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Self-evaluation using performance indicators
 
 
PART 4: Staff development activities
 
Getting Started
 
Using the materials
 
This section:
  • suggests practical activities for use during in-service sessions organised, for example, by the authority, by schools or by individual departments or teams
  • can be used as it is or adapted to suit your own particular needs.
 
Materials are photocopiable and are designed for flexibility. You may wish to use some pages individually or combine them with some of the exemplar material from Parts 2 and 3 of this pack or with some pages photocopied from How good is our school?. You are in the best position to decide how you prefer to work.
 
You might find it helpful to familiarise yourself with, or to re-visit, How good is our school? during a brief preliminary session looking at, for instance:
  • key areas
  • performance indicators, themes and illustrations
  • methods of making a judgement of performance
  • ways of using performance indicators in school self-evaluation.
 
Selecting performance indicators
 
One question teachers often ask is how they are going to decide which of the 33 performance indicators to start with. Remember, however, that these will usually emerge naturally from the school issues with which you are already concerned. You will tend to find that the results of one year's evaluation lead you on to other related issues. Examples of this are shown in the step-by-step guides which make up Part 2 of How good is our school?, in particular within the sections headed Now for the next steps.
 
Organising the activities
 
The activities can be adapted to suit the time available. Although it is important to plan how you are going to evaluate the activities, this need not take a long time. As far as possible, you should aim to look for evidence while going about your normal activities, perhaps building-in evaluation. The most important task is to decide what you are going to do about the information you have collected.
 
Tasks are designed to get you started by encouraging discussion. There are no right or wrong answers, just approaches which are more or less suited to your circumstances and the resources available. Your professional judgement is at the heart of the process.
 
ACTIVITY 1: Selecting performance indicators to evaluate equality
 
Time: Between 30 and 40 minutes.
 
Context: Working group, school INSET or meeting.
Your school/team has decided to evaluate your practice and procedures in the area of equality, especially those related to race and gender issues.
 
Task: From the PI grid on pages 34 and 35 in How good is our school?, select a group of performance indicators from the 33 to help you carry out this task. Using your professional judgement, consider the relevance of individual themes for the context in which you work and select the most appropriate. Enter them in the grid below.
 
No. Performance indicator Relevant themes related to race and gender issues
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
 
ACTIVITY 2: Putting the concept of equality into practice
 
Time: 30 minutes.
 
Context: INSET, PAT or team or working group meeting.
 
Task: The table below illustrates Some features you might look for in answer to the question, "Are courses or programmes linked to, and in keeping with, the school aims, especially those relating to equality?". As a group, probe behind each of the features listed and tease out what these would mean both for the school and for you in your classroom. How would you set about evaluating your current curricular provision?
 
P.I. 1.2 QUALITY OF COURSES OR PROGRAMMES
 
Theme 1.2.1 Breadth, balance and choice
 
To what extent do courses and programmes meet the needs of all pupils?
 

How do you know?

Some features you might look for
Are courses or programmes linked to, and in keeping with, the school aims, especially those relating to equality?
  • Curriculum materials:

-positively represent sections of society and challenge prejudice and injustice, and racist and sexist views

-promote personal development and encourage pupils' self-esteem, cultural identity, aspirations and career choice in non-stereotyped ways

-enable children, young people and adults to understand the roots of discrimination and to challenge it in themselves and others

-focus on, and deal with, harassment or denigration and strategies to combat these

  • Courses develop knowledge which can be applied in different contexts
 

1. Key implications for you (school/department/team)

 

 

 

 

 

2. Means of evaluation of current provision

 

 

 

 

 

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