How to self-assess your teacher performance and practice

Teacher assessment is an important element of making sure students are receiving a quality educational experience. This usually happens during school inspections, when external experts come to observe classes and evaluate your performance - which can often be nerve-wracking, even for experienced educators!

But as a teacher, these external evaluations are not the only way to get a sense of how well you’re doing. You can also conduct a self-assessment, where you look critically at your classroom practice to establish your strengths and identify areas for improvement.

In fact, research shows that teacher self-assessment can contribute to professional growth and help teachers better understand their strengths and weaknesses. What's more, it means that when inspection time rolls around, you'll be ready for your class observation!

Strategies for successful teacher performance assessment

Here are some ways to self-assess your own teaching practice.

1. Review your subject knowledge

Whatever you’re teaching, you need to really understand the subject matter. Once you master that, you can communicate ideas better to your students and inject more of your unique teaching flair into classes. It also means you make connections between ideas and find ways to link them to your students’ interests or preferred teaching style.

In order to assess your subject knowledge, ask yourself:

• Am I constantly trying to learn more about the subjects I teach?
• Do I understand why I’m teaching these topics and can I share that need with my students?
• Am I able to communicate my ideas in a way that ensures all my students – no matter their level – can grasp the content?

Here are some suggestions for interesting education studies to apply in your classroom.

2. Reflect on lesson planning

Lesson planning is the foundation of your classroom. It helps keep both you and your students focused and ensures the content you’re covering is relevant to your and your students’ goals.

Take a look at your lesson plans from the last year or so. Review them critically – do they consistently include the content that students need to learn? Do they break down the way it will be taught? The specific learning objectives? Do you include assessment strategies to figure out whether these goals have been met? Are they well organised with all the necessary resources mentioned?

If you feel like you’ve been neglecting any of these areas, reflect on ways to improve your lesson plans – you could ask your peers for feedback or ask your department head for training to help take your planning to the next level.

Learn more about using AI to support your lesson planning.

3. Renew your teacher toolbox

Every teacher needs a toolbox to make learning more active, meet diverse student needs, and present content clearly. You probably already have textbooks, worksheets, online platforms, and chatbots, but get curious about other steps to keep your toolbox up to date.

Research tools that are part of the latest technology or have a buzz about them. Also think about what tools could help you in your teacher processes. For example, maybe you could incorporate Minecraft into a science class to help students build their STEM skills.

Explore AI tools for the classroom

4. Consider your relationships with students and colleagues

A big indicator of your teacher performance is the relationships you have with your students and colleagues. Think about how your students speak to you and the things they bring to you. If they come to you for help with a specific problem or openly express their opinions, that’s a sign they feel safe and respected in your classroom. If not, how could you establish more trust with them? Could you change your communication style to improve your relationship?

Your relationships with your peers also play a role in your overall performance. Take time to think about how you invite feedback from fellow teachers or senior colleagues, such as with a class observation. Ask yourself: Do we collaborate and share ideas and resources with one another? Am I part of a learning community, or could I join one?

Find out how active listening can help to strengthen your relationships

5. Rate your feedback and assessment process

Naturally, a key part of understanding your performance is whether or not your students achieve their learning outcomes. Take a deep dive into the assessments you’ve been using to gauge your students’ progress and ask yourself:

• Am I using a range of assessment types that give students a chance to demonstrate that they’ve really understood a topic?
• Are my students well aware of the grading criteria works?
• Are my assessments directly linked to students’ objectives?
• Have we practised the assessment methods more casually (i.e. outside of a test setting) so my students are comfortable with them?

You could also think about how you give feedback to your students. Feedback should be a two-way process – where you give detailed explanations, and your students can express what support they need to improve.

Remember that any constructive feedback from you should explain why students need to make improvements and give them clear steps to do it.

Discover new learning and assessment approaches

6. Take into account your own satisfaction

Engaged and fulfilled teachers inspire engaged and fulfilled learners! While it can be easy to get swept up in how students are doing, you have to consider your own job satisfaction too.

It can be helpful to look back at your teaching career and take stock of all the ways you’ve grown, reflecting on how you have approached situations in the past and what you’d do differently now. Teaching is a demanding but hugely rewarding profession, and sometimes taking a big-picture perspective can help you reconnect to why you began teaching in the first place!

Feel more invested and inspired

Self-assessment is an ongoing endeavour for teachers. But by periodically taking the time to reflect on your own performance, you can enhance your students’ performance, create more engaging classroom experiences, and feel more invested and inspired in your role as a teacher.

Traditional evaluations will always have their place, but mixing formal reviews with self-driven assessments can empower you, improve your skills as a teacher, and advance your own professional goals.