schools where we have the same learning
expectations for children as we do for
adults I’m going to share a story with
you where the key idea to improving
learning in schools is self assessment
this is the evaluation of oneself in
terms of skills understanding or
attitudes to build truly dynamic
learning teachers need to know our roles
as learners we need to engage in self
assessment on a regular basis at Vilnius
International School where I work the
purpose of assessment is to feedback to
improve the program to improve the
learning process the story that I share
with you is a documentation of how we
have built teacher self-assessment and
in doing so how we as adults have become
accountable to the same learning
expectations that we have for children
Joan’s wire-rimmed glasses framed how
she saw her fourth grade class peering
over her spectacles she inquired what
are four groups of twelve veronika
pensively answered forty-eight miss Joan
extended the challenge how do you know
that what makes you say that
veronika responded I know that because
of what I know about place value when I
chunk in combine my tens I know that for
tens equals 40 veronika held up four
fingers each representing ten then I
combined my ones I know that four groups
of two equals eight she held up her
fingers now I combine my tens in my ones
in my role as assistant principal I was
fortunate to observe this mathematics
lesson with two simple questions
Jonah invited Veronica to do several
things first she demonstrated her
understanding of place value by knowing
the position of the place of each number
she was able to separate her digits
however when she asked how do you know
that and what makes you say that
she invited something different Veronica
demonstrated confidence she took
ownership of the learning process and
she constantly assessed her
understanding
she talked aloud she used her fingers to
represent values it became clear
Veronica can manipulate multiplication
through her understanding of place value
the invitation to self-assess led her to
her empowerment as a learner but
learning in the fourth grade has not
always been so successful miss Joan
would be the first to tell you if the
changes that she has made with the use
of self-assessment early on some of her
lessons were a bit like a shotgun
she knew her learning objective but
didn’t always know if she had connected
with her target students on one
particular cold and dark afternoon I
observed a different mathematics lesson
she had struggled with this lesson she
had only been marginally successful the
students looked exhausted I looked at
Joan and I asked how have you created
successful learning in your mathematics
class today with an incredulous look on
her face she handed me a stack of half
completed math worksheets here she
barked quietly I asked her
how do you know that children have
learned after a moment of awkward
silence Joan responded I don’t know the
question how do you know that students
have learned was an invitation for Joan
to look for evidence of learning without
this evidence the self-assessment was
clear
Joan needed to personalize learning she
needed to look for better ways to
measure student understanding and then
it struck me we require children to
assess their understanding we require
children to assess themselves we should
require the same from adults the
question is how do we do this at this
same time we were having conversations
clarifying what effective learning looks
like in schools the intention here the
aim was to articulate a school culture
where we all have a common understanding
of learning we wanted to share with
every single school community member we
are all learners so this story of Joan’s
change that I share with you of adults
bearing the same learning
responsibilities as students this
parallels our learning journey that we
have taken as a school but as you might
imagine change with children is easier
than change with adults in my reading of
teacher self supervision by Powell and
kazuma Powell I have learned that our
roles as teachers is to guide children
to become self-directed learners in
building a culture of self-directed
learning we look for certain qualities
there’s learning independence
there’s autonomy children own the
learning process
children exhibit resilience that is
combined with curious
city the active desire to problem-solve
is a hunger to figure out more
finally the learning potential is being
maximized a fundamental part of building
self-directed learners is the idea and
the role of self-assessment professor
John Hattie in his book visible learning
identifies self-reported grades or
expectations as playing a very
influential role in achievement dr.
