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Peer Observation

By Alexandra Chistyakova

How important is peer observation for teachers?

In my case, the peer observation I went through early in my teaching career became a turning point in my professional development. In fact, most of what I know about and can do in the classroom in terms of teaching a foreign language I owe to peer observation. It’s through observing a highly professional teacher that I learnt how to teach.

However, the way I did my peer observation was somewhat non-standard: I wasn’t just sitting at the back of the class observing another teacher and her class. I was exceptionally lucky to be both the observer and the recipient of teaching – I was a peer observer disguised as a regular student. No, that wasn’t my plan to fool my teacher in order to spy on her in secret, that would have been the meanest thing to do. As a matter of fact, I was a student in the English Conversation and Pronunciation course at Oxford House College in London. I went there simply to improve my English skills and in no way could I imagine I would be improving my teaching skills as well.

By that time I had already been teaching English for two years. But as I hadn’t been trained to be a teacher, all I was doing in my classroom was to diligently copy my own university teachers. I should admit here that in many respects it was some kind of grammar-translation method with bits of communicative approach. Actually, I didn’t even think that it was possible to teach languages in any other way since it was the only way I had experienced and observed (talk about the importance of observation!) as a language learner.

Now you can imagine my utter surprise when after the first week of my English course in Oxford House College I realized that without any homework and drills I could effortlessly use the vocabulary and expressions we studied in class. It felt like pure magic! I decided to meticulously record everything my teacher did in class in order to unravel the magic. That was the start of my two-month peer observation and the beginning of my transformation as a teacher: I would carefully write down what activities we were doing and in what order, I would number the corresponding worksheets and handouts, I would note down some bits of instructions and my own comments to the activities. By the end of the course, I had a detailed outline of each and every lesson we had. Thus, I could look back at my notes to analyze and reflect on the classroom procedures and teaching techniques and to learn from them.

When I came back to my classroom at the start of a new academic year, I felt motivated to teach like I had never done before because now I knew how the magic worked and I knew how to work this magic! I had a much clearer understanding of what should be done in the classroom and why this should be done.

All in all, it seems to me there are two types of peer observation: when you observe what is happening in the classroom without taking part in the classroom activities, and when you actively participate in the process and evaluate the learning and teaching processes from the inside. I believe both ways are worth trying. The first type allows you to see the broader picture and also notice some subtle developments that you may overlook while being engaged in the process. However, doing the classroom activities yourself can give you an invaluable opportunity to look at things from a learner’s perspective. Moreover, the second way of observing your peers largely prevents you from being too judgmental and jumping to conclusions too quickly. It’s necessary to note here that the latter two tendencies (being judgmental and jumping to conclusions) should be avoided as much as possible because they are the biggest obstacles to effective peer observation as they make you biased in what you see in class.

So, how important is peer observation for teachers? From my perspective, it’s highly important because non-judgmentally observing others may help you find out new teaching techniques, may make you reconsider your own practices, and undoubtedly will help you develop professionally and extend your arsenal of teaching tools and tricks. In addition to this, peer observation may lead to a constructive dialogue between teachers and has the potential to help teachers build a collaborative and supportive community.

This was my story of peer observation. What’s yours?

The Benefits of Observing Self

By John Pfordresher

Opening a classroom to observation can be unnerving. Anxiety, resentment, and frustration are all commonly linked to teachers’ thoughts and discussions of the subject. Adding to that toxic milieu, most teachers only know of observation through the stressful prism of what is probably more accurately described as a performance review. These come along infrequently and are typically specially prepared for, which greatly diminishes the beneficial effects that quality observation can provide.

This post will argue for an entirely different perspective with regards to observation. Observation, rather than being scheduled and anxiety-ridden, can and should be a daily task teachers perform for themselves; an activity that will greatly benefit one’s teaching practice, one’s understanding of self and one’s ability to adjust to the needs of learners. I will begin with a discussion of a few successful methods of collecting observation data, after which we’ll further investigate the process of self-observation and look at what can be done with the data that’s been collected.

