Writing about thinking about thinking about a lesson

Photo by xrrr on flickr - fotopedia

I've had discussions before with people about whether David Beckham is intelligent or not. Personally, I will defend his dignity and not just because he was a Manchester United player, honestly. What it all comes down to is how we actually evaluate intelligence.

This thought entered my mind today for no particular reason, in fact it was while I was making a cup of tea. I starting to imagine a lesson based around comparing some famous people and deciding if they were intelligent or not and ranking them in order of intelligence. In this post I am going to share what I came up with, but it isn't a lesson plan, it's a description of my thought process, through which you can choose something to use in a lesson, that is, of course, if you actually want to. Basically, it exists and you're reading it, so make of it what you will!

The context in my head as I am writing this is a smallish class (up to 15 students) in a private language school, or a UK summer school. I'm thinking of teenagers from 14 years upwards and at least a lower-intermediate level. This is the context I am most familiar with and I'm sure that these ideas could be used in other contexts, perhaps with further adaptation, but this is what is in my head as I write. If you do think of areas for improvement or adaptation, particularly for a different context, please comment below.

I first thought, ok, that's a good idea. Which famous people could I ask the learners to compare? In addition to Beckham (although I wondered if he was a bit 'out of date' now) I added Heston Blumenthal (self-trained über-chef) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook bloke). I then started to think of the students researching these people on wikipedia to find out about them, in order to make their decisions and present them in some sort of way. Then I thought, why did I choose three people? I thought of Lindsay Clandfield's 'Group of 3' reference at IATEFL! Then I thought: not only are these all men but they are all English speakers, which is fairly typical of much textbook material, the native speaker thing, not the gender; as far as course books go, I don't think there's a gender imbalance, but I may be wrong. I suppose the choice of male celebrities is probably down to the fact that I am one, a male, that is, rather than a celebrity. Anyway, my thinking moved on to women (not like that, behave yourself) and I thought of Lady Gaga and Zadie Smith (I don't know, alright?!) before remembering that I felt uncomfortable with the chosen people all being from Britain or the US, although I know that Zadie Smith is half-Jamaican and I think that influenced my brain into thinking of her in the first place. 

At this point, I started considering that the students might wish to speak about famous people from different contexts, not just the imperial centre of English language teaching course books. In fact, I realised that they might like to discuss people from their own context and how would I know who they could be, if I don't know their context? Aha! They can choose the people themselves (amazing). However, I couldn't just get them to brainstorm famous people randomly (well I don't think so at this point in time, maybe you disagree), there needs to be some control that would bring out a balance of intelligences (remember the purpose of this exercise?). Ok, I thought, why don't they choose some categories of famous people first, let's say five categories, for example; they might think of sports stars, TV celebrities, singers, politicians and film stars. That would be a good start and then they could think of some famous people to go into these categories before deciding as a class on the five that they want to focus on, without having been told the objective of the exercise. At this stage the teacher could impose some light control over the choices of the categories, if desired.

I had thought of this being a simple activity in a dogme style (whatever that is), but I decided to brainstorm the whole process and think about a variety of possibilities and it was then that I conceived the idea of writing a post like this about it on my blog. I thought of three questions (three again, maybe there's something in this song after all).  

1. Can you rank these people in order of intelligence? 
2. What criteria should you use to decide? 
3. How do you define intelligence? 

All the while, I was thinking about the idea that critical thinking is an important part of education, whether in an evening class at a language school or in a more formal state school context. Lindsay Clandfield's talk on this at IATEFL was really interesting, by the way (btw I've looked at the Brighton online website for a link and can hardly find any mention of him, it's almost like he wasn't actually there).

Cartoon from www.fallingfifth.com

As I started considering the outcomes of this activity and the length of time it would take, it was definitely roaming further away from a simple conversation. I decided it could definitely take more than one lesson and that research on the chosen celebrities could be done as homework. However, in doing this you lose control over the students' choice of online material, e.g. would they really use wikipedia in English at home in order to make notes?! However, would that actually matter? If they are asked to prepare notes in English then the exercise in translation from their L1 could be a worthwhile experience. Also, it's always a danger that you ask groups to do this stuff for homework and the ones that don't can cause organisational problems. There's an element of classroom management and discipline here that would be going too far off topic for this, I reckon, suffice it to say there are ways of attempting to ensure homework gets done.

