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Effective documentary evidence
Characteristics of effective documentary evidence
Demonstrating your practice at Proficient Teacher
Evidence that is effective in demonstrating practice at Proficient Teacher has specific characteristics.
NESA has conducted research with teachers across NSW to:
- identify the characteristics of effective documentary evidence
- establish a benchmark for practice at Proficient Teacher
- build a common understanding of what it looks like.
Teachers can use the examples below to choose evidence that shows they are effective at the Proficient Teacher level.
Each item of documentary evidence should accurately:
- reflect the practice described in Proficient Teacher Standard Descriptors
- show how you can apply the Standard Descriptors. These Descriptors include the focus area and specific actions described by the verbs
- show the application of the teacher’s practice at Proficient Teacher.
Each annotation should clearly explain how you have used the documentary evidence to demonstrate the:
- practice described in the selected Standard Descriptors
- impact of the teacher’s practice on child/student learning, relevant to the selected Standard Descriptors.
An annotation that explains how the evidence matches the Standard Descriptors is better than describing the learning environment or paraphrasing the Standard Descriptors.
Examples of evidence
The following examples show the type of documentary evidence you can use and how to demonstrate evidence of your practice.
Lesson plans
One way to show how you apply what you have learned is by using lesson plans.
The plans may include notes on how you have evaluated the lesson. The evaluation is based on whether the students achieved the learning goals.
Your impact on student learning would be included in your collection of documentary evidence.
Work samples and assessment information that demonstrate student progress could show impact of the teacher’s practice on student learning.
Professional reflection
A personal reflection is a way to demonstrate learning. When doing a personal reflection, make sure that you include:
- personal reflection in your collection of documentary evidence and the annotation
- plans or lessons that have been modified to address specific interests and needs of students to show that the teacher has engaged in reflective practice.