher Appraisal: Missed Opportunities for Learning, Claire Sinnema points to the considerable evidence that data-based inquiry into the effect of teaching on student learning leads to improved student achievement.
She argues that inquiry should be used within teacher appraisal. She adds the inquiry should be aligned with what we know about effective professional development and with the legally specified purpose of appraisal.
In three successive studies, Sinnema investigated the appraisal policies implemented in Auckland primary and intermediate schools. She found that:
- The intended purpose of most schools’ appraisal policies was to promote student learning. However, of the performance indicators schools had developed to evaluate teachers, only 15 percent referred to student learning and only 3 percent promoted inquiry into student learning.
- Only one of 11 practitioners interviewed about their appraisal discussions reported talk about student learning.
- The focus of the discussions was on teaching practices, with participants assuming that certain practices are associated with student success.
- In a study involving 68 teachers, only 4.5 percent reported appraisal goals that referred to student outcomes.
- Instead, goals focused on teaching practices and behaviours, were often vague, and lacked challenge.
In the final chapter of her thesis, Sinnema calls for a new approach to appraisal called “appraisal for learning”.
This approach has three main characteristics:
- it is an inquiry process,
- it focuses on interrogating the relationship between teaching and learning
- it uses data about teaching and learning.
“Appraisal for learning” positions appraisal as an important context for teacher learning and recognises the significant potential teachers have to effect improvement in students’ learning, as a consequence of their own learning. In order for that learning to take place, educators must focus their attention, throughout the appraisal process, on student learning.
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Sinnema also emphasises the importance of aligning the elements of appraisal (including performance indicators, discussions, and goals) with appraisal systems and other initiatives (including professional development, school planning, and reporting).