This resource consists of a booklet and digital tool that allows TAs/LSAs/HLTAs and all assisting teaching to evaluate their performance against the relevant professional standards.
The new web based version of this tool includes a school leader’s dash board. This brings the self-evaluation of all staff that assist teaching and enable learning together in a way that facilitates analysis. Leaders can tease out both the strengths and developmental need of individuals and the whole team. This can be used to ensure the sharing of excellent practice and in ensuring that professional learning/development is targeted to where it is most needed.
As the tool makes it clear ‘what good looks like’ it is a useful tool for staff, leaders and Governors. It provides clarity as to what is expected and what needs to change in order to improve practice.
It uses:
The Professional Standards For Assisting Teaching (Welsh Government) and Enabling Learning/Pathways (Welsh Government) along with prompts from Mike Glavin to facilitate thorough self-evaluation. It is designed to facilitate the identification of strengths and developmental need, so highlighting professional learning requirements.
It has many potential uses including:
- Personal reflection
- The identification of individual and team strengths and developmental need
- Planning professional learning for individuals and the team
- Career progression: applications/interview
Tool Overview
The tool is designed to support those assisting teaching evaluate their own performance. It uses the relevant Welsh Government’s professional standards as the overarching structure. Each standard has a number of descriptors. There are two types:
E: Effective Practice Descriptor
S: Sustained highly effective practice descriptor
The Standards
If you are someone that assists teaching, whether that be as a teaching assistant, learning support assistant, higher level teaching assistant or any other associated job title, this resource aims to help you see the real difference that you make to the lives of learners.
The tool separates each of the above standards into sections and provides prompts to aid in-depth self-evaluation. It also relates the standards to the relevant parts of the Enabling Learning/ Pathways material produced by Welsh Government.
Enabling Learning/Pathways was written for those working with ‘learners who are in the period of learning leading to progression step 1’. However, its content powerfully captures what excellence looks like when enabling learners and, in my opinion, has a real implication for assisting teaching, regardless of the age of the learner.
This resource provides you with a booklet and a digital tool. There is no set order in which you should consider each section. The tool can be used flexibly and each section, or parts of sections, can be considered at the time that best fits you and the evaluation cycles present within your setting.
As you work through each section, you are encouraged to make a judgment on your current performance, using this suggested scale:
The standard is fully met
Monitoring and review procedures will highlight any emerging developmental need.
The standard is nearly met
Most of the aspects are securely in place. There are a few aspects that must be secured and/or some aspects have yet to be embedded and demonstrate the required impact.
The standard is partially met
Some of the aspects are secure but there are a number of significant aspects that need to be addressed.
The standard is barely met
Whilst some parts of a few aspects are in place, many aspects have yet to be addressed effectively.
If you choose to use the digital version of the tool, as you work through the sections you are able to record your judgements and automatically build up a diagrammatic representation of your evaluation, allowing you to see where your strengths lie and to highlight those areas that need further development.
For example, if having looked at the standard ‘Pedagogy: Advancing learning …. enabling impact’ and the associated prompts, along with the relevant parts of the Enabling Pathways section, you consider that a number of significant aspects are not in place, then simply click on…:
2 The standard is partially met. Some of the aspects are secure but there are a number of significant aspects that need to be addressed.
…at the end of the section and two of the four sections in Pedagogy: Advancing learning section will be shaded.
If you choose to use the booklet form, you can simply then enter each judgement into the overview section of the digital tool to create a diagrammatic representation of where you consider your current performance to be.
Both the booklet and digital tool have areas where you can make notes. From the latter, the text can be copied and pasted into any documentation that you consider appropriate.
It’s entirely up to you with whom you share the information. It can be shared across teams to highlight strengths and developmental need, so facilitating the sharing of good practice or it can be used for job applications or to inform performance management conversations. It’s your call.
The new web based version of the tool provides a dashboard for leaders. It facilitates analysis so identifying strengths and developmental need of individuals and the whole team. This helps ensure that professional development/ professional learning is targeted to where it is most needed.
However you chose to use this tool, I very much hope that it supports you in the vital job that you do.
Options
You can:
Buy just the booklet (£20 each)_
Buy the booklet and digital tool (£45 each)
Book a training day for all staff assisting teaching.
Purchase 7 week coaching programme for all staff assisting teaching. Four groups of up to four. Each group has one hour coaching for the 7 weeks.
Hire Mike to train an appropriate member of your staff to use the tool to support the development of those assisting teaching and enabling learning within your school or cluster.
Please see ‘Working With Those Assisting Teaching And Enabling Learning’ within the ‘Services’ section to find out more about the range of ways in which Mike can help develop the work of this crucially important group of staff.