In terms of productive outcomes, I thought of a presentation, given by each group to the rest of the class, attempting to persuade the other groups that their ranking was the best one. By doing this they'll have to structure a solid argument with reasons to support their decision making. Then I wondered about language (this is more or less the chronology of the process, but all this thinking took about 5 minutes while I was drinking tea and eating cake, so it wasn't entirely linear). Hang on, I thought, this is moving towards a task-based approach, if I'm not mistaken.

(Ok, I also realise that this post is long. Very long, in fact, it's going to carry on for a while yet. You may decide to bear with me, or just move along, you can always rate it one star on the widget below if you really want.)

What about we start, I thought (after the choice of celebrities stage) by asking: are these people intelligent? Why, or why not? This could be a group or pair discussion and could allow for a task-based framework, this task as a diagnostic of language to be scaffolded, after which relevant language could be elicited or introduced along with help with relevant language structures. Following that, the students could do their research and prepare a presentation. Of course, if the students all knew enough about the famous people they had chosen, then maybe they wouldn't need to do any research after all. However, despite 'knowing' the celebrities, there are usually new things to be discovered. 

I thought about the stages required to prepare for their presentation. The groups would first have to discuss the people and rank them into an order they could argue for, this could even happen before research and after, in order to re-evaluate and allow for the research to 'hit home' and affect their thinking, either confirming or contradicting their original thoughts. Actually, the original thoughts could provide a framework for them to use to do the research, perhaps giving rise to disagreements that new information could clear up.

I supposed that the presentation itself could be done with a powerpoint (or similar) presentation (although this is a bit 'obvious' my students, or at least some of them, have tended to know how it works, so no IT training required), or obviously just orally, without the visual support. However, using the technology is cross-curricular and allows for students to demonstrate their IT skills, perhaps encouraging weaker (in English) students to get more involved if they are better at IT. This made me think of the groups themselves, who would choose the groups, the teacher or the learners? There are benefits to both, but I would often prefer to choose the groups unless the groups the students choose had a reasonable balance of skills. Also, for the presentation, another idea I like to use is to get the students to write some (maybe 3!) questions for the other students, to try to ensure that they are listening and focused during the talk. (It did cross my mind that the students could produce a mini-TV or radio programme based on a documentary format discussing intelligence, although for most classrooms this would be a bit much, at a summer school it would be perfectly possible as a longer project). 

At some point I decided that the presentations could be video-recorded and shared with another class (on a blog), perhaps from another school, or country and those students, perhaps having done the same activities, could award points for each one, in order to determine winners (no, there doesn't have to be competition, but I think it tends to focus this age group). They could also write comments on the blog which could continue the discussion, perhaps out of the classroom (hey, learner autonomy!). This could mean also spending time on how you can evaluate a presentation, which would provide ideas for the students on how they could evaluate their own work as they are preparing it. This learner training could feed into future presentations and as my students have often had to prepare these for their main school, this could help them out there as well. Also, (aha!) I realised I could get the students to write some thoughts on the process in a learning journal, which could be shared with me (as the teacher) so I could respond, as part of a continuous process of reflection taking place throughout the course. I also considered that the students could do this project as an assessed piece of work and (wholly or partly) self-evaluate based on criteria that they could choose, not just on the presentation (I mentioned criteria for evaluating that earlier) but on their language use (their learning?) and group participation during the process.

After all that, I thought about how the idea could simply be used as a discussion topic for a dogme lesson. It would have been much simpler, but this was a process not a product approach for me!

Image from www.stupidfresh.com

I suppose that this post is a reflection on action, through being a reflection on a past process, but also in action as I was further thinking of possibilities as I wrote the post. There's a whole lot of cognition and metacognition going on here, I can tell you! This felt like gathering think-aloud data on myself, which is a bit odd. All I can say is that this process has been very interesting for me on various levels, the main one being the metacognitive process of reflecting on how my thinking proceeded during the lesson planning. (I have realised since finishing the post that there isn't much talk about language points, what does that betray about my thinking?! Is it important?! In many ways I'd rather work with what emerges.)

