Peer Review

The Peer Review Activity proposes the schools to go one step further than where the mutual visits take them. It calls on the participating schools to assess purposefully the selected areas in order to give such information to the school that will help it to see things with new eyes and use it to improve their work. The activity brings together the evaluated schools themselves with the team of peers, i.e. with four teachers from a similar school. The evaluated school chooses two areas in which it is seeking information from an outside observer and evaluator, thus from the team of peers.

The Peer Review Activity began with an introductory meeting to which a number of schools were invited to establish first links, to get information about the activity - Peer Review step by step (preparation, peer visits, evaluations), schools got familiarized with the specifics of the role of the evaluated school and the role of Peers (i.e. evaluators).

The Peer Visit was preceded by preparation when the evaluated school chooses 2 areas of school self-evaluation, as we have reported above, it also concluded an agreement with the Peers on confidentiality of all information which they would be introduced to during the Peer Review; it sent the Peers documentation on these two areas. The Peers prepared for the visit in the evaluated school by acquainting themselves with the documents sent and also they specified the working techniques during the Peer visit – for example, they asked the evaluated school to allow them to look at other documents, talk to some people from the school during the visit (by the area that is chosen - with pupils, teachers, parents, other school staff), let them visit selected sites in the school (classrooms, dining room).

  • The first day of the visit was an initial introductory and intimate issue for the schools, the team members introduced themselves closer, went through the school and the home school introduced itself.
  • The second day in the presence of the facilitator (project expert) the schools inquired how the self-evaluation had been carried out in selected areas at the evaluated school, they observed, analyzed more documents. In their work, they were usually divided into so-called tandems, with each pair working on one of the chosen areas. At the end of the second day, the first friendly feedback was given to the evaluated school.

Subsequently, the Peers worked out a report for schools describing the strengths of the school in the both selected areas, and also describing where they saw opportunities for improvement. The evaluated school used this report to update its school development plan, thus establishing new goals for its development based on the report from the Peer Review. The Peers in the process did not get a raw deal either – they too could use all sorts of things in their own work from what they had seen during the Peer Review, or what they had learned.

Peer Review Overview