Lesson observation
information management specialist Bluewave.SWIFT, discusses lesson observations In too many schools today lesson observations are still seen as a performance management tool, used to determine whether teachers are meeting standards - or failing them.
Lesson observations do have their role in assessing performance, but this shouldn’t be the main reason for their use in schools. Instead, lesson observations should be used as a professional development aid, helping good teachers become better. It’s a view that is being shared by a growing number of school leaders and teachers across the country.
I’ve worked with hundreds of school leaders and teachers over the past year and lesson observations are always part of our discussions. The key impression I’ve drawn from these conversations is that in many schools lesson observations are moving away from being a tool of judgement. In these schools lesson observations are about professional development – spotting good practice and enhancing it. If there are areas that do need development, schools use the information gleaned from these observations to match that need with the support of a colleague who displays particular strengths in that area. This system of using observations to match professional need with professional skills, often within the school and sometimes across schools, shows the real potential of this tool. Instead of the lesson observation being a three times a year feature of performance management, designed to spot what is wrong and then judging the teacher for that, it could help schools become professional learning communities in which excellent teachers share their expertise with others – with the result that everyone improves.
This approach is becoming common in several of the schools we work with. At The Manor Academy in Nottinghamshire, for example, the school has established a coaching programme led by its exceptional teachers (see case study). Lesson observations may identify that a teacher needs support on certain areas and they will be matched with a coach who will agree targets with them and work with them twice a week for six weeks on that development area. This support usually consists of one to ones and regular lesson observations. Lesson observations also have a role in helping teachers scrutinise and develop their practice within teaching and learning communities which have also been introduced. When lesson observations are used in this way professional development becomes a higher priority than performance management. Observations are used to help teachers look up and look forward, rather than just looking back at the negatives. Observations are used to build up a rich picture of a teacher’s professional skills, strengths and areas for development. Whether they have met performance management targets
Lesson observations: the views of school leaders
School leaders shared their views on the role of lesson observations in school improvement in a CPD round table organised by Bluewave.SWIFT in association with the Teacher Development Trust. The round table discussion was captured in a white paper, Solving the CPD conundrum: moving towards the professional development ideal, which can be downloaded at
www.bluewaveswift.co.uk/whitepaper.
“Staff become fixated with observations. That can’t be the be all and end all of them becoming effective practitioners. There are better ways of delving into what’s happening. Observations should be used much more helpfully as a nest bed of personal growth.” Rob Gladwin, assistant headteacher at Manor Academy, Nottinghamshire
“When we get teachers observing and planning together that is very powerful. Co-observation is really developmental. It develops trust.”
David Weston, chief executive of the Teacher Development Trust “The observer should be another pair of eyes…it can work really well if the observer asks the teacher what they want them to focus and comment on. They can then build the observer’s recommendations into their next lesson. Over a period of weeks their practice improves because of supportive observation.” Don Rolls, performance manager at Royds School Specialist Language College, Leeds
October 2014
becomes a by-product of the process rather than the main reason.
Of course if lesson observations are to become an enabler and driver for professional learning communities, producing a vast bank of intelligence about teaching across your school, they need to be managed effectively. This can be done on paper or even with standard software programmes, but these approaches are hard to manage and use. Using bespoke online systems makes it easier for a school to gather detailed information from lesson observations that will allow them to quickly identify ‘experts’ within the school and direct this expertise to colleagues who could benefit. Instead of being a judgement tool which is suspiciously regarded by many teachers, lesson observations could stimulate the growth of a new approach to professional learning in our schools in which observations identify best practice so that it can be shared throughout the school – and with other schools.
uwww.bluewaveswift.co.uk Five steps to better lesson observations
How can you make lesson observations a valuable tool for the professional development of your staff? Keith Wright of Bluewave.SWIFT recommends five steps. 1. Develop a clear ideal for teaching at your school. Look at the most effective teachers in action and identify the key characteristics of their teaching. Guidance on what characteristics to look for could come from another school. If you share the same school improvement planning platform this will make it easier to share those characteristics.
2. Lesson observations need to be consistent – they need to look for the same things in every observation. In order for observations to have that consistency they need to be managed by a rock solid process. An online school improvement management system containing lesson observation templates that you can tailor, can provide this.
3. Lesson observations are only useful if they are carried out regularly and at different times of the day. Multiple observations will create a richer, more detailed, more accurate picture of strengths and areas for development than a handful of set observations over a year.
4. Look at lesson observation data to determine who needs additional professional development in which area – and who in your school can provide them with that support. Online systems will allow you to record your observations in a level of real detail.
5. Once you have built up a rich view of strengths and areas for development across your school lesson observations can be focused on ensuring that those who need development are getting the support of their colleagues.
www.education-today.co.uk 21
Lesson observations: Why a new approach could transform professional development at your school K
eith Wright, Managing Director of school
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108