As a blog post, I thought it would be nice to get some further ideas on what could be done with this idea, also to get some feedback on the idea and to allow my thought process to provoke your own thinking about how you come up with ideas for lessons. I'd love to hear some thoughts from other people on this idea and my reflections. Maybe somebody might take up a challenge and write a post like this about their own lesson planning idea?However, perhaps you have a job (and a life) and don't have time for such things. I suppose I've only done it because I'm procrastinating about reading for my MA assignments and avoiding the media attention of a certain wedding. Ok, that's it, must do some work.

If you've read all of this, I say 'awfully well done', wish you a good day and I hope you might have gained something from the experience.

Panic on the streets of TEFL?

Panic (ELT unplugged)

by The Bonzo Dogme Band

(to the tune of 'Panic', a very high quality tune by The Smiths, see below)

Panic in the institutions,

panic from the coursebook publishers,

I wonder to myself.

Could we be able to teach this way?

The materials light conversation,

I wonder to myself.

Hopes may rise over dogme,

without paper we'd save trees.

Should we teach bland

with a coursebook in our hand?

But there's panic at the British Council,

Bell, EF, International House 

I wonder to myself.

'Tell all the teachers

to burn the blessed coursebook,

because the syllabus they always obey,

it says nothing to me about my life',

said frustrated students.

Does the lesson have to be this way?

The materials light conversation,

the emergent language, facilitation.

Burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook

Burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook

Burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook

Burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook

Burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook

Burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook

Burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook

Burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook

Burn the coursebook, burn the coursebook

Random extra bit

I don't agree or not agree,

it's just a tune that came to me...

Let's see what the magic bag thinks

We've all been there

Sometimes in class we want to choose one child to do something and often this can be difficult because the kids get annoyed if they aren't chosen. What criteria do you use to choose which child is going to do whatever it is, or go first? I was just watching a video in which the teacher was surrounded by kids desperate to have a go of something, it reminded me how stressful this can be, particularly when you're having a bad teacher day. 

I recommend a simple technique that I learnt a couple of years ago. Incidentally, it was while observing a teacher who really didn't want to be observed, but had to be to comply with school procedures. In the end, I was able to help her feel more positive about the experience as I told her some things that I was going to take away and use in my own classroom, which she was really chuffed about. 

The main idea I took away was having all the children's names on small cards in a bag. At the start of the course I asked them to write their names on the card, using nice colours and making it personal, then they are put into a 'magic' bag. During each subsequent lesson when I need to choose one student, out comes the bag and I take one name out of the bag, this child is 'the chosen one'! After that, the previous child will take the next name out of the bag. 

I generally have classes of up to 12 students and this has worked well for me with my classes of primary children. The kids often still huff and puff and get annoyed, but the choice is pure chance and is more objective, so I feel less under pressure to be 'fair'. The kids tend to call it 'the lottery' and through doing it they also learn lexis such as: lucky, unlucky, bad luck, hard luck, good luck and even 'keep your fingers crossed' which they like to do while waiting for the name to be read out.   

I know that some teachers like to choose based on behaviour and I have tried this, but I always felt under a lot of pressure and I like to reward the kids in other ways. Behavioural reward requires such consistency that I don't think that it's a good idea to put too much importance on behaviour in teacher decision making, it can lead to frustration on the part of some students who end up feeling hard done to. I prefer to work on developing a group dynamic and not over-praise individuals. Also, I often feel that the teacher's perception of which child is the best behaved is not always the right one. I have rewarded kids at times but have been shouted at by other kids because they have seen this child doing things that I hadn't noticed, I don't know about anyone else, but contrary to the popular saying I know that I don't have eyes in the back of my head. 

What is 'well-behaved' anyway? Always shouting the answer is annoying, but if it's always in English, is that bad? Likewise, quiet is often considered good, but does a child who never speaks out in class deserve the reward just because of this? What messages are being given out to the students? I think it's important to think about the way we react to situations and I don't feel bad about saying that I find this very difficult. I want all the children to be happy and I don't want the reason they aren't to be me. I'll be a really soft dad one day I'm sure! ; )

As a result, I like to work with chance, I think it's objective and fair (mostly) although I must also admit to 'rigging it' occasionally if I think one child's luck has been particularly bad. Also, if someone has been badly behaved, their name is removed from the bag. 

