Teachers’ perceptions and experiences of a performance and development process as a mechanism to support teacher development

Despite policies and guidelines introducing teacher performance and development systems at a local, national and international level, current findings would suggest there is limited evidence that existing systems support teacher performance and development or that the major intentions of performance and development are the reality for some teachers.

In 2012, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership introduced the Australian Teacher Performance and Development Framework, to be used alongside national teacher standards, to support the development of teachers in all schools across Australia. As a process for identifying, measuring, and developing an individual's performance, the Australian Performance and Development Framework outline a cyclical process for teacher performance and development which included professional practice and learning, reflection and goal setting, and, feedback and a review.

Fuelled by the introduction of the Australian Teacher Performance and Development Framework and a new mandatory performance and development process in Victorian schools, this study examined the perceptions and experiences of teachers at three government primary schools as they participated in an annual performance and development cycle. This study applied a mixed methodology and suggested that leaders perform a crucial role to the success fo performance and development and that there are several critical factors which promoted an effective performance and development process for supporting teacher development.

The findings showed that effective performance and development helped construct a sense of professional identity for these teachers. A culture of learning and development with a focus on individual and collective improvement helped teachers feel connected and empowered, as learners, and to the process. These findings have implications for research, for the individual and collective nature of performance and development and for how processes may be designed that engage teachers in meaningful development.