Since the release of Australia’s National Professional Standards Framework for Teachers on 9 February 2011, attention has turned to how the standards will be used for the assessment and certification of teachers at the four career stages of graduate, proficient, highly accomplished and lead teacher. 

According to an international expert on teacher evaluation, classroom observation will almost certainly be a part of any set of methods developed in Australia.

Speaking at an ACER Institute seminar, prominent US education consultant Charlotte Danielson said there are benefits to be derived from classroom observation, both for teachers and school systems.

“I’ve had a long experience with teacher assessment and in particular with using teacher observation as a source of evidence for teacher practice,” said Danielson. “I think it’s a good methodology; it can produce other benefits besides just simply establishing somebody’s level of performance.”

Danielson said teacher observation is a means of promoting teachers’ own learning and encouraging teachers to be more reflective about their practice.

“A good way to introduce teacher observation into a school is to invite and in some cases even require that teachers observe each other for the purpose of learning from their colleagues,” said Danielson.

In Danielson’s experience, a culture of professional learning in which teachers realise that they can learn from one another tends to break down barriers to classroom observation such as teacher stress or anxiety. It is also a professionally responsible approach, suggesting that teachers, as other professionals, can always improve their practice; it’s a career-long endeavour.

However, Danielson warns, that is not an easy culture to establish. “It can take a little bit of time but it’s a very worthwhile one to establish because you can then take it another step and engage in something like lesson study,” said Danielson.

Lesson study involves a group of teachers developing a lesson together, having one of the teachers teach the lesson while the others observe and then critiquing the lesson, revising the lesson and having another teacher teach it.

“The question that you’re asking is not, ‘Did that teacher do a good job of teaching it?’, but ‘Was the lesson itself well designed?’” said Danielson. “That produces very productive conversations that respect the professionalism of other teachers.”

If teacher observation is to be used as a source of evidence to inform accreditation or performance pay, Danielson urges that a moderation process is critical to the design of the evaluation.

Danielson, whose Framework of Teaching is one of the most widely used systems for classroom observation, professional learning and teacher evaluation in the USA, believes that Australia needs a nationally consistent model for teacher assessment and certification.

“Australia would have a better system if it would do only one because you could draw on the expertise of everyone from around the country,” said Danielson. “The challenge of that is that you get people in a room together from different jurisdictions who feel strongly about the value of the work they’ve done already and are reluctant to abandon it.”

The biggest advantage of having a single model for teacher assessment and certification, according to Danielson, is the economies of scale that it delivers. States are constantly looking to use their resources more efficiently and effectively and an Australia-wide model for teacher observation would carry economies of scale around investment and training, Danielson said.

Danielson visited Australia in March to present a one and a half-day workshop on classroom observation and the evaluation of teacher performance as part of the ACER Institute Leading Thinkers seminar series. Among those in attendance at Danielson’s workshop were the heads of teacher registration bodies, union representatives and leaders of teachers from within schools.

Charlotte Danielson is an internationally-recognized expert in the area of teacher effectiveness, specialising in the design of teacher evaluation systems that, while ensuring teacher quality, also promote professional learning.  She advises State Education Departments and National Ministries and Departments of Education, both in the United States and overseas. She is in demand as a keynote speaker at national and international conferences, and as a policy consultant to legislatures and administrative bodies.

Ms Danielson’s many publications cover a range of topics including defining good teaching, organising schools for student success, teacher leadership and professional conversations to assist practitioners in implementing her ideas.

Further information about ACER Institute's Leading Thinkers series is available from the ACER Intitute website

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