{"id":6537,"date":"2014-05-03T19:50:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T19:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltchat.org\/wordpress\/?p=6537"},"modified":"2014-05-03T19:50:20","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T19:50:20","slug":"the-benefits-of-observations-and-feedback-eltchat-summary-4162014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/2014\/05\/03\/the-benefits-of-observations-and-feedback-eltchat-summary-4162014\/","title":{"rendered":"The Benefits of Observations and Feedback #ELTchat Summary 4\/16\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

The full title of this chat was “Observations and Feedback: what do you get out of being observed and what makes good or bad feedback?”<\/strong> and was first posted on April 26, 2014 by @ashowski on his blog here\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Summary<\/h2>\n

As the chat began, the elephant in the room was clear: who exactly is doing the observing?
\n@Sandymillin and @Ashowski quickly pointed out observations can be carried out by both peers \u2013\u00a0known as peer observation \u2013 and by Senior Academic Staff, such as Senior Teachers, an ADoS or\u00a0even a DoS \u2013 perhaps better known as formal observations.<\/p>\n

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\n\"\"Most of the participants were quick to point out that the main\u00a0difference between the two types of observations is primarilystress: formal observations are compulsory and can be\u00a0included in end of year progress reports, while peer\u00a0observations are usually arranged between teachers who are\u00a0interested in accelerating their own professional development.
\nAfter quickly establishing that there will also be an element of\u00a0\u2018personality\u2019 involved in observations and feedback sessions, @Ashowski asked \u201cwhat elements go into\u00a0producing good\/bad feedback?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n@Shaunwilden quickly pointed out that the whole process starts \u201cway before the feedback session\u201d,\u00a0highlighting that an observation, particularly if it is to be followed up with a useful feedback session,\u00a0should have pre-determined focus areas agreed on by the observer and the observee. @HadaLitim\u00a0named these \u201cpre-obs meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

…………………<\/span>
\nThe main argument behind having these meetings is so that the teacher can prepare in advance, e.g.\u00a0focus on instruction giving, conducting feedback and drilling, and then receive feedback on how well\u00a0they delivered the lesson in terms of the three above areas.<\/p>\n

…………………<\/span><\/p>\n

@Sandymillin made a point of ensuring the observer should always \u201cguide\u201d and \u201clead\u201d feedback\u00a0sessions, asking the teacher about their performance with regards to the focus areas. This way the\u00a0session is a meeting of equals and together they can \u2018discover\u2019 and \u2018evaluate\u2019 the performance and not\u00a0simply \u201ctell\u201d the teacher about their performance.<\/p>\n

…………………<\/span>
\nIt was agreed that feedback which involves describing every stage of the lesson is not conducive to\u00a0progress and only results in what @HadaLitim and @Sandymillin described as a \u201ctraumatic\u201d\u00a0experience for the teacher. An educator cannot perform outstandingly in all areas, which is why there\u00a0needs to be areas to focus on. However, it was pointed out that the observer does indeed see more of the\u00a0lesson than just the focus areas, which he or she can comment on and from that the next areas for\u00a0development could be determined. The observers eyes \u201csee more\u201d than what the teacher\u2019s do.<\/p>\n

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\nThis approach should result in what @SLT_Kat described as \u201cpositive, consistent and not scary\u201d\u00a0feedback sessions, with CPD at the focus and not \u2018catching out\u2019 teachers.<\/p>\n

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\nAfter having established some of the basics in structuring good feedback sessions, @ChrisOzog then\u00a0put forward an interesting piece of practice: a lesson report swap shop. As the discussion progressed,\u00a0this idea was discussed and explored. What the participants eventually came up with was a sort of\u00a0\u201cunobserved observation\u201d (@HadaLitim), whereby the observer and observee meet before the lesson to\u00a0establish the focus points and then afterwards they meet again so that the teacher can feedback on how\u00a0well they performed.<\/p>\n

…………………<\/span>
\nThe argument here is the most useful role an observer can play is as a guide: the teacher projects their\u00a0ideas and feelings onto the observer and together they explore how things went, how they could be\u00a0improved and what other areas to focus on. The observer\u2019s role is merely to guide the teacher in the\u00a0right direction.<\/p>\n

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\nIn summary, to ensure feedback sessions are a positive experience for all involved, it is important to set\u00a0out focus areas, feedback on these and then develop new areas for future development. The unobserved\u00a0observation could also be a conducive format to continuing your professional development while not\u00a0consuming too much time.<\/p>\n

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Image source: giulia.forsythe (https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/gforsythe\/), under CC BY-SA 2.0<\/em><\/p>\n

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To view the full transcript please click here<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The full title of this chat was “Observations and Feedback: what do you get out of being observed and what makes good or bad feedback?” and was first posted on April 26, 2014 by @ashowski on his blog here\u00a0   Summary As the chat began, the elephant in the room was clear: who exactly is…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}