Setting the Context
As I exited a keynote presentation on The Science and Profession of Teaching (Daniel), at the annual winter Learning & The Brain: Teaching Engaged Brains Conference (San Francisco, CA), a participant asked: How can administrators help teachers apply an “evidence-generated” model within the context of a school’s existing teacher evaluation system? And while there was no clear response by any of the 90 people in the room, my mind immediately began wandering – and soon arriving at a feeling of consolation. With two minor tweaks, creating an evidence-generating culture among educators in our school – instead of living out evidence-based teaching – is doable within the context of our existing process for teacher Growth, Renewal, & Evaluation (GRE). What is an Evidence-Generating Culture, As Opposed to an Evidence-Based Culture? Daniel alluded to the fact that a major conundrum teachers have when we attend conferences where research-based best-practices are presented is that such theories about practices are (externally) evidence-based, rather than (internally) evidence-generated. Based on brain science and educational studies, “if a teacher does this . . . this will happen . . . now, go forth and set the world on fire.” And while evidence-based research is helpful, often times it is not easy to practically apply and often unsustainable in lived classrooms with real teachers and students. It also does little to invite teachers themselves to become researchers on the science of education. However, an evidence-generating culture is created when school leadership encourages teachers to identify their own class-based areas for growth and use a simple framework to develop a plan to address the areas for growth, test, collect evidence to hopefully show how they have improved their practices, and reflect on those experiences. This evidence-gathering culture is important because it:
Essential Question How do we invite teachers into the growth mind-set, where they are researchers in their own classrooms – generating their own evidence that they are being successful with their own students? Growth, Renewal, & Evaluation Process Our current teacher evaluation process is called Growth, Renewal, & Evaluation (GRE). It is a framework that, by nature, is comprehensive and evidence-gathering, with components that invite teachers to reflect on their classroom practices. But, it is not currently evidence-generating – it doesn’t necessarily invite teachers to identify areas for growth and then use a process for developing strategies to address those areas, test, and generate (collect) evidence of growth (or not). It doesn’t necessarily encourage teachers to be engaged in their own classroom-based research on the science of their own classroom-based teaching. Here are our GRE components:
And while this is a reflective, teacher-centered process, it is perhaps shy of going steps further to invite teachers to become researchers in their own classes. There is an easy fix, but first a few centering questions from the Daniel keynote that left me in consolation:
Two Quick GRE Process Tweaks By improving two teacher-centered reflection pieces in our GRE, we can invite teachers into an evidence-generating culture. GRE Reflecting Conversations Class visits are the impetus for the most important part of our GRE process, the Reflecting Conversation. This 20-minute conversation that follows each class visit invites the teacher to:
A simple tweak to these prompts of the Reflecting Conversation is adding these questions that serve as the start to an evidence-generating framework (notably, also similar to the Problem-Resolving Conversation in Cognitive Coaching):
Providing these additional prompts to our traditional Reflecting Conversation invites the teacher to be an evidence-generating researcher in the classroom. GRE Principal Evaluation Conversation During the GRE process, teachers complete a prompt-based written reflection before meeting for the Principal Evaluation Conversation (mid-year or at the end of the third quarter, typically). Here are the current prompts teachers reflect on before that conversation with the principal:
These prompts already invite the teacher to think about a lot, including areas for growth. And, a simple tweak to these prompts is to add questions that serve as a follow-up to previous Reflecting Conversations that they have already had (notably, also similar to the Problem-Resolving Conversation in Cognitive Coaching):
Adding these questions to the existing self-reflection prompts for the GRE Principal Evaluation Conversation invites teachers to identify areas for growth from their classroom and school experiences, work on a process for becoming researchers who generate evidence of that growth, and hopefully form habits for creating an evidence-generating culture in the context of the school. Resources
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Pete MussoAssistant Principal, Curriculum & Instruction Archives
May 2022
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