Personal Self-Evaluation

Your personal self-evaluation should identify the area(s) in which you might want to gain professional recognition and forms part of your preparation for professional discussions with your school or authority manager.

The following questions are for your own records and should help you identify the knowledge and experience you already have and what areas you will need to address.

Questions

1. What has emerged from your recent CPD/PRD experiences that has influenced your teaching?
2. How have these experiences impacted n your professional practive, eg on your teaching, on pupil learning, on colleagues and on the wider community?
3. Do these recent experiences cluster around certain themes, eg:
• ICT Early years
• maths specific schools/local/national priorities
• thinking skills specific subject leading to registration
4. Support of whole school responsibilities/inititatives, eg:
• positive behaviour citizenship
• enterprise health promoting programmes
• innovative practice, eg primary/secondary liaison; 10 -16 programmes;mentoring and coaching
• leadership
5. What professional reading and research have you used that has:
• informed your thinking and practice?
• challenged your thinking and practice?
6. What impact has your work had on:
• your pupils - what strategies/awareness/skills/knowledge and understanding do they now have as a result of your work?
• your own learning and teaching?
• your school/or the wider community?

Professional Discussion (1)

Following on from your self-evalution you should set up a meeting with your line manager, school or authority manager to discuss your interest in gaining professional recognition.

You should discuss the following:

• your intention to work towards gaining professional recognition
• your existing knowledge in the area of interest/expertise
• how you have used this knowledge in your teaching and the impact it is having on your pupils
• the CPD activities/reading/research you have undertaken to develop and enhance your teaching and skills in this area
• any activities where you have shared your knowledge/expertise with colleagues

Preparing for your meeting

In preparation for this meeting you might want to consider the type of CPD programme you might undertake to develop your knowledge and skills and the types of evidence you might use to demonstrate your actions

Other areas for discussion

Some suggested prompts include:

1. Which areas of particular expertise have you considered and what have you decied to choose to focus on?
2. Are you thinking about applying for professional recognition now or in the future?

If you're thinking about applying for recognition now, you should be thinking about:

• What development needs do you have in relation to enhancing your subject, content or stage knowledge, your professional knowledge or your professional teaching experience?
• What steps will have to be taken to meet these needs?
• What are going to be your classroom actions?
• What thoughts do you have on how to undertake the agreed programme and what about a timescale?
• What support will you need?
• What will success look like?
• What impact will the project have on the school?
• What will your evidence be and how will you collect it?
• What impact will your work have on individual pupils, your class, the school. the wider educational community?
• How are you going to reflect on your learning and share your knowledge, expertise and insights with others?

Outcome of your meeting

Whatever you choose to discuss, the outcome of the meeting should provide you with a clear plan for how to proceed, timescales, a set of actions and the necessary support arrangements.

Professional Action

Following your professional discussion (1) you should have started the agreed CPD programme. A list of CPD activities should now be recorded in the relevant section of the Professional Recognition Application Form and kept in a portfolio.

If you haven't yet completed the CPD programme, take a look at our How to gain Professional Recognition section to identify the range of evidence you might include in your portfolio.

Once you have completed the above you should follow the professional action process:

Demonstrate

If you've used your enhanced knowledge and expertise in your teaching and are able to demonstrate how this has impacted on your pupils' learning, your headteacher should have completed the Professional Experience section of the Professional Recognition Application Form to confirm this. Speak to your headteaher if this hasn't yet happened.

Reflect

Reflect on how your enhanced knowledge has impacted on your pupils and on your own development as a teacher.

Share

Have you shared your knowledge and expertise with colleagues in the school and/or local authority, completing the Reflect/Report/Share section of the Professional Recognition Application Form?

Personal Evaluation against the Framework

You should now undertake a personal self-evaluation to identify the knowledge and experience gained so far, comparing your experience to the requirements of the framework. Identify the knowledge and experience you already have and the evidence you have collected.

Professional Discussion (2)

Your professional recognition submission should now be discussed in a meeting with your line manager, school or local authority probation manager. You should discuss:

• your intention to work towards gaining professional recognition
• your existing knowledge in the area of interest/expertise
• how you have used this knowledge in your teaching and the impact it is having on your pupils
• the CPD activities/reading, research you have already undertaken to develop your knowledge in your teaching and enhance your teaching skills in this area
• any activities you have been involved in where you have shared your knowledge and expertise with colleagues

Preparing for your meeting

In preparation for your meeting you should identify:

• the type of CPD you might undertake to develop your knowledge and skills
• the types of evidence you might use to demonstrate your actions
• ome questions to think about as you work your way through the process.