Post-lesson discussions present several challenges for inspectors and trainee teachers. They have limited time available and must discuss the lesson under unfavorable physical conditions. They also must manage large amounts of data collected during observations and may lack a clear strategy for conducting effective discussions. Additionally, teachers sometimes exhibit resistant attitudes that make providing constructive feedback difficult. To maximize the benefits of post-lesson discussions, inspectors must plan thoroughly, facilitate discussions skillfully, and promote reflection and improvement among trainee teachers.

1. Post-Lesson Discussions
Mariam Bedraoui Center for Educational Inspector Taining
Inspector Trainee Rabat; Morocco

2. Limited time
Unfavourable
physical conditions
Management of
data
No clear strategy
Resistant attitudes
Based on your recent
practicum experience, what
challenges does the Post-
lesson discussion present?

3. Outline
1. Definition
2. Functions
3. Approaches
4. Influential Factors
5. Possible
Challenges

4. Post-lesson discussion: definition
Post-lesson discussions are “practices that follow the
observations to exchange the trainer’s knowledge
and evaluations of that specific teaching practice of
the trainee.”
Tuncay (2003:157)
 Post-lesson discussions are “conversation sessions
between supervisors and teachers over instructional
and assessment issues with the aim of improving the
performance of teachers.”
Caruso & Facett (1999:
22)

5. Post-lesson discussion: Other Labels…
Post-lesson
chat
Post-
observation
conference
Debriefing
session
Post-lesson discussion
It is more than debriefing
The limited amount of time may
not help holding a conference.
‘discussion’ suggests:
negotiation+ achieving goals

6. Post-lesson discussion: Rationale and Functions
Rationale
“The Post-lesson
discussion is predicated
on the concept that
teaching can improve by
gaining feedback.”
Bailey (2004:14)
Feedback
Awareness
Reflection
Change
Functions
To identify less-effective teaching;
To note effective teaching;
To promote positive change.
(Bailey:2004)

7. Post-lesson discussion: More Functions
PLDs can have more functions:
 ……………………………………….
 …………………………………………
 To provide rewards and satisfaction for teachers. (Goldhammer et al.:
1980)
 To help teachers solve pedagogical and didactic problems. (Stones:
1987)
 To help teachers develop skills of analysing their teaching with the
aim of promoting a self-supervision approach. ( Holland: 1989)
 To help teachers conceptualise their teaching experiences. (Orland
Barak: 2002)
 To communicate to teachers final decisions about job status.
(Bailey:2004)

8. Post-lesson discussion:Some Approaches…
Freeman (1990) identified three approaches to
conducting Post-lesson discussions:
The Directive
Approach
• The role of the
supervisor is to
direct teachers to
better ways of
teaching and to
model good
teaching
behaviours.
The Alternative
Approach
• The role of the
supervisor is to
provide a variety
of alternatives for
teachers to try out
as effective
solutions to their
problems.
The Reflective
Approach
• The role of the
supervisor is to
give teachers the
chance to
evaluate their
behaviours and
help them analyse
their practices
and reflect on
their performance.

9. Post-lesson discussion:Some approaches…
Acheson& Gall (1992) placed these three approaches on a
continuum of behaviours that supervisors may produce in different
PLDs.
•Criticise
•Give
directions
•Lecture
•Askquestions
•Useteachers’
ideas
•Give
encouragemen
tsandpraise
•Acceptand
usefeelings
Direct Indirect
A continuum of supervisors’ behaviours in PLDs

10. Post-lesson discussion: Influential Factors
There are three major factor areas that affect
the quality* of PLDs
Logistic
factors
Affective
factors
Professional
factors
*A successful PLD=
Teachers are responsive to supervisory feedback.
Teaches reflect on the supervisor’s remarks and suggestions.
Teachers show aspects of positive change in subsequent observation sessio

11. Post-lesson discussion: Logistic Factors
 Some of the logistic factors that tend to have an
impact on PLDs are:
o Length of time to allow for the conference;
o The place where the conference takes place;
o The seating arrangements that are possible
to make;
o Protection against distractions;
o Available equipment.

12. Post-lesson discussion: Affective Factors
Supervisor
o The conference is in itself an
observable example of the
supervisor’s performance.
o It provides teachers with
concrete data about how
well the supervisor is
capable of analysing the
lesson and providing real
help.
Teacher
o The conference is led by a
more powerful person:
o The supervisor has a higher
rank
o The supervisor has better
training.
o The supervisor has
administrative power over the
teachers being supervised.
The PLD is one of the most difficult interactional moments between the
supervisor and teacher.
It “carries the potential of being an agonizing experience for both”. (Shrigley
and Walker,1981: 560)
It can be face threatening.