Self-observation Data-gathering Activities

To start, I’d like to share and explain a few activities that have proved useful in collecting objective and actionable data from my classroom. At this point it would be prudent for me to underline the fact that there is no “correct way” or “best time” to do any of the following, because two main outcomes will result regardless of when, how, or why you choose an activity. Tangible observation data will be the concrete product, while meta-awareness, engendered through the act of self-observation itself, will be the abstract outcome.

Mental Snapshots: Take a mental snapshot of the classroom and record as many of the descriptive details as possible from that moment. I find this exercise useful for pulling my train of thought into the present moment. One of the most difficult aspects of self-observation is maintaining an unbiased perspective of what is happening in your own classroom. Snapshots require actively honing our observational skills. This simple action takes less than a minute, grounds perceptions in objective realities, and provides a detailed account of a moment of the class, providing me with ample discrete data points on which to evaluate and assess at a later point in time.

Hot Notes: Hot notes are notes taken in the heat of the action. Quickly jotting down a thought, student comment, reaction or feeling provides useful tidbits of data. This activity is useful for keeping track of the “blips” within a lesson. By blips, I mean the informative, unintended or unforeseen happenings and/or comments that occur between the numerous actors within a classroom that can easily get lost in the turmoil of the experience of the lesson as a whole. I have found that hot notes help reacquaint me with decision points I deal with when teaching. Further, they serve to reconnect me with whatever I was feeling or thinking in that moment.

Objective/Subjective: This activity serves a dual purpose. It is a conduit through which I collect lots of useful data, but it also acts as an explicit check on my self-observations. Objectivity is not easily acquired or retained. Due to this, I find the purposeful act of recording notes in columns explicitly labeled as objective and subjective gives me the mental practice necessary to keep my perceptions as objective as possible. Furthermore, I have found that subjectively observing my classroom provides data useful in highlighting any unseen prejudice or favoritism.

Feedback: Utilize both informal and formal student feedback. Feedback is critical to successful learning, for both a student and a teacher. Tune student feedback to include questions that will provide additional data for you to utilize in reflection. Students experience your teaching practice frequently and are well placed to provide useful insight via their observations of your teaching.

Point and Click: I take a lot of photos of my classroom. Typically, I record the notes I write on the blackboard, classroom set-up, as well as student-produced work. A lot of observable information can be gleaned from a photo. The first time I took a picture of my whiteboard and came back to look at it later I was horrified to see how disorganized it all looked. I began to self-observe my board work. Doing so has led to countless outcomes. By focusing on my board work, I have been forced to make lesson objectives and goals more explicit, which has led to more forethought with regards to possible learner hurdles and/or questions that might arise. This, in turn, has led to adjustments in my planned activity on the board. Additionally, photos can act as a sort of proof or counter-point to observations noted during a lesson.

ANYTHING really: These are only a few options that I have had success with. Anything one can do to increase and improve the quality of observation data will be beneficial to the self-observation process.

The Process of Self-Observation

The process of observation does not begin with collecting data from a classroom. Prior to beginning observation, it is critical to identify specific aspects of our teaching practice we aim to study. I usually choose one primary aspect for observation and one or two secondary foci for attention during the lesson.

What do we focus on? This question can be daunting, as there are so many moving parts of a classroom. The following is an extremely abbreviated list of a few areas of focus I consider prior to self-observation:

* Student-to-student interactions

* Student-to-teacher interactions

* Student reactions/responses to methods, activities, tasks, etc

* Student reactions/responses to teacher requests

* Teacher-talk

* Teacher positioning (where you are when you are doing what)

* Board work

* Giving directions/instructions

* Timing/time-management

* Lesson structure

* Feedback

* Décor/location alterations/changes

Having explicit, concrete ideas of what I will focus my observation on helps keep me on track when confronted with the melee that is a classroom. Staying focused in this way provides data that are more relevant and useful in evaluation. Unfocused observation tends to produce a deluge of uncorrelated data that will drown out worthwhile insights or trends.

Making Use of all that Data

I’ve got all sorts of data, now what?

This is perhaps the trickiest part of self-observation. When being observed by a supervisor or peer there is (usually) a pre- and post-lesson discussion. When doing it on your own, it is quite easy to finish class and drop the observation ball. By this, I mean the prep work and in-class observational work is all done, but the data ends up sitting on a desktop (real or virtual) unanalyzed.

