Autoewaluacja w szkole – możliwości wykorzystania potencjału badań ewaluacyjnych w procesie zmiany

By virtue of the Minster of National Education Regulation of 7 October 2009 on teacher supervision, evaluation was introduced into Polish schools. As an element enforced externally, it was received by school management and teachers with resentment and unwillingness rather than enthusiasm. However, theoretical analyses and practical exemplifications indicate that evaluation can be a powerful tool that can be employed to design and implement changes facilitating improvement at schools. So thequestion can be raised: How to take advantage of the current situation at Polish schools in order to strengthen these institutions and develop them? This paper provides tentative answers to this question on the grounds of two assumptions: the first involves applying the theory of the learning organization as a basis for analyzing changes that are indispensable in Polish educational institutions; the second refers to implementing evaluative research with respect to the so-called Fourth Generation Evaluation, with particular emphasis placed on the concepts of democratic evaluation and dialogic evaluation. Presenting self-evaluation as a special “invitation to development,” this paper demonstrates significant moments that can encourage all members of school communities to undertake together various activities facilitating change.