Thanks to @ryandal for putting me onto this brilliant paper by @GerardSeijts et al. This absolutely nails why teacher performance goals aren't helpful if teachers don't *already* have all the skills/resources to achieve the performance. citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/downlo…
A performance goal such as 'achieve these class results' is only helpful for a teacher if they already have all the perceptive understanding of students' challenges, the skill and resources to meet them. It encourages them to prioritise attention/time/effort to this goal.
But if 'doing more of the same' or redoubling of existing efforts won't cut it, then use of a performance goal instead of a learning goal is likely to hinder the achievement of better results - it makes teachers less likely to focus on problem-solving & learning.
Importantly, the learning goals stimulate increased self-efficacy which correlates with greater likelihood of 'information search'
This paper correlates nicely with the @CIPD @CenterforEBMgt review of performance management cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fund…
There's some more nuanced findings from another paper (again HT @ryandal) by Masuda (@EADABusiness) et al where they find that a combination of learning *and* performance goals can also be effective. researchgate.net/publication/28…
Interestingly, Masuda et al also found that, initially, increasing task challenge was positively associated with performance, but this plateaued and then ultimately fell off. They hypothesise a link with working memory limits.
What would this mean for school performance management? Firstly, recognising that performance goals alone may only be suitable when sufficient understanding, skill, perceptive expertise, self-efficacy, resources are all in place.
Secondly, it's important to consider separately proximal v distal goals - e.g. 'how my class does in this current topic' v 'how my class does at the end of GCSE' and how different combinations may be better for novices v experienced teachers.
Once again these papers fundamentally reinforce the idea that your performance management system *must* have a strong link to ongoing professional learning if you don't want to actively reduce teachers' performance.

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More from @informed_edu

28 Mar
This is a great paper by Joseph E. Mroz and colleagues on the science of workplace meetings. (short thread 🧵) - this area is absolutely core to @TeacherDevTrust's view on effective school leadership. Image
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I've been reading Next Generation Performance Management today by @acolquitt - he reviews and summarises evidence on how to manage performance in ways that work, not based on "myth and superstition". (Thread)
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22 Jun 19
I'm having a bit of a Cognitive Load Theory day today. I want to highlight a few findings from this 2011 paper by Paas and Sweller (thread) link.springer.com/article/10.100…
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22 Jun 19
Here now a few initial reflections on Collaborative Cognitive Load Theory as it applies to teacher professional development. (Thread)
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It's effective because problem-solving in the domain of classroom pedagogy is so complex that a combined, larger collective working memory could be very beneficial.
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