Changing Approaches Towards Lesson Observation
(Originally published February 2020)
While some teachers regard it as a valuable professional development tool, it is often viewed by others as an additional source of stress that does little to improve outcomes. Although lesson observations have been an established feature in schools for many years, an increasing number of them are either supplementing or replacing traditional observations with innovative alternatives designed to bring out the best in their teachers. Martin Cain surveys the changing landscape of these enlightened practices and reveals some of the exciting work being done to make lesson observation more fit for purpose.
What are the different formats for lesson observation?
• Informal drop-ins and learning walks are less structured in frequency and can be held in response to a specific development priority, such as monitoring improvements within a department; they can be an effective way to collect evidence on particular methodologies, for example questioning or verbal feedback, without the pressure that a formal observation brings.
• Some schools are abandoning the idea of formal lesson observations as a standard three times a year as part of their teacher appraisal processes; they are still observing, but not necessarily to assess teaching performance.
• The grading of lessons is being increasingly abandoned and, even if an observation is still regarded as 'formal', the teacher rather than the observer often comes up with the development points. For example, a teacher might ask their colleague to observe them implementing a strategy to help improve the engagement of reluctant writers in the class.
• There is a conversation before and after the observation, making it a collaborative process. In addition, all teachers who have picked the same CPD focus might meet around once a half term to share ideas and talk about what they have learned.
Feedback
Both the teacher and observer need to be fully engaged in the feedback process, as long as the feedback is relevant and skilfully delivered. If the teacher being observed or doing the observing just views the process as a 'tick box' exercise, then they aren't helpful.
A good example of taking this issue seriously has been to introduce calendared feedback sessions, where both parties create a discussion and engage in dialogue.
Discussion should begin with the lesson outcomes but developmental ideas, research action as well as next steps should be included.
A community approach has been adopted in some schools where multiple colleagues are involved in observation. Lessons are planned by the community with the teachers taking the lead for what they want observers to look for with a view to support coaching for improvement.
Priorities
• Schools need to decide if, for example, the purposes of lesson observation, in order of priority, are to support teacher development and coaching, followed closely by measuring the quality of learning and teaching.
• Leaders should feel able to allow teachers to decide what they want the observer to focus on. This way, everyone is clear on the purpose of the observation from the outset and it is less stressful and more collaborative as a result.
• Consideration might be given to carrying out separate observations for the development of teaching and for quality assurance where previously these two purposes were rolled into one; the developmental lesson observation is owned by the teacher whereas the quality assurance model is there to make sure a subject department is getting its self-evaluation right.
Graded Observations
Ofsted's decision to abandon graded observations is enshrined in the new framework which uses observations as part of a series of subject-specific deep dives, including work scrutiny, allowing inspectors to collect rich evidence on the quality of learning to inform their judgements. Many schools are now adopting more collaborative systems that enable colleagues to observe each other which is more aligned to the approach during an inspection. Observations are also being increasingly seen as 'owned' by the teacher as part of their CPD programme which should also not generate unnecessary workload.
Evidence suggests the staff with the greatest involvement in observations continues to be those who hold leadership roles and that the level of engagement of staff beyond these is lagging behind the changes in the approach adopted by many schools.
Subject Specialists and Deep Dives
• To help inform the quality of education judgement, Ofsted is putting the curriculum at the heart of inspection and focusing more sharply on subjects. If schools wish to see this accurately reflected in their own practice, then observers will need real subject expertise if they are to identify development needs in subject departments.
• For example, using questioning in history may be very different from the way questioning is used in maths. The person who observes a lesson will now be going in and asking more complex curriculum questions, such as what does good teaching of quadratic equations look like?
• One outcome of this new approach may be for a school's subject leaders to take on more responsibility for lesson observations. An implication of this might be that they and their team members might need to take practical steps to deepen their subject specific knowledge and expertise by finding ways of accessing and sharing best practice.
• Many schools already embed the Ofsted deep dive approach as a core part of their own improvement processes. This might involve observing four to six lessons that are happening at the same time, talking to pupils and looking at their work. This can provide a greater depth of understanding of what is happening in each subject, about what is 'typical' and allows it to make a collective judgement about the quality of education provided by a subject department.
Training
• Observers should receive training on the technical aspect of recording observation data.
• Some of the most effective training takes place 'on the job' through paired observation, where a new observer enters the classroom with a more experienced colleague. This is followed by a discussion to explore what both have seen.
• Schools have set up groups of three teachers to conduct action research together, called triads, that focus on a particular aspect of teaching that will improve the quality of learning; as part of this they observe each other informally throughout the term.
• Lesson observation training may increasingly need to be more closely aligned to the teaching of subject knowledge and subject specific pedagogy.