Portfolios for certification

I have just been re-reading the notes I took at the Education Council (EC) workshop on the new standards at the beginning of this year. Provisionally certificated teachers (PCTs) are always worried about having enough evidence and what to record. I currently mentor 7 PCTs, 3 of whom are coming up for certification this year. What the EC has said is that they do not want voluminous portfolios of stuff and that they want to shift the emphasis from the showing of evidence to improvement of practice done through discussion and documentation.
Teachers engaging in “learning talk” analyse, critique and challenge their current teaching practices to find and/or create more effective ways of teaching. (Annan, Lai & Robinson 2003)

The current situation is that ERO will audit the documentation for certification of teachers recently certificated. They are looking to see that the school has a robust system well founded in evidence. They will be looking at the level of support and induction for PCTs in the school including observations and feedback, professional discussions, guidance and what good evidence looks like. It is also about how you collaborate with others eg experts, COLs, mentors, HOD etc. Standards = performance management and evaluative capability ie being able to analyse student data including student voice and evaluate whether the teaching is improving it. It is envisaged that each department in a school would use the Quality Practice template to come up with what is quality practice and good evidence in our department. They would expect to see this published on the wall in each department.