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Session 4. Follow-Up and Evaluating Impact
Objective. Build a 4-8 week follow-up sequence around a workshop and plan simple, ethical evidence of reaction, learning, practice in class and pupil results.
Many schools run a good workshop and then hope. Weeks later the new technique has faded and nobody can say whether it mattered. Planning the weeks after the session and the evidence before it costs little and saves the workshop from being a one-off. This lesson goes deeper than the key ideas: what each follow-up step is for, and how to collect honest evidence without turning a visit into an inspection.
Key ideas
Why a sequence beats a single event
- When the next busy week arrives, new habits fade unless there is a reason and some support to keep trying. A workshop can start a change; follow-up carries it into daily teaching.
- A sample sequence: Day 0 workshop and commitment; week 1 try in two lessons; week 2 a 15-minute buddy talk or 5-minute visit; week 4 a 20-minute meeting with pupil work; week 6 a 40-minute second session; week 8 a look-back with evidence.
- A good aim: plan at least as much follow-up time over the weeks as the workshop itself, in small pieces.
Make follow-up light, safe and visible
- Pair colleagues as buddies who try the same technique and talk about it. No marks, no reports: their only job is to ask 'what did you try, what happened to the pupils, what next?'
- Use time you already have: 20 minutes at a methodical association meeting, a break, the end of a staff meeting. Give one 'try-it card' with the technique, two look-fors and space for notes.
- The head teacher's job is to protect the time, ask 'what did you learn?' and show interest, not to inspect. Make small successes visible on an evidence wall.
Evaluating impact in four plain questions
- REACTION: did they find it useful and clear? LEARNING: can they do it? PRACTICE: are they doing it in their lessons? PUPILS: is pupil work better? These follow the levels described by Guskey, and by Kirkpatrick before him.
- Guskey also asks about the organisation: did the school give time and support? Often this explains why practice did not change.
- A happy feedback form shows only the first level. Decide in advance which evidence you will collect for each level.
Simple, honest and ethical evidence
- Take a baseline before you start, then use the same simple task afterwards: the same exit question in the same class, or five pupils' written explanations before and after.
- Be honest: small samples and many causes mean you say 'suggests', not 'proves'. Pupil results change slowly, so look first at practice in lessons.
- Ethics: agree look-fors with the teacher, keep notes anonymous, never name pupils, use evidence to learn and not to rank colleagues, share the findings back, and decide together: keep, change or stop.
The follow-up cycle
What each follow-up step is for
Think of four jobs. A reminder gives a reason to keep going when the week gets busy: a try-it card in the pocket, a date to meet. Support means someone to ask when it goes wrong: the buddy. Showing lets people see the technique in a real class, not only on paper: a five-minute visit or a short demonstration. Adjusting fixes what does not fit: the second session, built on problems teachers bring back.
Keep every step small enough that a busy teacher says yes. One technique, two lessons in week 1, fifteen minutes with a buddy, one pupil answer brought to a meeting. The second session is the best design information you will ever get: whatever teachers bring back as 'it did not work' tells you what the first workshop missed.
Evidence without inspection
Every level has a cheap source. Reaction: a three-question slip. Learning: a product made in the session, such as a lesson plan or three rewritten questions. Practice: a teacher's own tally or a buddy's count of one agreed look-for in five minutes. Pupils: the same short task before and after. School support: did the promised meeting time happen? It helps to plan backwards, starting from the change in pupil work you hope for.
Be careful about what you claim. If 17 of 30 pupils give a reason now and 9 did before, that is encouraging, but something else could explain it. Compare with a class whose teacher did not try the technique, say 'suggests' and not 'proves', and ask 'what else changed?' Make evidence safe: agree look-fors in advance, keep notes anonymous and never use them to rank colleagues.
Examples from the classroom
Six of nine lessons
Scene. After a workshop on 'think then pair', Malika's school in Samarkand agrees one look-for: does the teacher give two minutes of silent thinking and pair talk before taking answers? Colleagues visit each other for five minutes, with agreement, and tally. In nine visited lessons the routine appears in six. At the week-4 meeting the group asks about the three lessons without it: two were test revision, one was a practical. They agree on a version for revision lessons.
Insight. A single agreed look-for turns a visit into a shared question instead of a verdict.
Three questions instead of faces
Scene. Dilnoza in Tashkent replaces her faces form with three questions: how useful was today for next week's lessons, what was unclear, and what will you try first? After the first workshop, eight of 22 slips say 'too much theory at the start'. She cuts the opening input from 25 to 10 minutes in the next session and adds a paired task. The new slips mention the paired task by name.
Insight. A well-chosen reaction question gives design information, not only applause.
Comparing with the next class
Scene. Aziz in Fergana asks two Grade 6 classes the same exit question before the follow-up: 'Why is the Aral Sea getting smaller?' In class 6A, whose teacher tried the routine, 9 of 30 give a reason before and 17 of 30 after four weeks. In 6B, whose teacher did not try it, the numbers are 8 and 10. Aziz tells the staff the pattern 'suggests' the routine helps and plans to repeat the check next term.
Insight. A comparison class and careful wording make small evidence honest.
Common pitfalls
- Treating a high satisfaction score as proof that teaching has changed.
- Visiting classes without agreeing a look-for, so that the visit feels like an inspection.
- Collecting evidence at the end only, with no baseline to compare it with.
- Planning so many follow-up steps that colleagues quietly stop coming.
Six Weeks After the Workshop
- Open the Activity Kit: a blank 6-week follow-up grid, eight SAMPLE pieces of evidence and a reaction-slip frame. (5 min)
- Pairs (20 min): using your workshop plan from session 2, fill the grid for weeks 1 to 6: what teachers do, what support they get, what evidence is collected, and how much time it takes from the school.
- Pairs (12 min): sort the eight pieces of evidence into the four levels (and organisation support). Say what each can and cannot show, and what is missing.
- Second short activity, Slip and look-for (10 min): alone, write a three-question reaction slip and one look-for for a buddy visit. Swap with your partner, who answers: is it quick, clear and respectful?
- Whole group (10 min): hold up your sequence on one page. Walk around, read two others and leave one question each on a sticky note. Then write your school-based task.
- Reflect (8 min): return to the lists from the cover session: why did the training that changed your teaching work? Which element does your sequence copy?
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- How many minutes of colleagues' time does your follow-up need, and where will they come from?
- Which level of evidence is easiest to collect, and which one do schools usually skip?
- What will you say to a colleague who fears the visit is an inspection?
Reflect
- What happened to the last new idea your school started? Why did it fade or last?
- Who would you choose as a buddy, and what would make you feel safe being visited?
- What is one outcome in your school that you would like to be able to show improved in a year?
Try it tomorrow
- Plan weeks 1 to 6 for your next workshop on a single page and count the minutes you ask from each teacher.
- Write a three-question reaction slip and test it on one colleague: is it quick, clear and useful?
- Choose one short task you could give pupils before and after a new technique and write the question.
Further reading and links
Plan the weeks after the workshop and the evidence before it: try, support, share, refine, and look at all four levels, not just the smiles.