Things I use this for involve the opportunity to write on the board, to go first in a game, to hand out scissors, paper, glue or other equipment. An activity it worked very well for was ordering turns to play an IWB game, such as those from classtools.net or the British Council Learn English Kids site, ('Monkey Alphabet!') games that they got so excited about but had to wait their turn. In this context it also fits in with the idea that the kids shouldn't know the order in advance, such as when choosing students to answer questions, because they'll switch off until their turn. using the bag after each turn brings the students' concentration back as they focus on who will be next. Having said that, it's always a good idea, in my opinion, to have them all involved in doing something after their turn, whether it's shouting help, counting down a timer or writing down scores, something to keep them occupied in a useful task.

Ok, that's that. This all just sprung to mind after watching a video of a teacher being swarmed by a gang of young 'uns, it brought back the feeling of being back n the classroom, surrounded by excitable children. It made me miss teaching, but it also made me think about what I would be doing to overcome that situation, which is one that I find uncomfortable, especially when accompanied by high-decibel shouts of 'me', 'me', 'me'!

First? You?! Let's see what the magic bag thinks, eh?

IATEFL here I come!

This weekend is the IATEFL conference in Brighton and tomorrow I will be heading down there. I am extremely excited about meeting so many of the interesting people I have met and interacted with online over the last year or so as well as finding out about new and exciting things from the sessions I attend. I've been looking at the conference programme and I'm already completely overwhelmed by everything on offer but I've prepared a little bit and made some choices about which sessions to go to, so I hope to hit the ground running. 

I am delighted that my blog was chosen to be shown in the ELT Blogosphere Symposium video. I fully intend to go along to the symposium but I'm torn by the fact that Manchester United are playing Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final at the same time! Thank goodness for smartphones - I think I'll sneakily be following the BBC updates on the internet during that.

I am planning to make notes and post some conference journal style articles here on the blog, but I'm sure I'll be kept busy by all the sessions and some social action. I'll try my best, but I'm not promising anything. I'm already panicking a bit about the amount of work I need to do for my MA over the next few months, in May in particular, so there won't be much time for blogging.

Ok, well, if you're in Brighton and you see some tall bloke who looks a bit scruffy and might need a hair-cut, it might be me, so come and say hello! : )


Late addition: I'd also like to point out that after my MA finishes at the end of August I'll be looking for a job, so if you have any ideas, suggestions or offers, let me know! ; )

Larkin' about

I wrote this post for World Poetry Day, but couldn't quite find the words to finish it off, having revisited the text and edited it a little I am now happy to share! : )

This Be The Verse

by Philip Larkin

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

By fools in old-style hats and coats,

Who half the time were soppy-stern

And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don't have any kids yourself.

I really like this poem. It is the opposite of positive thinking! it is cynical and critical and it is not really about parents, but about how dreadful society can be. To me, the poem demonstrates how parents are a product of a society, and as they were, so are we. If society stifled their creativity, freedom and desire to work towards change, then so will it stifle ours. Of course, we should try our best not allow this to happen.

The reason I'm posting this here on my blog, apart from the fact that it is [Ok, it 'was' - Ed] World Poetry Day, is that I can't help thinking how much this situation is related to education. As education is a huge influence on the knowledge and motivation of a society, lazy teaching or restrictive institutions are only going to further the deepening of the 'coastal shelf'. The poem goes some way, I think, to describing how many people are experiencing and have experienced education. I'd like to think that the weight of feeling within the teaching communities of the world will change the outcome of deepening misery described in the final verse.

Teachers are so often seen as figures of hatred and schools are to be feared and loathed by young people, while currently teenagers are targeted by the media and demonised, creating an image of devils-in-hoodies in need of stricter controls. So many TV debates and internet discussion forums talk of a 'return to the old days', meaning stricter classrooms and sometimes a return to corporal punishment. The purveyors of such opinion are the 'fools' mentioned in the poem and they should not be allowed to hand on any more misery to anyone. 