Glazer identifies self evaluation as a
means to improve the quality of learning
with self-assessment you are constantly
evaluating how much do I know how much
do I need to know and how do I close
that gap it is in this process that
learners take responsibility they take
ownership and we start to see them grow
as learners learning goals are
imperative in this process in improving
young people as effective learners I was
keen to take these ideas and review them
with children at our next staff meeting
I introduced some of this research to
teachers they were very receptive to the
idea of empowering children to better on
their own learning
miss Joan very quickly went and had
conversations with students about areas
for improvement
this turned to writing goals students
understood themselves and with Miss
Jones help started to articulate and
write learning goals this then changed
to learning habits children started to
see their decisions and steps that they
took on a daily or weekly basis as ways
to improve themselves teachers then
started to consider how do we get
children to monitor their progress how
do we get children to reflect on their
learning this was a very positive very
exciting road to restructuring student
the success that we were having with
students I came to think if research
tells us that this works with children
in developing self-directed learners
shouldn’t we be doing this with adults
in fact it struck me teachers should be
involved in all of it
self-assessment goal-setting learning
habits monitoring progress and
reflection in fact we had already been
involved in some goal-setting
teachers had to come up with their own
personal professional learning goals
this standard this is a standard
practice in many schools miss Joan had
committed to the following goal this
year I want to have students make
learning choices through the use of
self-assessment things looked good but
it wasn’t good enough I struggled with
how to emphasize to teachers that our
roles as learners adult learners are
guided by what we know works with
children
I thought about Joan and I realized we
teach children to self assess but
teachers are still held captive by
traditional models of teacher evaluation
I decided to talk to teachers about our
roles as learners through the idea of
self assessment teachers need to decide
based on set criteria whether or not
they’re doing a good job far too long
have teachers been coddled by demeaning
appraisal systems that assume very
little of teachers such traditional
teacher evaluation systems work on the
idea of reward or punishment or coercion
and they completely undermine teacher
independence and initiative we know
traditional teacher evaluation doesn’t
work it undermines the work that we do
as teachers and it does not empower
children we as teachers need to embrace
models of learning another thing that we
know works with student learning are
learning portfolios our learning
portfolios form learning journeys these
are owned by children and through the
creation process students make choices
we hear their voice we see their pride
we see their growth over the course of
the academic year inherent in this
process is self-assessment and
reflection to showcase the pride and the
growth that children make we have them
participate in student-led conferences
student-led conferences are a time when
children meet with their parents and
they guide them through a discussion
about their learning again I had one of
those moments where I questioned if
research says that this helps developed
children into self-directed learners
shouldn’t we be doing this with teachers
I saw Joan in the hallway and I asked
her what do you think about teacher self
assessment eyes wide with terror she
hearing the tension in her voice made me
think how is it that we know what is
good for children but we struggle to see
what is effective with teachers so I
decided at the next staff meeting I
decided to approach teachers and ask
them about self assessment and
self-directed learning I looked out at
all of the teachers in the staff meeting
and I asked who should assess you
there was tension there was confusion
teachers started murmuring and I quickly
shared some of the research that I have
been reading against traditional teacher
evaluation and towards self-directed
learning some of the arguments against
traditional teacher evaluation are some
fairly large misunderstandings I will
share a couple with you
some believe external evaluation equals
constructive feedback this equals
teacher improvement and that equals
better student learning this is
incorrect the coercive nature of an
external evaluation completely
undermines the constructive nature of
feedback some believe while Trust is
nice it’s not completely essential for
high quality learning this is incorrect
Trust is a fundamental requirement of
every learning relationship some belief
teaching and learning can be reduced to
a behavior formula imposed by someone
else this is incorrect the complexities
of teaching and learning cannot be
reduced to a behavior formula finally
some believe only ineffective teachers
need to grow this is incorrect the
demands of learning now learning in the
21st century really suggests every
looked across the room at all of the
teachers gathered I saw apprehension I
saw a little bit of suspicion but over
time teachers became more agreeable to
the idea of self assessment and
self-directed learning and we know we
know with the idea of self assessment
and self-directed learning we need to
combine the reporting and the assessment
so I went to teacher
and I asked them what do you think about
taking the ideas for a student led
conference the format and the
expectations and use those to guide a
time when you report on your growth as a
learning journey through a teacher led
conference Joan has begin to know me now
she understands me
she looked terrified for only a number
of seconds as color returned to her face
she began to see the irony the irony is
the time and the energy that we invest
in building children to be successful
learners must be duplicated with adults
so Joan was excited come May I scheduled
a teacher-led conference with Joan it
was late in the day but she was excited
she unfolded for me a five page
illustration she had chosen a very
creative way to tell her story as I
listened to her tour her professional
learning goals and how they intertwined
with the school’s mission several things
became clear the pride and commitment
that she has for every single learner
was absolutely clear louder than that
the pride in the commitment that she had
for her school was absolutely clear
seeking that same pride and commitment I
now scheduled a teacher-led conference
with every primary school teacher the
hope and the invitation is that we
develop student learning through our own
learning as teachers we can be far more
effective when we see ourselves as
learners when we multiply this through
schools we start to build learning
cultures through each teacher led
conference as teachers self assess
themselves I confirmed effective schools
are in the business
duplicating and aligning expectations
for learning when we do this we ensure
that while we as adults are constantly
growing children take their lead they
engage with one another and with each
other on a commands they’re learning on
a completely different level at Vilnius
International School we are all learners
and we are completely sure
self-assessment and self-directed
learning are transformational in making
learning more effective in schools I
invite and I challenge all of the
educators in the room all that are
listening return to your jobs begin the
journey hold yourself accountable to
learning the same way that we hold
children accountable use self-assessment
and reflection to guide your craft
monitor your progress the same way that
we track student learning if you take
this process seriously you will begin to
see the type of pride that we have at
our school this is our learning journey
thank you
you [Music]