THE CASE FOR SHORT OBSERVATIONS
Busy Heads are short of time but most like to see more of what is happening in their school for themselves. Marshall Hughes makes the case for ‘Short observations’.
A good thing, poorly done?
What I have called ‘short observations’ for the purposes of this article are also known by a variety of names such as ‘Drop-Ins’, ‘Pop-ins’, ‘Walkthroughs’ or ‘Mini-observations’. Many schools use short observations, often with more experienced staff, although this is probably in response to the belief, as Robert Marzano puts it that “live classroom observations are very time-consuming and expensive” Marzano (2013, p.13). Pragmatism as opposed to philosophy perhaps.
Marzano, however (2018 p.1) believes the development of ‘walkthroughs’ is “a good movement and a powerful movement” but believes that many of them are ineffective because they “focus on typically a very narrow range of instructional strategies, as though that were the totality of what effective teaching is” (ibid).
Virtue out of necessity
However, Kim Marshall (2013) makes an eloquent, compelling and well-supported case for the extensive use of what he calls ‘mini-observations’, based on his experiences as a teacher and a school principal for many years. He starts by outlining the problems he experienced with conventional ‘full-length’ observations:
- They don’t give the principal a representative view of day-to-day instruction.
- They put a premium on pleasing the principal with a ‘special’ lesson.
- There is little research evidence to support that they improve teaching.
- They are daunting and time-consuming.
In fact, his only justification for the use of full-length observations is to gather evidence to dismiss an ineffective teacher, hardly a ringing endorsement of a technique the purpose of which is ostensibly to improve teaching and learning.
Guiding principles
Clearly dissatisfied with full-lesson observation, Marshall went on to develop a system based on the beliefs that all teachers need reassurance that they are doing a good job and that teachers also need candid, specific and constructive criticism to improve. The guiding principles of his new system were:
- Classroom visits would have to be brief to fit into his hectic day
- If the visits were brief, then they would also have to be frequent to provide a balanced view.
- Visits would have to be unannounced to reveal the everyday reality.
- Feedback would have to be provided as promptly as possible after every visit.
- Feedback would have to be low-key, non-evaluative and non-threatening to establish honest, open two-way communication.
Implementation
In following these guidelines, Marshall was able to make around 4 visits per day of 5-10 minutes each, meaning that he saw his entire staff in a 4-week cycle. In an academic year he was able to get through 7 or more cycles thus seeing staff much more frequently than before. A chart was used to keep track of visits to ensure that teachers were seen at different times and with different classes, thus broadening the range of experiences and making the visits more genuinely representative.
Not surprisingly, there were challenges. Maintaining the schedule was the main one, since a busy principal can always find other things to do or allow other matters to get in the way. However, this problem could be overcome by sharing the workload with other senior and/or middle managers. Marshall made a point of never writing anything down in the classroom to maintain a less formal and less threatening atmosphere so remembering key points and making brief notes afterwards also proved tricky at times. Finding the opportunity to give feedback was also problematic. However, Marshall also found that these feedback sessions often led to longer discussions with staff about pedagogy and he also found he had an excellent grasp of what was going on in the classrooms of his school. The feedback, an essential feature of the system, tended to fall into 4 main categories;
- Praise
- Reinforcement
- Support
- Criticism
When visiting classrooms, the style varied. If a teacher was in didactic mode, he would simply sit at the side and observe but if the students were active then he would circulate and talk to them about their learning.
Recording the evidence
This approach, used by one international school known to the author, is formalised in a series of ‘prompts’ for questioning, which are aligned with the school’s Learning Principles (Appendix A). Another international school advocated keeping a record of ‘pop-ins’ on a single A4 sheet (Appendix B), although it is worth noting that both these approaches are incompatible with Marshall’s advocacy of taking no paperwork into the classroom. They do, however, help to overcome the problems of ‘remembering key points’ and ‘making notes afterwards’ mentioned above.
Finding a system or an ‘instrument’ which will align with a school’s principles is not easy but as Richard Murphy (2013 p.18) observes, “although it doesn’t matter greatly which particular rubric a school chooses to evaluate its teachers, it is very important that it has one”. Perhaps the overriding consideration is that whatever system is adopted, typical teaching and learning is seen and a culture of openness, transparency and continual professional development is encouraged and embedded in the school. Both exemplars presented here could be adapted to suit the requirements of individual institutions.
Essential observation
Marshall chose the name ‘mini-observation’ in preference to ‘walk-through’ so that it was not confused with the term ‘learning walk’ which is a different concept entirely (AITSL 2017). He also felt that the other alternatives suggested a more transient visit and therefore settled on mini-observation to describe his practice. He believes that mini-observations are potentially a more powerful strategy for improving teaching and learning. They involve significantly more visits to all classrooms, individual feedback to each teacher, and individualized, ongoing communication about teaching and learning based on the observations.
Dr. Marshall Hughes lectures in education at Alexander College, Larnaca, Cyprus after a career in K-12 international education.
To download Observation Record Sheets click below
References:
AITSL (2017) Learning Walks. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School leadership. Available at:
https://www.aitsl.edu.au/tools-resources/resource/learning-walks
Accessed 31st December 2018
Marshall, K. (2013) Rethinking teacher supervision and evaluation. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco USA.
Marzano, R.J. and Toth, M.D. (2013) Teacher evaluation that makes a difference: a new model for teacher growth and student achievement. ASCD Alexandria, VA. USA
Marzano, R. (2018) Why most classroom walkthroughs are ineffective. Available at: http://www.iobservation.com/Marzano-Suite/Videos/why-most-classroom-walkthroughs-are-ineffective/ Accessed on 14.2.18
Murphy, R. (2013) Testing Teachers: what works best for teacher evaluation and appraisal. The Sutton Trust
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