Looking in the mirror: Why lesson evaluation matters for beginning teachers

When you’ve spent fifteen or more years as a student, you develop certain expectations. For most of her academic life Billie has been accustomed to producing work, submitting it, and then waiting for someone else—usually an expert—to tell her what was good, what needed work, and what to do next. While not always comfortable, the process is predictable and deeply ingrained.

At the start of the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) year Billie found her mentor reinforcing this expectation; she worked hard to plan and teach a lesson, and her mentor told her what went well and what her next target should be. Indeed, if pushed to self-evaluate, Billie viewed simply getting through a lesson in one piece to be a real victory – and in the early weeks, it absolutely was.

However, as a teaching professional who will need to assume responsibility for driving her own professional development, waiting to be told how to improve is insufficient. Indeed, one of the biggest shifts in mindset Billie will face in her ITT year is the move from being evaluated to becoming the evaluator.

From performance to impact

At the start of the ITT year, beginning teachers judge the success of a lesson by their mentor’s reaction; if the mentor seems happy then it was probably alright. If they do begin to self-reflect, they often focus almost entirely on what they (the teacher) were doing and consider aspects such as whether they explained or modelled clearly. If the answers are mainly ‘yes’ then they are usually relatively satisfied and ready to move on to the next lesson.

However, while these teacher-centred practices are important, they are only proxies for what really matters. Once the basics of delivery are secured, simply surviving or delivering a lesson is not enough. Now they need to progress into the next stage of their development where they begin to think beyond their own teaching ‘performance’ and instead ask a much harder – but essential – question: Did pupils learn?

A beautifully structured, well-delivered explanation is meaningless if pupils cannot recall or apply the knowledge afterwards. Self-evaluation is important not just because it provides action steps for the next lesson but because it also cultivates responsiveness to pupil needs in the moment. For example, reflection upon information gathered about pupil learning through formative assessment, supports adaptations to the plan during a lesson as well as after it. This is something that cannot wait for a mentor’s post-lesson feedback. It transforms teaching from reactive performance into deliberate practice.

Why self-evaluation is hard

Undertaking self-reflection and evaluation is professionally and emotionally demanding. For many, it is something that needs to be learnt, especially where previously academic or professional success has come easily.

At the heart of meaningful lesson evaluation lies professional humility. This involves acknowledging that teaching is complex, and that no matter how experienced or skilled you are, it is always possible to be more effective in your practice.

Humility creates the conditions for growth because it nurtures:

• Openness to evidence (Maybe they didn’t learn what I thought.)
• Responsiveness (What do I need to adjust for the next lesson?)
• Curiosity (Why did that explanation work with 8D but didn’t land in the same way with 8S?)
• Resilience (It didn’t go as planned, but I can learn from this.)

An earlier blog, Teflon Tina: How to support a beginning teacher struggling to act on advice, explores what happens when a beginning teacher is too overwhelmed or defensive to receive guidance from their mentor. Without professional humility, even self-evaluation becomes superficial, self-justifying, or simply avoided.

What to do if a beginning teacher finds evaluation difficult

1. Ask the mentee to self‑observe first

Before being offered any mentor feedback, the mentee can complete a self‑observation of the lesson. This helps beginning teachers to break the habit of waiting for the mentor to say what was good or bad and provides them with practise in developing their own judgements.

This can be done through:

• providing a learning focused prompt at the start of the post-lesson conversation: “Before we talk about my observations, tell me what you noticed about the learning in this lesson.”
• completing a memory-based reflection where immediately after the lesson the beginning teacher identifies three moments they felt went well, three moments they felt unsure about, and the key takeaway they believe the pupils left the lesson having secured.
• undertaking a video-based reflection where the lesson is filmed and the mentee is asked to watch it and complete an observation record to discuss in the next mentor meeting where they then lead the post-lesson feedback conversation.

2. Use targeted video clips as critical incidents

Rather than conducting a written observation, the mentor records the lesson and identifies 3–4 short clips that show a mix of critical incidents (strong learning, effective explanation, high-quality interaction or misconceptions, lack of clarity, missed opportunities). During the meeting, the mentors avoids sharing their view of these moments and instead asks the beginning teacher open questions that force them to analyse what they are seeing to build their evaluative thinking through evidence-based reasoning.

The mentor can ask questions such as:

• Why do you think I selected this as a critical moment in the lesson?
• Describe what is happening here from the teacher’s perspective.
• Now describe what is happening from the pupil’s perspective.
• What learning do you think is (or is not) taking place? How do you know?
• Do you think this is a success to replicate or an area for development?
• What might you do the same or differently next time?

3. Conduct a work scrutiny at the end of a lesson/ in a mentor meeting

Instead of completing a routine observation, mentors can support their mentee to select a small, representative sample of pupil work to help the beginning teacher to strengthen their understanding of impact beyond ‘vibes.’  It helps them to make the connection between teaching → task → outcome → learning.

The work scrutiny might include looking for:	The mentor can ask questions such as:
Accuracy of outcomes Completion levels Quality of written responses Evidence of misconceptions Evidence of progress from earlier in the lesson/sequence Variation in outcomes across the class	What does this tell us pupils actually learned? Which pupils understood the core concept? Who didn’t? How do these outcomes compare to what you intended? What would you reteach or reinforce next lesson?

4. Provide a structured evaluation proforma as a scaffold

Evaluation is something that needs to be learnt and, as with most learning, scaffolding the cognitive process until it becomes internalised can be a gamechanger. Providing a simple, clear proforma to guide self‑evaluation can help mentees to move from vague impressions (“It went ok”) to specific, evidence‑based analysis. Different evaluations serve different purposes and also helps to demonstrate that this is not just another job to complete but rather a way of thinking that should become part of their professional identity.

 Evaluation scaffolds may include:

a. Strengths and development snapshot (Ideal for busy weeks or post‑lesson triage):

• What went well—and why?
• What didn’t go as planned—and why?
• What did pupils learn? How do you know?
• Next steps for tomorrow’s lesson:

b. Deep-dive reflective questions (When you want richer thinking):

• What was the intended learning, and was it achieved?
• Which pupils made the most progress? Least? Why?
• What evidence do you have for this?
• What teacher decisions most influenced learning today?
• How will this shape your next lesson?
• Additional questions may be added focusing on core- practices or aspects of planning for learning.

c. Filmed lesson self-observation (For video-based self‑evaluation):

• What do I notice about my teacher actions?
• What do I notice about pupil thinking/ behaviour?
• What assumptions did I make in the moment?
• What alternative actions might have increased learning?
• What questions do I need to ask or additional reading or resources do I need to consult?

5. Model Humility, Curiosity, and Open Reflection

Beginning teachers often fear making mistakes. When mentors demonstrate how they, as experienced teachers, reflect critically on their own practice, they help their mentees see self‑evaluation as normal, safe, and professionally necessary.

Mentors can try:

• Sharing a time their own lesson didn’t land and what you learned
• Verbalising their thought process when analysing a clip from a lesson
• Saying, “I might be wrong—what do you think was happening?”

A final encouragement

If you’re a beginning teacher reading this, and you find lesson evaluation challenging, you’re not alone. To a greater or lesser degree, every teacher you admire was once where you are now.

If you’re a mentor, remember how big this shift is for trainees—support them patiently as they learn to see lessons not just as events to survive, but as evidence to interpret and learn from.

Evaluation isn’t about judgement or criticism. It is about embracing professional curiosity to become a better teacher for the pupils in front of us. And that is always worth embracing.