Data is helpful, but without appropriate classification it can easily turn into a mountain of anxiety. Being a complex organism, every classroom and every day will present unique data points that do not lend themselves to a one-size-fits-all organizational structure. Determining your own best practices in data organization will take some time and effort. Indeed, most critical to successful management of your observation data is whichever method you choose makes sense to you and your context.

Beware of the Encroachment of Certainty

Self-observation is anathema to certainty. Readers may wonder at this statement. Isn’t self-observation supposed to bring our understanding out of opaqueness and into the light of clarity? Yes, and no. Self-observation provides those ‘ah-ha!’ moments, however complex systems (that classrooms are) are ever-changing organisms. The clarity of today reverts to opacity tomorrow. Self-observation disabuses us of holding onto a notion of certainty around our practice. It provides the necessary data to expand our pedagogical knowledge and our understanding of self. It delivers insight and offers the navigational clues as to a positive course for future action. However, it also constantly calls our assumptions into question. It is one of the most important tools I have in my teaching toolbox, and I hope (if it isn’t already) that it will become a useful tool in yours as well.

The Newbie Issue

Trying something new, whether it is a new activity we decide to bring into class or a new position we take on, is always challenging and requires a lot of courage and spirit. In this issue, Matthew Turner, Yitzha Sarwono, and our brave new blogger Ruthie Iida share their personal stories of being newbies – in integrating a deaf student into an oral communication class, in teacher training, and in becoming a student again.

Matthew Turner

Teaching a deaf learner: A new experience

Embracing CLIL as a teacher trainer

From Sensei To Student

Teaching a deaf learner: A new experience

Matthew Turner

By Matthew Turner

On paper I’m a fairly experienced teacher, having taught for almost 10 years at the time of writing this. Over that time, I’ve also undertaken various forms of professional development and worked in numerous classroom settings. In many respects, I can no longer be thought of as a newbie. However, back in April of this year, I was very much placed in the position of a newbie for the first time in a while, when I was given the challenge of integrating a deaf class member into a compulsory oral English communication course. In all my years of teaching, I’ve never had a learner with any kind of hearing impairment, nor by extension have I really experienced teaching a student with a recognised or self-identified disability. In in-service courses, such as my MA program, my DipTESOL, and even my pre-service CertTESOL, there was never a module, workshop, or focus on teaching English as a foreign or second language to learners with disabilities. This is an issue that has already been raised by my peers. Robert Lowe (2016a) in his article for the Modern English Teacher magazine commented that provisions for SEN – (Special educational needs), are scarcely discussed issues on the above mentioned programs. Lowe suggests that teachers that enter the “ELT profession by following the most common training routes (not including those teachers trained in the state sector) are unlikely to have received any substantial guidance in how to teach students with SEN” (p.73).

I want to use this blog post to describe what I learnt from the experiences teaching a deaf student, with my hope that this piece will help to raise awareness of this undervalued area of our profession, and give you the reader some practical considerations for the classroom. Throughout the time I taught my hearing impaired learner, who for anonymity purposes I shall call ‘Kikuno,’ I kept a diary. After each class I would reflect on an aspect of the lesson that went well, that didn’t work at all, or anything else of relevance. I will refer to my diary as I write this blog.

The teacher as newbie

My class was an English discussion class, a class that required the ability to actively listen and respond to other people’s ideas and express opinions. Kikuno couldn’t speak, nor could she hear the discussions she was involved in. My plans that worked in other classes simply wouldn’t fit this group of learners, and so I had to adjust to the situation before me. The challenge, however, was to allow for integration and not make too much of the obvious differences. There were three areas in particular where adaptations were made. Firstly, I had to script my teacher talk. Before the lesson, I wrote down all of my planned teacher talk on separate sheets of paper that reflected the stages of the lesson. This allowed for Kikuno to follow my speech with the guidance of her note-takers (two student volunteers, one working as her voice, the other as her ears). This largely worked, however I complicated things by improvising, or going off-script. This got better over time as I disciplined myself to stop doing this, ultimately better scripting my instructions so that realtime modifications weren’t necessary. Secondly, the timing and the pacing of activities needed to be reconsidered. With a deaf learner as a member of a discussion group, everything takes a little bit longer. For example, the opinions spoken by the other learners needed to be written down and shown to Kikuno and Kikuno’s own ideas had to be conveyed via the note-takers. I learnt that short pair-work activities, mingling tasks, and other staples of my teaching simply wouldn’t work. Generally, I had to spread everything out, and give everyone more time and space to produce what was required. Finally, I made things a lot more tactile and visual. Phrases for expressing opinions, reasons, and examples were placed on the table for all the learners to use with Kikuno. I also insisted on hand gestures so that Kikuno would know who and when was taking their speaking turn in the discussion.

