Teachers’ Professional Development – the Main Scope of Evaluation Practices

1. Teachers’ Professional Development –the Main Scope of Evaluation Practices

2. One cannot refer to evaluation unless defining its purpose.

3. The key-questions • Is it capable a certain evaluation strategy to fully satisfy its designed functions? • How the various models and strategies corresponding to these functions reflect into daily practice? • Which are the specific features of certain strategies and models, while compared to the aimed evaluation?

4. Evaluation strategies and evaluation goals • The evaluation strategies must be adjusting to the evaluation goal; the practice of evaluation has demonstrated the need of this separation (i.e. strategies performed for selecting must be different than ones used for career advancement); • Only one evaluation strategy can serve to more evaluation functions (i.e. NBPTS evaluation can serve to wage increase, incentives to encourage the continuity in teaching activities, pride support)

5. Evaluation models and evaluation strategies • While a evaluation model, by its generality, can serve a large number of evaluative functions, the evaluation strategies - including the methods and tools to be used – must be closely correlated to one or more specific functions.

6. Evaluation approaches (I) • Individual versus organizational - evaluation strategies concerning teacher’s autonomy and self-governance; - evaluation strategies concerning the administrative control

7. Evaluation approaches (II) • Formative versus summative • Formative evaluation strategies; • Summative evaluation strategies.

8. National, local and organizational training plans in Europe • Many European states operate professional development plans both at national, local and school levels (i.e. Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Finland). • Rather few European countries – Belgium, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Malta, UK, and Iceland – require the inclusion of the professional training plans into the development strategies at school’s level.

9. The three different types of actions for professional development The actions can be classified them in line with the distance to solving the nonconformities: • Corrective actions; • Preventive actions; • Proactive actions.

10. The differences between the three types of actions • Corrective actions – aiming to solve the nonconformities; • Preventive actions – aiming to prevent the potential nonconformities; • Proactive actions – oriented to research, innovation, experiments, gaining and implementation of good practices; • based on individual teacher’s reflection; • take place beyond the narrow extension of the identified nonconformities.

11. Conclusions • A good evaluation strategy should begin with the correct evaluation of the teachers’ performances. • Such a fact would make the evaluation results useful, revealing the possible gaps between the evaluation standards and the actual performances. • The excellence in teaching can be reached at individual level, supported by organizational and central level, after establishing certain targets, further than the standard conformities, and using more the innovations and experiments.

12. Thank you!