Kaunas

1.	The schoool			(KAUNAS)
3.	Methods And Instruments	3.1.	feedback
		3.2.	analysis feedback
		3.3.	peer-evaluation
		3.4.	weblog
		3.5.	swot	(LITHUANIA)

1.1. The school

KAUNO PREKYBOS IR VERSLO MOKYKLA

KAUNAS TRADE AND BUSINESS SCHOOL

In Kaunas old town already in pre-war years it was established the crafts school, which was transformed into Kaunas Trade and Business School.

Nowadays it is vocational school with more than 700 pupils and 61 teachers who constantly run with their qualification. Masters, experts, supervisors, senior teachers and profession teachers benefit to pupils their knowledge and experience. School activity spheres are vocational training, general secondary education and adults training.

School tries to become European level corresponding professional training institution with technological gymnasium classes; preparing qualified specialists with wide professional competences who are able to integrate into European and world society and to adapt into changeable labour market while their studies.

School improves curricula, provides new knowledge and good professional skills, which are useful for graduates successful work and own business organization.

School takes part in SOCRATES, LEONARDO DA VINCI projects, has close contacts with Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Sweden, Italy, Greece, Finland and Austria schools.

Pupils are able to perfect themselves both spiritually and physically. There are all the conditions for life, sport and culture development. Different sport contests, competitions, parties, meetings are held inside and outside the school. Also our pupils are travelling and visiting historical or cultural places and country national parks.

You can find more concrete information in our website http://pilis.kpvm.lt or to read about school activities in presentation download the PowerPoint presentation here.

SEFES

We started work on SEFES project from the generating project ideas and creating project activities on preparatory visit in Hamburg. In 2002 February there met German, Iceland and Lithuania teachers to plan project activities and to be ready apply by application to Socrates Agency.

From September 2005 schools from 4 countries: Germany, Lithuania, Iceland, Poland – have started SEFES project. Finland joined to project from the second year. We had close relationship with our partners.

During 3 project work years we have done many activities, teachers, students, school administration were involved to the project work. The main activities for self-evaluation were done by our school participants:

Peer-evaluation (observing colleagues’ lessons)
Students feedback
Writing diary
Photo-evaluation
Visit partner schools teachers’ lessons
Visit seminar and conference, related to self-evaluation

The SEFES-Team at Kaunas

Peer-evaluation

Objective of peer-evaluation method is to improve teaching and learning.

Peer-evaluation method: colleagues’ lessons visits, observation of teaching, learning from colleagues new teaching methods, relationship with students, exchange of experience, discussions, solving problems together.

Steps of peer-evaluation:

Agreement with other teacher about lesson visit.
Visit colleague lesson.
Observation of teaching, learning, students’ behaviour, relationship between teacher and students.
After observation there were discussions about lesson, what was successful, what was less successful, how to solve difficulties, exchange of experience between colleagues.
Try to implement new good experience to own lessons.
Share about success with colleagues.

SEFES team members did peer-evaluation with big interest but it was not easy to involve more teachers to visit each other lessons. Many teachers were afraid of visitors at their lessons as if they could look only what is bad in lessons and notice only mistakes. At our school peer-evaluation process is still going on. Step by step we involve more teachers but there are some teachers who don’t want to do that (mainly older teachers). Teachers avoid to discuss openly about lessons or their problems with bigger number of teachers, they prefer to do this with colleagues whom they really trust.

Click here for more about peer-evaluation

Students feedback

The feedback is very important both to student and to teacher.

The objective of the feedback is to give student knowledge, new information, perfect understanding, the main idea of discipline and activity during the lesson and to give all this back from student, being sure for the final result.

To reach all the above-mentioned ideas we have used three methods:

the dartboard for checking students’ discipline during the lesson.
the dartboard for checking students’ activity during the lesson
the questionnaire concerning with the discipline during the lesson.

At the very beginning of the feedback activity students didn’t’ show the great interest in dartboards and questionnaires filling till they saw the dartboards and the tables with the tasks. When everything what they had to do was explained to them, they have shown the great interest about doing that job. Also they were interested to compare their answers with other students and teacher opinion.

Click here for more about students’ feedback

Photo-evaluation

Objective of this evaluation method was to show strong and weak sides of school by making school life photos and to find ways of these problems solving.

Photo evaluation method: to take school and schooling photos to show good things at school and things to improve, to write comments to photos, to discuss about results and if there were any problems, to decide how to solve them and improve the school.

There were three groups to do photo-evaluation:

Students (from 3 different classes)
Teachers
Administration

SEFES team instructed them how to do photo-evaluation, what is the purpose of this method, when is the deadline of final results. Every group was free in choosing what to show in their photos. There were taken about 120 photos. Every group had to choose the mostly important pictures from their point of view, to write comments on them and to bring to school photo-evaluation exhibition. Photos of three groups’ photo-evaluation were publicly presented at school. During exhibition in school hall all the school community and school guests could see photos with comments for one week. There was the box to which everybody could write down and put to it their comments about photos, school problems that they see, to give advice, to suggest something. That helped us to do photo-evaluation wider and to involve more people to this process. All the notes were anonymous so we were expecting more open opinions.

Next photo-evaluation step was discussions, conclusions and plan how to solve problems and improve school.

SEFES team and three persons from every group (from students, teachers and administration) had meeting for discussions about photo-evaluation results. All these participants have to read notes from the box and to prepare their comments on them. All three target groups have had the discussion about photo-evaluation results, what is mostly actual for every group, how to solve actual problems, improve school. There were intensive debates, every group told their opinion about photos, collected comments and suggestions. We tried to find the common decisions.

Click here for more about photo-evaluation

Other project activities

One person from our school has written diary. Diary helped her to look inside teaching process, to solve problems with class, to analyse own activity, to reach the progress in own teaching.

To read diary click here

On teachers’ visits to partner schools we had a possibility to observe lessons in different schools and subjects, to find out schools’ activity specifics and curricula.

To read about teachers’ visits in Iceland and Poland schools.

One person attended Comenius seminar “Improving teaching work. Self-evaluation in practice”. The lectures from Austria and Ireland shared their experience in self-evaluation at their schools.

To read PowerPoint summary of Action Research method click here.

One person attended Comenius 3 Network SYNEVA.NET conference in Tallinn “Synergy between Internal and External Evaluation and Its Impacts on Learning and Teaching”. The lectures and participants from many European countries shared their experience in internal and external evaluation, in workshops participants solved common problems, generated new ideas.

To read about conference work click here.

Project impact on school life:

We had a possibility to share a good experience between different European schools, different cultures and different points of view.
Every hosting schools organized excellent level in project activity and cultural program.
We had a possibility to observe lessons in different schools and subjects, to find out schools activity specifics and curricula.
Possibility to improve foreign languages.
While doing photo evaluation we have found common problems concerning school life and their solving ways.
Students’ feedback was very important bringing more objectivity in self-evaluation in teachers work at school.
Peer evaluation gave good experience in inter-relations, trust, applying teaching methods, learning material, assessment.
Dairy writing was important to look inside yourself, to analyse own activity, to compare the progress in own activity, to introduce with colleagues diaries on website.
We have obtained self-evaluation experience, tried some of self-evaluation methods.
It was introduced with other European schools self-evaluation experience attending seminar and conference. In the meetings with European schools teachers and leaders we were searching general problems solving ways and sharing the experience.
Teachers and administration participating in the project ascertained that self-evaluation is very important factor in school’s perfection.
School decided to continue self-evaluation involving all the teachers into this process.