This document discusses classroom observation methods. It defines classroom observation as a formal or informal observation of teaching used to provide teachers feedback to improve. It discusses the goals of observation including teacher development, placement of students, and quality assurance. Various procedures for observation are outlined, including checklists, recordings, and notes. The document also discusses systematic observation using preplanned categories and coding schemes, and analyzing coded transcripts. Naturalistic observation, where the classroom is observed without manipulation, is contrasted with other methods.

1. Chapter 7
OBSERVING LANGUAGE
CLASSROOMS

2. Definition
A classroom observation:
• is a formal or informal observation of teaching
while it is taking place in a classroom or
other learning environment.
• Typically conducted by fellow teachers,
administrators, or instructional specialists
• used to provide teachers with constructive critical
feedback aimed at improving their classroom
management and instructional techniques

3. Definition
• Pivotal (important because other
things depend on it) activity
• with a crucial role to play
• in classroom research,
• teacher’s personal professional growth,
• and school development as a whole
(Hopkins, 1993)

4. Definition
• Three categories:
– System-based/ethnographic/ad hoc (for
a particular purpose or need, esp. for
an immediate need) procedures
(Wallace, 1991)
– Systematic/structured/focused/open observation
(Hopkins, 1993)
– Binary structured/open distinction
(Seliger and Shohamy, 1989)

5. • Requires:
– Observer’s degree of participation
– Objectivity issue
– Inductive (heuristic) parameter
– Deductive (analytic) parameter
Heuristic: a method of learning or solving problems that allows people to
discover things themselves and learn from their own experiences
Analytic : involving the careful, systematic study of something

6. Observation: uses and perspectives
• Look at the example:

7. Observer:
• Course director
• Head/senior teacher
• Colleague/peer
• Trainee/junior teacher
• New/teacher
• Researcher from outside the institution
• External assessor

8. Goals
• Placement of students
• Evaluation of efficacy of materials
• Apprenticeship for novice/trainee staff
• Staff appraisal: formative/developmental
• Quality assurance and control
• Personal development
• Improvement in methodology

9. Procedures
• Checklists and written criteria
• Audio-and video-recordings
• Notes and logs
• Participation/non-participation
• With/without feedback

10. Observation for Research
1) Research to increasing knowledge and
understanding of phenomenon
2) Research to bring about change,
innovation and action
3) Research for personal-professional
development

11. Systematizing observation
• Using preplanned observational categories:
– Coding schemes or systematic observational
schedules
• The observer recognizes instances of particular
categories
• Notes them down as they occur
• Either live or from recording

12. Why systematize?
• Research observation is an intentional
activity, not reactive noticing
• Intentional observation implies planning
and the use of some previously
established categories
• Coding system is in widespread use:
checklist approach

13. The Advantages of a coding
system approach
1) Easier than paper recording
2) Enables comparisons with other studies and
generalization
3) Tailor made for a particular problem
4) Simple analysis
5) Established patterns of interaction and
development
6) Established personal patterns of a particular
teacher and learner
7) Possible to train observers

14. The Disadvantages of Coding
System Approach
1) Involves editing: reduction of the data
2) The preselected categories may not be
the relevant ones
3) Cannot take into account relevant but
unobserved shared knowledge

15. Kind of analysis
• High- Inference Categories
An observer has to make considerable effort
of judgment to decide whether a range of
behaviors constitute a category

16. Kind of analysis
• Low-Inference Categories
 Using a description of observable facts or
events, without interpretation.
 Uses a low degree of subjectivity.
 Just the facts, not an opinion.
 A factual observation, not a judgment.

17. Published or Invented
Categories
• There is no need to rely on published
literatures for categories
• A researcher can develop his or her own
for some particular research purpose
• For example: a teacher researcher might
be interested in the possible effects of
different strategies for giving oral feedback
or intervening about an error in spoken
performance.

18. Analysis of codings
Coded transcripts of classes can be
analyzed in several ways
1. By counting frequency:
 the relative frequency of each kind of
behavior is set out in tabular form
 Conclusion is drawn from the overall picture
2. By finding patterns
 Soliciting answers→nominating a pupil
→receiving an answer→checking with
another pupil→praise

19. Live Observation or Recording
• Any form of observation distorts normality
• Live observation
– Distract the attention of students and teacher
• Recording
– Distract attention
– Microphones are more limited than human ears
– Voices on the recording are less easy to identify
• Video
– Camera equipment also distract and possibly
invite strange behavior

20. Alternatives to Coding Schemes
• Recording and field notes
– Record a lesson and transcribe it using field
notes taken at the time of recording
• Text analysis
– makes qualitative research faster and easier
by highlighting important terms and
categorizing open-ended responses.
– The ability to analyze what respondents say
helps gain insight into their attitudes,
behaviors, concerns, motivations, and culture.

21. Alternatives to Coding Schemes
• Stimulated recall
– A recording is made of the lesson or class to
be observed
– Interpretation of the observation is made with
the teacher and students
– The researcher freezes the recording at a
point and ask them to memorize

22. Naturalistic Observation
• Naturalistic observation is:
– a research tool in which a subject is observed
in its natural habitat without any manipulation
by the observer.
– During naturalistic observation researchers
take great care to avoid interfering with the
behavior they are observing by
using unobtrusive methods.

23. Naturalistic Observation
• In contrast to analog observation which
is
– a research tool by which a subject is observed
in an artificial setting.
– Typically, types of settings in which analog
observation is utilized include clinical offices or
research laboratories,
– can be made in any artificial environment,
– even if the environment is likely to encounter
naturally.

24. Naturalistic Observation
• In contrast to
– Contrived
– Manipulated
– Experimental
• Data are based on
– Everyday lessons
– Usual participants
– In real time

25. Two corollaries
• First: Crucial context:
– It sites the phenomenon of study in space and
time
– It taps into fluctuating interactions and
relationship patterns
• Second: the naturalistic observer:
– Multiple perspectives of those observed
– Seek to interpret rather than avoid them
Corollary: something that results from something else

26. Dealing with Data
• To capture the natural setting:
– The techniques used will be at the open, less
structured end of the methodology
• The principal data-gathering instrument
will be description:
– The aim is producing thick data (as
comprehensive as possible) in terms of
individuals, interactions, behavior and setting

27. Analyzing Data
1. The data are examined and reexamined
to foreground recurrent patterns.
2. Description can be selective and focused
– For example: A teacher researcher may
have already decided that Student A is
problematic
– He/she takes descriptive notes in class
– Another teacher, unsure about its efficacy,
might invite a colleague to examine how
he/she sets up pair work