ABSTRACT
Evaluation of teaching can seem like a threat or a support. External evaluation that will be used to judge performance can appear threatening because it puts self-esteem on the line. But it also provides an opportunity to gain recognition for achievement. Evaluation from peers and selfevaluation can be more readily seen as a support as long as it is focused on finding ways to improve. So there is a tension in this chapter between looking at evaluation as a way of judging performance and using evaluation as a strategy for improvement. We will look at some of the standards for qualified teacher status (QTS) in England and at criteria for evaluating teachers and departments used by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). We will consider how these published standards should be interpreted. These benchmarks are useful reference points, but a good teacher is able to use evaluation in a more productive way than simply checking their progress against someone else’s criteria. Every lesson poses some distinctive problem, however minor. Every teacher has a different set of capabilities to bring to bear and weaknesses to take into account. When we face up to the complexity of helping groups of students to learn, what we can say for certain about the exact effects of different ways of teaching seems rather limited. It is for these reasons that reflection lies at the heart of making good progress when training to teach and continuing to develop as a professional teacher. If I view evaluation only as a means of judging my performance (How well am I doing? Will I pass?) my prospects for improvement are stunted. If I view evaluation as a way of increasing my understanding of teaching and myself as a teacher then I have a powerful tool to help me improve (Schon, 1983, 1987; Black, 1998).