Revision workstations - an old favourite

I was asked today for some examples of activities to use with an exam class tutorial, PET and KET, specifically. I must admit to not having taught PET or KET classes before, but I'm aware of the style of test and some of the activities. Something I learnt some years ago (it was an IH Braga favourite, where I used to work), was the concept of revision workstations. It's possibly quite a well known activity, but it's been a favourite of mine for a while and my students have usually enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share. You can use this activity for various things but they are ideal to make those end-of-unit, dry as a bone selection of text book revision activities come to life. A competition element helps, although I've had to abandon competition with some classes as some of them were really bad losers, or bad winners!

You need to photocopy a selection of activities, usually the gap fill, word ordering, vocabulary categorising style exercises so that you have a number of them, between 6 and 10 should do it, depending on time limits. They should be cut up to be on separate pieces of paper. It's often useful to have them on coloured paper for aesthetic value and laminated for reuse and damage protection, well, limitation anyway. However, if you don't think it'll be repeated, then don't bother. I've known some teachers like to create an organised answer sheet, but I usually just have the students write the answers in their notebooks. In terms of the exercises, they could always be created by students, rather than taken from a book, one class creating challenging activities for another class, for example.

In the class, these activities can be placed in different areas of the room, either on a table or stuck on the wall or even just on a chair at the front of the class. It depends if you want the students to move from activity to activity or just to take one at a time back to their seats/ desks. 

The students complete one activity after another, in any order, but after they think they have completed each one, they must check with the teacher. If their answers are correct, the students can continue to another activity. If not, they must try again and, depending on the situation, the teacher can give them clues of some description. I tend not to give them help the first time, as their mistakes are often the product of rushing and they can correct them alone, simply by concentrating a little harder. I'd like to think this will encourage them to correct their work more when it comes to exams. Beware of activities that potentially require the students just to list letters, e.g. 1) a, 2) b etc, I tend to ask them to write full answers.

An example 'digital' race track

In terms of the competition element, I like to make it a race across the whiteboard with flashcards or something representing each team. Obviously, this sort of thing can now be done cleverly with the affordances of an IWB (see example, the animals can be dragged and dropped), but there's nothing wrong with flashcards and blu-tac! Draw a race track on the board, separated into sections, enough for each activity, with a start and a finish line. The students can choose a flashcard, I usually use animal ones but they can draw their own (though it can be time-consuming), drawing a simple snail is a good plan which I've used a lot. The winners are the students who finish all the activities correctly first, therefore their team symbol/ animal reaches the finish line ahead of the others. 

In terms of feedback, a good side to this activity is that the students receive instant, personal feedback on specific language items, although it can be a bit of a challenge to keep everything under control if the students are running to you at the same time with their answers. Any issues common to the class can be discussed together at the end, with a remedial language focus if necessary and it is also possible to follow up with homework specific to individual learner's problems.

Another thing that springs to mind is the opportunity to feed in incidental language during the activity. The kids love to shout 'finished' or 'first!' and this sort of language can be worked with in competition activities by feeding in phrases. Some things I've tried to introduce include: 'Get in!', 'We've finished!', 'One left!', 'runners-up' and some favourites for the 'losers' - 'the wooden spoon', 'Never mind' and 'Better luck next time!'

Right, I think that's everything and I hope it all makes sense! If you have any suggestions, similar activities you've used or ideas for adapting my instructions above, please leave a comment, all thoughts are, as always, extremely welcome.

Cheers. 

Guest Post: Do as I say, definitely not as I do...by Iain Fuller

This post has been written by my friend and former colleague Iain Fuller, teacher, traveller, photographer, football writer and Watford fan. I suggested he write something reflecting on his Spanish learning experiences much as I have in some recent posts about my Spanish classes. This post is available here and on Iain's own relatively new blog on which he also writes about his experiences in Libya last year, before the current trouble kicked in. I think Iain makes some really good points here and certainly made me laugh with some of his wry humour.


Ok, there's the intro, over to the esteemed Mr. Iain Fuller...

The tables were turned... and I'd lost control of the board marker and I didn't like it.

Envious of watching students pack up their books and notes whilst deliberating where to go for lunch together or in which pub to meet later that day I decided to become a language student for two months.  Oh, and to learn something... of course.

Before reading on, there is a disclaimer, I learned a lot, both linguistically and also in terms of picking up new ideas for things that I could do in class, a beneficial experience in many ways and money well spent.

However, in a sense it was akin to having a good look in the mirror and I saw some ugly things.  Over the course of two months I was taught by three different teachers of varying levels of experience, quality and approach.  It was a subtle reminder of things not to repeat in my classes once back on the TEFL horse.

