Teach-Primary-18.3

1 | SCAFFOLD YOUR APPROACH Objective-setting provides a great opportunity to put professional learning at the centre of the appraisal process. This can be done by applying a scaffolding technique. For example, you could structure each of your objectives using the following format: To develop my ability to use [skill] when [situation] to ensure [outcome] . This is an approach that offers a much more fluid and incremental way to identify your objectives than a standard tick-box template. 2 | DEFINE YOUR OBJECTIVES Your appraisal objectives should be focused directly on the elements of practice you as a teacher have control over, and they should be developmental in nature. They should also be agile, to enable a continuous professional dialogue. And, of course, they must remain very much aligned with team and school priorities. Make sure you word each objective in such a way that it focuses on the pedagogical changes that need to happen, rather than any data outcomes. Enquiry-led approaches can also play a part; these are not simple objectives but more question-led enquiries designed to prompt a teacher to investigate the impact of a methodology. For example, Does the combined use of non-verbal and verbal communication increase clarity of communication and result in pupils exhibiting a clearer understanding of their work and improved behaviour for learning? 3 | LIST SUCCESS CRITERIA Remember that success criteria don’t need to be numerical. So in the example above, success could be evidenced by: effective use of non-verbal and verbal strategies including use of gestures; tone and purposeful rephrasing; use of purposeful rephrasing and modelling for abstract concepts; a decrease in pupil misunderstandings and off-task behaviours. FEATURES CPD 4 | DESCRIBE YOUR STRATEGY How do you plan to achieve your objective? For the success criteria in Step 3, you could aim to review some of the current research on the role of communication in teaching, speaking to different groups of pupils and beginning to establish what clarity looks like to children After this, you could observe experienced colleagues to see how they use movement, gestures, and verbal communication, then research the most effective strategies before trialling them with your class. Once you’ve planned your strategy out, record it from start to finish in clear and unambiguous language. By keeping objectives focused on your practice, and avoiding traditional numerical measures, you will ensure that the objective-setting process genuinely supports your development. 5 | SPECIFY SUPPORT What additional training or resource will you need to achieve success in each of your objectives? List everything you’ll require. This might include an online learning module on clarity of communication, in-school CPD, and the opportunity to observe colleagues with successful practice in your objective area. 6 | MAKE IT SMART Review each objective you’ve created to make sure that it is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-focused. It should be a clear question or statement, with quantifiable success criteria, setting out the steps and actions that you will take and the professional development and support you’ll need in order to achieve your goal. Once your objectives have been agreed, make sure you regularly take a step back and check that they continue to be relevant to your classroom practice. With the right preparation you can power through your performance reviews 6 WAYS to set meaningful objectives DENISE INWOOD is founder and CEO of BlueSky Education, an online platformused by teachers inmore than 40 countries worldwide to enable them to support their professional learning and objectives and link them to a school’s strategic goals. www.teachwire.net | 11