This document discusses peer observation in teacher development. It provides guidance on conducting peer observations, including agreeing on an observation focus in advance, observing specific aspects of teaching, and providing constructive feedback focused on strengths and areas for improvement. The purpose of peer observation is to help teachers reflect on their practice, gain new insights, and improve their instructional skills through non-judgmental discussion and sharing of ideas with colleagues. When done right, peer observation can be part of an ongoing professional development cycle that leads to better teaching through critical self-reflection.

1. Peer Observation in
Teacher Development
Peter Beech

2. What Does TP practise?
Sensitivity to problems of language use for
learners;
Sensitivity to how learners learn, the skills
they need, the strategies they employ and the
problems they have;
Classroom management skills;
Teaching techniques.
~ Gower, R. et al. 1983, 1995 Teaching Practice Handbook Macmillan

3. Wednesday Week 1
Observe the teacher’s use of language.
Does s/he grade her language appropriately
to the students’ level?
Does s/he talk too much?
Note down any examples of language that
could have been simplified or instances
where the teacher was talking unnecessarily.

4. Thursday Week 1
Observe the teacher’s instructions.
Were they understood by the students?
Were they clear and simple?
Were they staged?
Were there enough pauses?
Were they checked?
Did the teacher demonstrate where
possible?

5. Monday Week 2
Observe how the teacher deals with
showing and checking meaning of
either grammar or vocabulary.

6. Tuesday Week 2
Observe what adaptations the teacher
has made to the coursebook materials.
Has s/he added or rejected anything?
Are there any further changes you think
s/he usefully could have made?

7. Wednesday Week 2
Observe what use the teacher makes of
eliciting and using questions to involve
the students.
How successful is s/he at keeping the
students engaged?
Are all students encouraged to
participate equally?

8. Thursday Week 2
Observe how the teacher makes use of
monitoring and gives feedback.
What does s/he give feedback on?
Is the feedback varied in style?
Was s/he able to make use of things
noticed during monitoring in feedback?

9. Monday Week 3
Observe how the teacher responds to
student errors.
What techniques are employed to
encourage self- or peer-correction?
Were any errors ignored?
Was it better to ignore them or not?

10. Tuesday Week 3
Observe the stages in the teacher’s
lesson.
Were they coherent?
What was the apparent stage aim of
each stage?

11. Wednesday Week 3
Observe the different types of interaction
that take place between teacher and
students during various sections of the
lesson.
How many different types of interaction
do you see?
Were the teacher’s responses usually
appropriate or useful?

12. Thursday Week 3
Observe the different techniques the
teacher uses for showing and checking
understanding of meaning and form
during the lesson.
Also, does the teacher deal with
pronunciation?
How successful is s/he in these things?

13. Week 4
In the last week, tell your fellow trainees
what your personal aims are in each of
your lessons and ask them to observe
how far you are able to meet them.

14. These Observation Tasks are taken from Jim Scrivener's Learning Teaching.
1. Options and Decisions
2. Options and Decisions part 2
3. Classroom Interaction
4. Staging
5. Objectives
6. The Learners
7. Feedback to Learners
8. Errors and Correction
9. Thoughts and Questions
10. Stolen Goods
http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Archive/collaborative_teaching.htm

17. Corrective feedback and teacher change
“For assessment purposes, to ensure that each T has fulfilled the aims and objectives of
an initial teacher training course, certain behaviours are expected, and therefore
feedback is often likely to be corrective….
…Corrective feedback requires a period of time for the T to process, digest, reflect upon
and come to terms with the ‘criticism’ involved. Change as a result of this type of
feedback is likely to be convergent, that is to say, the T is required to move closer to
some agreed norm or form of practice.”
N K-H

18. Preconceptions
· Learning is an input-output system.
· Learning has specific and uniform goals.
· Learning stops at the acquisition of a certificate of some description.
· There are specific ingredients that a good lesson absolutely must
have.
· There are specific models for good lessons.
· Mistakes make you lose face and must be avoided.
· Anything new is either suspect, or an improvement on the old.
· Authority should be accommodated and appeased at all costs.
Discerning Reality
Lesson observation as research
Costas Gabrielatos
IATEFL Teacher Trainers and Educators SIG Newsletter, November
2004

