Once a teacher has been trained and posted to his or her work station that should not be the end of their learning process. They ought to constantly engage in other simple learning processes that will help them remain relevant and adopt new and better teaching methods. This is possible with the development of the instructional rounds program where teachers learn from their colleagues.
These rounds are not tools that can be used throughout but only once in a while. It is recommended that a teacher uses them once a semester though it could be more depending on their availability. They are availed to the teachers who want them by a lead teacher. The lead teacher should be respectable, a professional and preferably the head of a certain department or class.
The schools that are seriously into this have permanent lead teachers who run the process. There are some teachers who do not like the process as they think they are being analyzed or judged. They have to get taught to believe otherwise if they have to learn maximally and benefit a lot as well. No teacher should be forced into the group, it is completely voluntary. The very experienced teachers are chosen to begin with as the new ones have more to learn from them.
The groups do not exceed five people counting the lead teacher too. More people would also work but this would disrupt the class too much as they settle down, they would be harder to control and the discussion would take less. The students require to be informed too before the time arrives as they are also part of the process. This is a learning process for the teachers as it usually is for students.
The rounds are done in a real class, during a real class time and with real students. This is because a practical lesson ought to be as it will be in real life. The learning process will be more fruitful this way too. There are seats at the back of the class preserved for them. They need to avoid any noise or disruptions to the class as much as possible. Failure to this, they will end up being more of a bother to the students which is not worth it.
The observation takes no more than fifteen minutes. They have to take notes of both the good and the bad that they observe. This is not a rating exercise but one where they learn from each other on the best teaching methodologies. Once the observation exercise ends, they leave the class not forgetting to thank both the teacher and the students.
As soon as the observation period is over, they have to meet and discuss what they noted down. They take turns to each bring out their points and finally the lead teacher summarizes the discussion. The discussion is not to portray the teacher negatively but to encourage them to continue with their strong points and drop the bad ones. For this to be possible, rules have to be set and followed.
The positives are mentioned first. The negatives are not brought out directly but as questions or just raising concerns. This helps the teacher who was being observed noting the practices they should continue to use, those they should change and the observers also learn what to adopt as well as those they should not adopt.
These rounds are not tools that can be used throughout but only once in a while. It is recommended that a teacher uses them once a semester though it could be more depending on their availability. They are availed to the teachers who want them by a lead teacher. The lead teacher should be respectable, a professional and preferably the head of a certain department or class.
The schools that are seriously into this have permanent lead teachers who run the process. There are some teachers who do not like the process as they think they are being analyzed or judged. They have to get taught to believe otherwise if they have to learn maximally and benefit a lot as well. No teacher should be forced into the group, it is completely voluntary. The very experienced teachers are chosen to begin with as the new ones have more to learn from them.
The groups do not exceed five people counting the lead teacher too. More people would also work but this would disrupt the class too much as they settle down, they would be harder to control and the discussion would take less. The students require to be informed too before the time arrives as they are also part of the process. This is a learning process for the teachers as it usually is for students.
The rounds are done in a real class, during a real class time and with real students. This is because a practical lesson ought to be as it will be in real life. The learning process will be more fruitful this way too. There are seats at the back of the class preserved for them. They need to avoid any noise or disruptions to the class as much as possible. Failure to this, they will end up being more of a bother to the students which is not worth it.
The observation takes no more than fifteen minutes. They have to take notes of both the good and the bad that they observe. This is not a rating exercise but one where they learn from each other on the best teaching methodologies. Once the observation exercise ends, they leave the class not forgetting to thank both the teacher and the students.
As soon as the observation period is over, they have to meet and discuss what they noted down. They take turns to each bring out their points and finally the lead teacher summarizes the discussion. The discussion is not to portray the teacher negatively but to encourage them to continue with their strong points and drop the bad ones. For this to be possible, rules have to be set and followed.
The positives are mentioned first. The negatives are not brought out directly but as questions or just raising concerns. This helps the teacher who was being observed noting the practices they should continue to use, those they should change and the observers also learn what to adopt as well as those they should not adopt.
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