With the help of your partner to develop insight into what you do and why in the classroom.
When we talk about Peer Review we often think that it is about observing classroom teaching. Certainly this is an important part of our work but as we have seen so far in this unit it is only one part of the process of teaching. It is probably the part we are most nervous about sharing with a colleague despite the fact that our students see us do it every day.
There is a conviction amongst many academic staff that teaching cannot be judged fairly until it has been observed; such a view has some merit. If we are to know enough of our colleagues teaching to make comment about their qualities, surely we must, at some stage, become party to their practice. In addition, if we reflect on our own teaching, we might consider that the observation of a single class is unlikely to be adequate; because there is such variation from session to session, we would quite rightly feel cheated if impressions were gained on the basis of evidence collected from just one visit.
Those teaching staff who have considered opening up their classes to a colleague will bear witness to the anxiety such a consideration raises. At first, this anxiety appears unfounded, for although teaching is sometimes described as a private act, it appears difficult to maintain this interpretation when we consider that teaching, by its nature, demands an audience. However, upon reflection, it becomes clear that opening our classrooms to our colleagues is a different order of activity to teaching our students. Good teaching involves touching the feelings, as well as the intellect, of each student; the observer of teaching is seeing the sparking of a series of emotional, as well as intellectual, encounters. Teachers committed to achieving this special relationship with students will quite reasonably see observation of this act as an intrusion.
On a different level, students are primarily engaging with unfamiliar subject content. The quality or nature of the teaching of the content is not the students major focus. When an observer enters the classroom, however, the focus is not so much on content; rather, the intention is to observe the act of teaching itself.
Clearly, processes of observation need to be carefully constructed so as to mediate the very reasonable feelings of anxiety academic staff may feel.
First, it should be emphasized that to observe only what the teacher does and says is to misunderstand the nature of good teaching and to miss a significant part of the interaction between teacher and learner. To know how successful a teacher is we need to observe his or her interaction with the students:
Second, we should emphasize, that before we observe, we need to see the class and the teaching in its context. Classes vary, so that we need to be clear about the intention of the session before we can make comment on the extent to which it appears to have achieved its aims.
Discussion after the session becomes less threatening if the observer does not attempt to make judgments about the teaching but merely asks questions about what was observed and, in particular, draws attention to things observed which appear at odds with initially stated intentions. If, for instance, a teacher claims to want students to reflect on two major ideas during the observed class but the observer sees an initial ten minute discussion followed by a forty minute lecture, it would be appropriate to question how a lecture was in keeping with the intention to make students reflect. The following guidelines are suggested:
It is important at this point to restate the purpose of evaluation and to consider the place of classroom observation in this. Evaluation is concerned with getting to know about something in order to make improvements. Improvements have to be made by the teachers themselves. A colleague/observer does not sit in judgment but rather, holds up a metaphorical mirror in order to allow the teacher to consider his or her teaching from new angles. Academic staff need to feel that they are discovering more about themselves by undertaking this collaborative activity and that observation provides an opportunity and a mechanism for reflection on teaching. This reflection is the catalyst for change.