19. “If confirmatory feedback is detailed in the same way corrective feedback often tends to
be, and if it is supported with specific examples from the T’s lesson, there is every
reason that this type of feedback, too, would facilitate teacher change. Teacher learning
and change do not have to be problem-oriented all the time.”
Post-observation feedback as an instigator of teacher learning and change
Nur Kurtoglu-Hooton
IATEFL Teacher Trainers and Educators SIG Newsletter, July 2004

20. “Clearly we would all agree on encouraging self-criticism and self-
awareness in the trainee and that our conduct as teacher trainers
in the feedback session is inextricably linked to our inter-personal
skills of counselling and personal supervision.”
The case for delayed feedback
after teaching practice (tp) and observation
by Richard Denman
http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/back27.htm
'The Teacher Trainer' Vol 3 No 3

21. Trainer
Trainee
Peer Peer
Training - Development

22. What are the objectives of TP?
•To provide an
arena for
assessment
•To have your
teaching
evaluated and
criticized
•To encourage
self-awareness
•To enable you to
make decisions
about how you
teach

23. 1. a tool to provide constructive and formative feedback.
2. a way to obtain information on student's performance.
3. an instrument to indicate a student's progress in teaching.
4. a means to develop your own expertise and your own role as a teacher and
manner of teaching.
5. an assessment instrument.
6. a tool to control pupils' behaviour by the physical presence of the mentor
7. an instrument for monitoring and influencing the student teacher's performance.
Mentor Development and Evaluation of Languages Student-Teachers
http://www4.open.ac.uk/Mendeval/modile2/default.htm
Observation is:

24. What is peer observation?
“Peer observation is the observation of teachers by teachers,
usually, though not always, on a reciprocal basis.
Pairings may be mentor/novice or experienced
teacher/experienced teacher. In the first case the focus will be
more clearly on helping the novice to develop their teaching
skills both by observing and being observed by an
experienced colleague. In the second case, the objective is to
provide opportunities for experienced teachers to reflect on
their teaching in a calm and private environment.”
GW

25. Agreeing the format of the observations
“Both parties should agree on a focus for the observation in
advance. The observed teacher may request feedback on a
specific area of their teaching which they are finding
particularly challenging or which they would value input on
from a trusted colleague.”
GW

26. Follow-up
“The observer and the observed should meet soon after the
observation. The focus should be on identifying the strengths
of the teaching observed as well as the sharing of practical
ideas as to how the teaching might be improved. Care needs
to be taken to focus only on areas agreed in advance.
Where two experienced teachers are involved they should
take the opportunity to reflect on the underlying rationale of
their teaching, rather than more superficial issues of
procedure or technique.”
Peer observation
Graham White
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/peer_observation.shtml

27. “How can teachers move beyond the level of automatic or
routinised responses to classroom situations and achieve a higher
level of awareness of how they teach, of the kinds of decisions
they make as they teach, and of the value and consequences of
particular instructional decisions?”
JR

28. “One way of doing this is through observing and reflecting on
one’s own teaching, and using observation and reflection as a way
of bringing about change.”
JR

29.
“Peer observation can provide opportunities for teachers to view
each other’s teaching in order to expose them to different teaching
styles and to provide opportunities for critical reflection on their
own teaching.”
JR

30. “The teachers who participated in the project reported that they
gained a number of insights about their own teaching from their
colleague’s observations and that they would like to use peer
observation on a regular basis. They obtained new insights into
aspects of their teaching.”
Towards Reflective Teaching
by Jack C. Richards
http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/back33.htm

31. Observation
Feedback &
Reflection
Practice
Development
Cycle

32. “Once the virtuous circle of establishing a climate of non-
judgmental professional interest is established, then teachers will
begin to regard themselves as researchers with a professional
stake in their own theory generation and a stronger chance of
reflection on practice.”
Mind the Gap: Thoughts on Self Help and Non-judgmental Observation in the Classroom
John Norrish
http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej05/a3.html

33. So how do you
feel it went?