Week 3

Teachers Observing Teachers: A Professional Development Tool for Every School (By Michele Israel)

Remarks

Every school nowadays should use “Teachers Observing Teachers” way of observation as a form of professional development that enhances teaching practices and student performance. Sharing of instructional techniques and ideologies between and among teachers are beneficial for teachers, administrators as well as the school.

Teacher observation is one model of professional learning and the most positive benefit of it is that it makes teaching a public rather than a private act. Teachers should help one another for professional development. This model allows them to interact with each other. Involvement to others generates lots of ideas, useful suggestions and opportunities to share successful teaching approaches which are very useful as grounds for improvements of every teacher. For instance, newly graduated teachers are being sent to practical teaching. In this course, they are handled by experienced teachers and they are sent to the class for them to practice teaching. In this way, the new ones will have the opportunity to share and apply their teaching skills. On the other hand, the veteran teacher can observe and watch the interaction between the students and the teacher. After that, they can discuss both the different teaching approaches of each other for the improvement of them both.

Establishing a culture for learning might be the most important challenge a teacher encounters. It is significant that the school administrators should practice a culture that nurtures a mutually respectful exchange of ideas and promotes a certain level of trust. It has been said that a culture exists where people report with pride that they put one another professionally. Open-mindedness and having a positive way of acceptance on different types of feedbacks from the observer’s motives and valuing collegial relationships leads to professional development.

To enhance further and to make Teachers Observations very effective is when teachers acquire new skills or ideas at trainings and conferences and then model those new approaches for their colleagues. Teachers observation is most successful when the teacher and the observer work together and reflect on the teaching behavior and least successful with analysis or dialogue. To have an effective teachers-observing-teachers program the following sequence should be followed: Overview, Observation, Discussion, Reflection and Application. Also, a variety of approaches to teacher observation support professional growth and student achievement such as Lesson Study, Peer Coaching, Cognitive Coaching, Critical Friends Group (CFG) and Learning Walk.

I am convinced that the tool of teachers observing teachers if applied properly will make a huge improvement in the classrooms of today and tomorrow.