Collaborative Peer Coaching That Improves Instruction: The 2 + 2 Performance Appraisal Model

Based on frequent, mutual feedback from peers, students and administrators, the 2+2 method is deceptively simple in concept, but has shown tremendous potential in the schools where it has been implemented. Using the 2+2 performance appraisal method, teachers regularly visit each others' classrooms during instructional time for as long as it takes to write two compliments and two suggestions for improvement. In a time where teachers have become increasingly isolated, this strategy increases meaningful contact and collaboration, and allows for administrator participation in a less threatening context than the traditional performance appraisal, greatly reducing teachers' levels of anxiety and self-doubt, which in turn leads to increased job-satisfaction.