'Don't patronise your students'

Ehem, I'm a 47 year old Lawyer...

Now, maybe I'm alone here but on answering a question correctly, a nod, a wink, or just a simple 'yes' will suffice.  High tempo clapping served with a beaming smile is over doing it, receiving a sticker with a smiley face is quite frankly superfluous. I think I may have even witnessed the teacher in question raising an invisible trophy aloft in celebration of 'winning' a warmer, bare in mind that the average of the class was in the early 40s.

It's like cracking a risque joke, evaluate your audience first.  None of us were 8 years old.  Also, a dose of sarcasm in the face of a wrong answer will be humoured by a few but discouraging to many.

'Revise those basics'

Can we speak please?

The devil's in the detail.  Throughout the course I was often left wanting to compare my answers with my partner before announcing them in naked form, safety in numbers and all that... a partner can often reel in a schoolboy error before you cast the line of embarrassment.

Time limits, how I missed them... countless times I was left wondering with what kind of depth I should be approaching the task at hand, 'prepare your argument for why the candle was a more important invention than the cinema' is abstract enough without knowing if I'm about to embark on a castaway filler or simply pad out the rest of the lesson. 

Going around the class one by one gave us plenty of time to work out which question was on its way to slap us in the face, peer election however would have eliminated this.  Random selection keeps people on their toes, focuses attention and stops students switching off after 'their turn'.

Oh, teacher talking time, as interested as I was in hearing about the teacher's ex-boyfriend... actually, I wasn't.  There were plenty more examples of how those 'basics' were neglected but with TTT in mind I'll draw a line under it for now.  

'Don't bring school politics into the classroom'

Can't have the credit going elsewhere...

So... Iain, how did you enjoy the lesson with Paula (name changed to protect the identity of victim), 'very good' was my reply anticipating genuine interest from her fellow educator.  'Yeah, well the idea for the lesson was mine, I told her what to do before the class, you know, she
doesn't have as much experience as me so...

What 'Paula' lacked in experience she certainly made up for it in personal skills, charisma, natural talent and modesty.

You'll not be surprised to know that some members of staff are unpopular, some are paid more than others, somebody else once interrupted another during the meeting, so and so only arrived two minutes before their class etc etc... Jesus wept, well I wept anyway, the class seriously doesn't need to know about the inner workings of the academy.

'Conceal linguistic knowledge'

Yeah? Well your face is muy annoying...

I uttered a phrase during conversation practice when suddenly the thunder clouds of correction gathered... and before I had the chance to take cover, a the lightening bolt of smugness had struck me down.  'That mistake was veeeeeerrrry English' came the correction in an unctuous manner.
Now, being English, by default any error I commit will always be English, I mean, as much as I tried I just wasn't able to make a 'very Japanese' mistake.

As innocent as the comment may have been intended it left me with an urge to kill myself and everyone around me.  What made it worse was that I'mfairly sure I'd been guilty of doing this in class myself.
As a result, I'm going to follow the example of moustachioed chap Earl from the 'My name is Earl' series, I've made a list of all the students that I might have done this to, I will travel the world apologising and won't rest until every last request of forgiveness has been accepted.

I am of course exaggerating for comedy effect...

You've just made a general error no obvious signs of first language interference whatsoever...

Please feel free to leave any comments, a confession of guilt, a similar experience, don't worry, nobody reads this anyway... not even me... and hopefully not any teachers of Spanish to foreigner learners anyway, it could well be that I've made a very English error...

There you go. Please feel free to comment here or alternatively, pop over to Iain's blog, comment there and make him feel like he's not talking to himself!

There goes the fear: taking the anxiety out of observation

Observations, eh? The cornerstone of teacher 'development' throughout the world. Well, in the contexts I've worked in anyway, along with the obligatory weekly workshop; carried out by the DoS, ADoS, Senior Teacher, perhaps a colleague as a peer observation, maybe a critical friend or a trusted mentor. The potential benefits of observation are great, hence their ubiquity, but as far as I'm aware, and certainly in terms of my own career development, just as teachers get promoted to managers without knowing much about management, teachers are installed in positions where there is a requirement for them to conduct teacher training and carry out observations without having much knowledge or receiving any training about what they are supposed to be doing. 