The learner as newbie

For my learners, it was largely the first time that they’d interacted with a deaf person, let alone shared a classroom with one. For Kikuno, it was the first time that she’d been in a learning environment that wasn’t tailored for hearing impairment. Throughout the process, the other class members quickly learnt the boundaries, particularly the speed at which they should speak and their conduct in discussion tasks. The learners got better at observing the note-takers’ and Kikuno’s styluses, and paying attention to the disparity in speed between spoken and written English. Kikuno also learnt her role in discussions, taking in all the other members’ points of view first before skillfully delivering her own. I also encouraged her not to prepare her ideas whilst she was simultaneously taking in everyone else’s opinions. She gradually learnt that other members would help her to develop ideas collectively, by asking follow-up questions. Over time everyone became more comfortable with the inevitable silences, which led to richer and more meaningful discussions. The other learners came to better understand the value of teamwork in discussions, often holding back the urge to ask questions themselves, in order to give Kikuno the chance to ask one of her own.

A new experience for the institution

This was also a completely new situation for my institution. Throughout the process, I learnt the importance of collaboration with different groups of people. Meetings were routinely held to discuss the best ways to move forward, ideas were exchanged, some of which made it to the class while others were seen as unviable. Concerns and appraisals were also expressed, everyone continuously learning from one another. Above all, everyone learnt the importance of listening to Kikuno herself, for she is the one who could tell us the most about effective procedures. Everyone took note of Kikuno’s insistence and desires to be a fully integrated member of compulsory English program and were happy to run with the uncertainty that such a situation brings. This collaborative process involving Kikuno, various support staff, and myself appears to reflect and is in keeping with Lowe’s (2016b) SEN framework for continuing professional development. Lowe suggests four steps: 1. Student consultation, 2. Internal coaching and mentoring, 3. Outside support and training, and 4. Cascade training and recycling knowledge. It’s at the fourth stage that I find myself now.

Not such a newbie now?

At the time of writing, Kikuno continues to study English, albeit with a different instructor who is likely experiencing the same things that I went through. I now find myself offering my thoughts as advice to her new instructor, which has left me with a great thirst to know more about similar stories and related research in the wider teaching world. Unfortunately, literature dedicated to the teaching of deaf learners in ELT is decidedly lacking, and as I hope my post has shown, the process has very much been trial and error. However, I’m pleased to say that I’ve found some wonderful resources along the way. Fellow iTDi contributor Naomi Epstein’s thought-provoking blog Visualising Ideas is dedicated almost entirely to her experiences in working with deaf and hard of hearing students. I have also found a handful of works that focus specifically on deafness in language learning education, namely Strong (1988) and Swisher (1989), while a more recent title by Judit Kormos and Anne Margaret Smith (2012) provides formative reading around the subject of specific learning differences.  So I’m still a newbie, and I’m happy with that. I feel lucky to have been given such a challenge at this stage in my teaching career and will endeavour to make it a part of my continuing professional development through practice and research. I hope the field will also take it on as more of a serious issue.

References

Kormos, J. & Smith, A.M. (2012). Teaching Languages to Students with Specific Learning Differences. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Lowe, R. (2016a). Special educational needs coordinators in ELT: A necessary step? The Modern English Teacher, 25(2), 73-75.

Lowe, R. (2016b). Special educational needs in English language teaching: Towards a framework for continuing professional development. ELTED, 19, 23-31.

Strong, M. (1988). Language Learning and Deafness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Swisher M.V. (1989). The language learning situation of deaf students. TESOL Quarterly, 23(2) 239–258.