13. Post-lesson discussion: Affective Factors
Teachers react to these unequal power relations in three
major forms (Waite: 1993)
Passive teachers
• Accept the
supervisor’s
suggestions
and authority.
• Try to align
their views
and teachers
with the
supervisor’s
beliefs.
Collaborative teachers
• Select which suggestions to
respond to and how to apply
those suggestions.
• Show signs of reflection and
negotiation.
• Ask questions and seek
further resources to check
how sound the suggestions
are.
Adversarial teachers
• Show reluctance to sit for
the conference.
• Talk about their
achievements in other areas
or in the past or with other
classes.
• Anxious about providing
justification for every remark
made by the supervisor.

14. Post-lesson discussion: Affective Factors
Supervisor’s
Personality
Supervisor’s
professional
skills
How to maintain a non-threatening atmosphere during a PLD?

15. Post-lesson discussion: Affective Factors
Supervisor’s Personal Qualities
 The supervisor gains teachers’ respect by his/her
 Consistency
 Integrity
 Fairness
 Flexibility
 The supervisor loses teachers’ respect by:
 Lying
 Gossiping
 Going back on promises
 Being duplicitous
 Failing to provide help

16. Post-lesson discussion: Affective Factors
Supervisor’s professional skills
 Supervisor and teacher accept their respective role:
 Contractual relationship;
 Setting a shared goal;
 Regular provision of feedback;
 Building up on previous conferences.
 Supervisor’s management of the conference
 Acting spontaneously;
 Checking on teachers;
 Taking advantage of incidental occurrences;
 Being reassuring and encouraging;
 Avoiding overt evaluation;
 Controlling one’s words and facial expressions.
Successful application of these
procedures can lead toward:
*Building Rapport
*Establishing trust
*Developing relationships
*Creating threat-free
atmosphere

17. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
Professional
factors:  Ability to produce sound didactic and
pedagogic judgments
+
 Ability to conduct the different stages of
the session effectively.
+
 Ability to make quick decisions and
change plans during the session.

18. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
 Planning the session:
 Analysing the performed lesson
 Devising a strategy for the PLD session
 Conducting the session:
 Opening the session
 Making transitions
 Closing the session
 Evaluating one’s performance:
 Analysing the results
 Reflecting on areas to be improved
A successful PLD session needs to be effectively planned, conducted
and evaluated.

19. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Collecting data during the observation:
 descriptions of behaviours
 Numbers of occurrences
 Verbatim quotations
 Descriptions of teaching/learning sequences
 Anecdotal recordings

20. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Identifying patterns of teaching/ learning
behaviours in the raw data:
 Patterns= repeated behaviours that belong to the same
category.
 Detecting patterns that have an impact on learning.
 Making connection between the emerging hypothesis and
theory.
 Arranging patterns in some hierarchical arrangements.
 Making selection of patterns on the basis of the needs of the
observed teacher.
 generating a core interpretive category.

21. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Devising a strategy to adopt in the PLD session:
 Setting a goal to be achieved by the end of the session.
 Imagining a scenario: a series of questions/ presentation of
data and evidence/ checking the teacher’s understanding of a
concept, etc.
 Making decisions about what to start with: strengths or
weaknesses?
 Making decisions about additional feedback to be left to the
teacher.
 Highlighting evidences in case of resistant reactions.

22. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Opening the session
 Having some deliberate plan to follow and
possible alternatives in case it should fail.
 Starting with the good news: it helps get the
session off on a positive note (though it does not
always work).
 Possible questions: …………………………
 Asking for further details needed to confirm
emergent hypotheses.
 Presenting data and sharing diagrams and
numbers of occurrences to prompt teachers’
reactions.

23. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Making transitions: Making signals for
topic shift:
 I am glad there were many strong points we
could discuss, now…. I’m afraid, we need to
talk about some other stuff..
 In the area of…………, did you realise
that….?
 Ok, so much for the warm fuzzies. Now how
do you feel about……..?
 Do you mind if we look at a tough problem?
 I’m afraid not all of the news I have for you is
that good….

24. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Closing the session
 Securing a comfortable closure.
 summing up and flagging areas that need
improvement.
 Setting an agenda for next observation
session.
 Praising again about areas that have been
improved.
 Eliciting resolutions from teachers.

25. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Analysing the results:
 Was the goal achieved?
 Did the teacher get the message?
 Did the teacher show signs of collaboration?
 Were the arguments clear and pertinent?
 Were the evidences convincing?
 Did I manage to make the teacher reflect on
his/her questions?
 Did I manage to create a non-threatening
atmosphere?

26. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Reflecting on areas that need
improvement
 Devise a checklist to help detect problem
areas.
 Make a list of alternatives that need to be
tried out in future sessions.
 Elaborate on successful practices so as to
consolidate and fine-tune to different
situations

27. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation Final Task:
 In groups of three, try to design a checklist for Moroccan EFL
supervisors to use for self-evaluation with regard to their
performance in PLD sessions. Make use of the stages discussed
as criterion areas:
 Planning the session:
 Analysing the performed lesson
 Devising a strategy for the PLD session
 Conducting the session:
 Opening the session
 Making transitions
 Closing the session
 Evaluating one’s performance:
 Analysing the results
 Reflecting on areas to be improved