Does this matter? 

Just as many teachers adopt the habits and approaches of their own teachers when they were on the 'receiving end', teachers as trainers will perhaps adopt the methods and habits of their trainers. Perhaps somebody will come on here and tell me I'm talking nonsense, but I am speaking from personal experience, as the teacher and the observer. I'm not saying that all the feedback I've given and received has been useless, far from it, but I do think that my past trainers and myself could have done more to foster more positive feelings towards observing and being observed.

Most teachers will have been observed plenty of times before reaching a senior position, so they can use what they've learnt from their previous experiences. The problem is that this is a perfect way of perpetuating a trend, wherein the feedback process is the same. Forms are filled in, boxes are ticked, reports are written, records are kept and the teacher breathes a large sigh of relief; they've got through another one and they're safe from intrusion until next term. There are more options for conducting observations, such as those suggested by Ruth Wajnryb, but in this post I just wish to focus on the potential for changing our feelings towards observations.

We're watching you! - By Canadian Veggie on Flickr

Observation means fear and anxiety to many (most?) teachers, because it is immediately associated with judgment and assessment. Would it not be better for everybody if observation was not connected with judgment and evaluation? Teachers could make the most of observation as a stress-free, developmental opportunity and trainers wouldn't have to deal with the affective, (sometimes personal and professional) barriers created by anxiety and fear, so that colleagues could be comfortable popping into each other's classrooms. As a result, the students would become more comfortable with an observer being present and thus remove some of the issues created by the 'observer's paradox', which suggests that any observation gives a false representation of a situation as it is altered by the mere presence of an observer.

In many schools the rank and file teacher is observed by his or her superiors, for the purpose of evaluation, though it is often couched as development. In some cases that is what observation means, full stop. Some schools talk of peer observations, but in reality it rarely happens, because the teachers are afraid of opening themselves up to colleagues as much as they are of allowing a superior to watch - because observation means judgement and we don't like judgement. 

What about allowing inexperienced teachers to watch their more experienced colleagues? This could give a novice some valuable insights into the classroom approach of a senior colleague: what they do, the decisions they make, their classroom management approach, perhaps merely the fact that sometimes activities go pear-shaped even for experienced teachers. However, experienced teachers have a knowledge-base that inexperienced teachers don't have, available to them to use as knowledge in action, enabling them to overcome potential difficulties or minimise the effects of something that doesn't work. During a cooperative feedback session the novice could ask the 'expert' questions about his or her decision-making, which could give some valuable insights into the working mind of the experienced teacher. This, of course, relies on a lot of trust and I think that developing trusting relationships between colleagues is at the heart of creating an effective teaching team. As for what's in it for the experienced teacher, I'll quote Ruth Wajnryb:


"The relationship between teaching and learning is a complex and fascinating one, generating ironies as well as beauty and reward. The overwhelming impression in my mind today, after more than twenty years' work as a professional teacher and teacher trainer, is how much I have learned from those I set out to teach."

A problem with the suggestion that 'novices' should observe 'experts' is that experienced teachers often still carry 'the fear' and don't wish to be embarrassed in front of their junior colleagues. A rarely admitted 'bonus' of attaining seniority is the escape from being observed, is it not?!  The anxiety of being observed is natural, it is like a performance and nerves are a common part of many experienced actors or musicians performing lives and they are more judged than teachers. However, I would like to think that a school which nurtures a staffroom community of practice engaged in more regular observation, free from the fear of judgement, with an atmosphere of collaboration and cooperation, could benefit greatly in terms of teacher development, for teachers of all ages and levels of experience. 

Teacher development is arguably of greater importance in EFL than other areas of education, particularly for NESTs, as teachers go through a minimal pre-service education. Therefore, a collegial atmosphere in private language schools should be encouraged so that the teachers can work together as a team to raise the standard of teaching in their school, to the benefit of both the staff and the students and potentially the bank accounts of the owners, which maybe something worth pointing out to some school owners out there. ; )


I'm hoping that some readers might be up for sharing some thoughts on observation as I'm preparing to write an MA assignment on non-judgemental approaches! 

Related posts


Ceri Jones - Every Lesson Tells a Story Part Two