Teachers have to do their jobs in very difficult circumstances. They have to teach large classes, deal with disciplinary issues and be part of numerous extra curricular activities. They are surrounded by learners all day but they seldom get the chance to interact with their peers. The opportunities for personal and professional growth are limited. With instructional rounds, however, they get the chance to learn from experienced colleagues and to share lessons that they themselves have learned.
The concept is easy to understand and to implement. All it means is that small groups of teachers visit other teachers, normally very experienced ones, in their own classrooms and observe how they go about their teaching tasks. An experienced teacher is in charge of the group of observers. These observers simply attend the class and do not interfere or take part in any manner.
Each observation session has very clear goals. The observers meet prior to the session and agree to those goals. The goal may be, for example, to see how the teacher being observed uses visual aids during the lesson. The purpose of these sessions is for the observers to learn new techniques and approaches, so they would normally focus on the known strengths of the teacher under observation.
Observation sessions in this context do not intend to evaluate the teacher being observed. In fact, the opposite is true. The purpose of the observers is to learn from the expertise of the teacher being observed. The observers do not take part in the classroom activities, they do not interfere in any way and they do not even give feedback to the teacher that they observed unless such feedback is specifically requested.
After each observation session the observer teachers meet again. This meeting focuses upon the lesson that they have learned. During this meeting no criticism against the observed teacher is allowed. They also share ideas on how to implement those lessons in their own classrooms. Observers never submit a report and they never discuss the observation session with other teachers, learners or school management.
There are numerous benefits to these sessions. The teacher being observed is honoured because he or she gets the message that they are seen as someone that is worth learning from. The teachers attending the sessions benefit because the get a chance to improve their own teaching skills. In the process, the whole system benefits because the quality of teaching improves and the principal players are more motivated.
The system has critics, of course. They say that teachers being observed pay special attention to those classes and therefore present a false impression regarding their day to day classroom behaviour. They also say that the sessions are far too short and that the informal arrangement holds no benefits for the system as a whole and that they simply waste the time of everybody involved.
There can be no argument against any effort to improve the standard of education. If observation sessions improve the quality of education and if it helps to motivate teachers and students then it must be encouraged. Results have shown that this is indeed the case.
The concept is easy to understand and to implement. All it means is that small groups of teachers visit other teachers, normally very experienced ones, in their own classrooms and observe how they go about their teaching tasks. An experienced teacher is in charge of the group of observers. These observers simply attend the class and do not interfere or take part in any manner.
Each observation session has very clear goals. The observers meet prior to the session and agree to those goals. The goal may be, for example, to see how the teacher being observed uses visual aids during the lesson. The purpose of these sessions is for the observers to learn new techniques and approaches, so they would normally focus on the known strengths of the teacher under observation.
Observation sessions in this context do not intend to evaluate the teacher being observed. In fact, the opposite is true. The purpose of the observers is to learn from the expertise of the teacher being observed. The observers do not take part in the classroom activities, they do not interfere in any way and they do not even give feedback to the teacher that they observed unless such feedback is specifically requested.
After each observation session the observer teachers meet again. This meeting focuses upon the lesson that they have learned. During this meeting no criticism against the observed teacher is allowed. They also share ideas on how to implement those lessons in their own classrooms. Observers never submit a report and they never discuss the observation session with other teachers, learners or school management.
There are numerous benefits to these sessions. The teacher being observed is honoured because he or she gets the message that they are seen as someone that is worth learning from. The teachers attending the sessions benefit because the get a chance to improve their own teaching skills. In the process, the whole system benefits because the quality of teaching improves and the principal players are more motivated.
The system has critics, of course. They say that teachers being observed pay special attention to those classes and therefore present a false impression regarding their day to day classroom behaviour. They also say that the sessions are far too short and that the informal arrangement holds no benefits for the system as a whole and that they simply waste the time of everybody involved.
There can be no argument against any effort to improve the standard of education. If observation sessions improve the quality of education and if it helps to motivate teachers and students then it must be encouraged. Results have shown that this is indeed the case.
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