It’s True: They Do Know You Better Than You Know Yourself
by Alicia Moore, Professional Learning Specialist

Standard 8: Professional Practice

Quality Indicator 1: Self-assessment and improvement

In her 2011 TED talk, Kathryn Shulz asks her audience this question: “How does it feel to be wrong?” To the answers—dreadful, thumbs down, embarrassing—she responds, “Thank you. These are great answers, but they’re answers to a different question. You guys are answering the question: How does it feel to realize you’re wrong?” She goes on to say, “It does feel like something to be wrong: it feels like being right.”

Shulz’s insight applies to all kinds of situations, but perhaps none so much as self-assessment. We each might assume that we know our own strengths and weaknesses better than our colleagues or family members know us. Again and again, however, research has proven this assumption to be wrong.

We are limited by our own perceptions of the world. This phenomenon, the Dunning-Krueger effect, goes something like this: If I’ve mastered a skill, I will underestimate my own ranking because I expect that others find it fairly easy, too. And when I encounter a daunting task, the cognitive load will impair my judgment to the point that I can’t effectively evaluate just how much better others are faring on the same task (Hattie & Yates 2014, p. 233-235).

So what’s a professional to do, then? If we are incapable of assessing our own performance, how do we achieve the goal of continual growth?

The antidote, it seems, is regular feedback. Our blinds spots are mostly limited to ourselves. When compared to self-predictions, people are more accurate at predicting others’ IQs, test scores, and even how likely they are to volunteer in the future (Hattie & Yates, 2014, p. 231). The more often you can calibrate your own perceptions, the more valid your self-evaluation will become.

Consider these sources of feedback as you assess your own teaching performance:

• Students: Create a regular feedback loop by asking students to give you a quick rundown of what’s working and what’s not. You might use simple surveys or exit slips.
• Colleagues: Ask another teacher to spend even a few minutes in your classroom to record what they notice about a specific instructional skill that you’re working on.
• Administration: This may seem too obvious, but your principal has seen a lot of classrooms. Ask him or her for a little insight into your performance on a regular basis.
• Video: Use whatever technology you might have to record and then collect hard data on your teaching. Jim Knight (2014) suggests several categories, including types of questions, instructional vs. non-instructional time, and teacher vs. student talk.

Hattie, J., & Yates, G. (2014). Visible learning and the science of how we learn. New York, NY: Routledge.

 Knight, J. (2014). Focus on teaching: Using video for high-impact instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

 Shulz, K. (2011, March). Kathryn Shulz: On being wrong [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com /talks/kathryn_schulz_on_being_wrong/transcript?language=en#t-376747.