Embracing CLIL as a teacher trainer

By Yitzha Sarwono

First time is fresh, first time gives new flesh. Experience makes you rich and experience sets you free. As an adventurer, I’ve always loved to be given a chance to embrace something new. I must say I was getting rusty because I didn’t do anything challenging for quite a while.

The opportunity came along in the form of teacher training. I should say that training teachers wasn’t something entirely new for me since I’d done it a few times before, though on a smaller scale and only for teachers in my school. But this was something I considered out of my league: not only did I get the chance to train teachers from a different school, but I also had to train Maths and Science teachers!

Let me start from the beginning. Last February I was offered a chance to provide training for ENET (English for Non English Teachers). I was in a team of 7 trainers who came from different backgrounds and teaching fields. Our client was one of the most popular private schools in Indonesia and the program involved 80 hours of training. The goal was for the Maths and Science teachers to feel confident in teaching their subjects using full English in the classroom.

Before we could jump into training, we had to be trained, too, because none of us actually knew much about Maths or Science curriculum. We had to embrace CLIL (content language integrated learning) and start by learning the school’s material. We had to learn about things like phylum cordata, vertebrate, decimal system, 2 digits subtraction pattern, and many others. Learning this material was fun but trying to build a lesson in such a way that the teachers would be able to teach students using simple and comprehensible language was something else. Aside from learning the subjects, we were also trained on how to organize the program. As it was 80-hour training, we divided it into blocks of 3 sessions each day, 2 hours per session. In practice that meant that every time we got to the classroom we were set to teach for 6 hours, which was really intense! The length of the course could be demotivating for the participants and there was so much content to cover, so the preparation had to be thorough and handled well. Thankfully, we had an awesome team who would go extra miles in preparing the material for all the trainers. As our schedule consisted of long sessions, we had to make sure that we would provide engaging activities for all the trainees to stay motivated and actively participating throughout the program.

Every trainer was also taking part in designing lesson plans and the teacher’s guide. We spent a lot of time doing it, and since some of us lived in other cities, there were a lot of late nights, whatsapp sessions, dozens of emails, and revision here and there. We used all the tools we could to provide the healthy environment for all teachers to grow. From Power Point and flashcards to online learning sessions – we did it all.

I was very nervous before I started my first session because not only some of the teachers were more experienced than me in teaching, but I was also afraid that I wouldn’t answer their questions or fulfill their needs. Another concern I had was how I’d get through 6 hours of training time without anyone yawning in my class! Luckily, everyone in my team was very supportive (and the head of trainers reminded me to always speak slowly and look a bit more mature).

I had the privilege to teach three groups in three locations of our training, but I spent most of the training with one group in North Jakarta Area. There were 22 teachers in my group and everyone was very keen on learning. They embraced all the activities joyfully! Even the simplest activity, such as interviewing your friends, could turn out to be full of laughter. We did a lot of one-on-one Q&A sessions to work on their spelling ability and created engaging and fun role play cards with famous characters like Captain America, Thor and Indonesian famous comedians. We played with emotions, talking to each other in angry or laughing voices. One example of a role play we had was a bunny and sloth interview that I came up with, where one teacher would be the bunny and ask questions really quickly and the other would act as the sloth and mimic the slow characteristic of the animal. My group had a blast and the 6 hours of training went by like a breeze, leaving everyone happy and excited!

The CLIL session became my favorite, even if I was terrified of it at first. I soon found out that nobody in the classroom would judge me for not being a master of Maths and Science. These teachers were already full of ideas on how to teach their students. All they needed was some confidence and language means to use in their class to teach what they already knew so well. And that’s what we provided to them. After a couple of sessions, both the teachers in my group and I grew more confident as we had built trust towards each other.

When the 80 hours came to an end, it was a bitter-sweet moment for me. I was probably more happy than my trainees, because I completed all sessions and also gained a lot from the experience itself. Besides, it meant no more working at night, cutting papers, making slides, and doing assessment. But I was also sad that I had to say goodbye to my groups who I considered to be more than just participants in my class but rather my colleagues.

This experience has taught me a lot and I do hope that in the future I’ll get another chance like this. For that I must and I am willing to work harder. New experience? I will have my arms wide open for you!