Giving lesson observation feedback

Victoria Wright V.Wright@wlv.ac.ukSenior Lecturer Post Compulsory EducationUniversity of Wolverhampton

Forewarned is..

Sharing experiences of receiving feedback: is this relatable?

In one observation feedback, I was explicitly told that I couldn’t be given a grade one because my class hadn’t been a challenge for me. I asked what I needed to do to get a grade one: Observer: “Something extra.” Victoria: “What exactly? Can you give me an example?” Observer: “If you’d have had two students causing a riot

and you’d had to step in and sort it. Something that challenged you a bit more.”

Victoria: (nonplussed, thinking this is an Access class where all of the learners cooperate with each other. Thinking are you sure?)

Observer: “Well that something extra…..”

‘After all, what would be the value of the passion for knowledge if it resulted only in a certain amount of knowledgeableness and not, in one way or another and to the extent possible, in the knower’s straying afield of himself? There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks and perceive differently than one sees is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all’ (Foucault cited in Eribon,1992, p.329-330).

Autobiography: (Further Education) English---English and Quality---Teacher Education---dual Quality and Teacher Education----(Higher Education) Teacher Education

Small groups: quick share!From your own experiences of giving and receiving lesson observation feedback:

Are there recognisable conventions?

You might think of structure, roles, language use, expectations, purposes…

Copland (2008a, p2) explores the idea that the feedback dialogue is a distinct genre with ‘conventionalised expectations that members of a social group or network use to shape and construe the communicative activity they are engaged in’.

What conventions do you recognise?

I will share perceptions from student focus groups……

I asked volunteers from my tutor group, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 to participate in a focus group.

I asked them to respond to the following questions:

What is the purpose of lesson observations?

What are we [tutor/ mentor/ peer] looking for when we observe?

What is the purpose of the feedback dialogue?

What is the role of the observer in the feedback dialogue?

What is the role of the observee in the feedback dialogue?

How are actions identified?

Copland

Teacher educator

FoucaultAutoethno-graphy

Quality observer

Relations of powerSubject/s

Discourse

dialogic

CHAT

O’Leary

Mediating Artifact:

The types of records I have used and continue to use

The training I have received

The influence of colleagues and other observers

My experiences of observing

 

Community:

PGCE in PCE colleagues

Previous F.E. colleagues

Previous institutional specific policies on quality and observation

Education sector policy and practice including guidance on teacher education programmes

 

Object:

To provide feedback to

the student teacher and

agree actions

Outcome: to

improve the

practice of the

student teacher

Hidden Outcome:

to improve my

ways of feeding

back

Subject: myself as

observer

Rules:

Conventions of lesson observation and lesson observation feedback dialogues

Conventions of educational discourse

Hidden rules:

My approach

Division of labour:

Observer

Student-teacher

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

   

 

2

 

 

 

Analysis of my observational strategy

Regulatory Practice: exploring conventions (university, known/ researched, individual) and patterns/ phases

Division of Labour: turn taking, marked interruptions, length of turn, negotiation of action, use of questions

Political technology: attitude, values and expectations

Contradictions: with conventions, with attitude and values

Armstrong (2000, p.4) ‘Quality is in the eye of the beholder. ..All definitions are invariably situated in a context, and a reflection of the interactions between a range of agencies, including the individual learner whose needs and expectations form part of the equation…In short, there is always an ideological as well as an ethical basis to definitions of quality’.

Small groups: quick share!

Think back to ‘Mediating Artifacts’ (CHAT)

1. How might/ do your ‘Mediating Artifacts’ influence your ways of giving observation feedback?

Other choices:

2. or inform your priorities when being observed?

3. or your expectations of the observation feedback dialogue, once observed?A focus in my thesis: As a tutor observer, to what extent am I (my ‘capillary’ power) influenced by a ‘disciplinary power’ (ie. graded inspections and quality assurance) that serves to standardise or regulate (‘normalising judgment’) what is an ‘effective’ teacher? (terms from Foucault)

Sharing……

I will share a few findings from my observation dialogues…

To highlight the context bound nature of giving observation feedback

To indicate some of the complexities around fostering a dialogic approach

To share ‘the vigilant tension of the self taking care, above all, not to lose control of its representations and be overcome by either pains or pleasures’ (Foucault, 2001, p.534).

Working within ‘relations of power’

i.e. (in teacher education provision) the context the student is in, their expectations, the class they’re teaching, their mentor’s expectations, the political context we work within (e.g. the external expectations: Ofsted, the internal expectations: their placement), observer and teacher experience and expectations..

‘relations of power’ Foucault (2003a, in Rabinow and Rose, p.34)

Armstrong, P. (2000) Never mind the quality, measure the length: Issues for Lifelong learning. Supporting Lifelong Learning Global Colloquium. Available from http://www.adulteduc.gr/001/pdfs/provlimatimsoi/paul_armstrong.pdf [Accessed12th September 2013]

Copland, F. (2007) Classrooms as Cultural Context: The legitimacy of educational exchange [online]. Available from: http://www.slidefinder.net/c/classrooms_cultural_context_the_legitimacy/baal2008blue/21014229. [Accessed 1st July 2012]

Copland, F. (2008a) “Deconstructing the Discourse: Understanding the feedback event.” In Garton S. and Richards K (ed.) Professional Encounters in TESOL, London: Palgrave. pp.1-11

Copland, F. (2008b) Feedback in pre-service English language teacher training: discourses of process and power. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham

Copland, F. (2010) Causes of tension in post-observation feedback in pre-service teacher training: An alternative view. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26 (3): 466-472

Copland, F., Ma, G. and Mann, S. (2009) Reflecting in and on post-observation feedback in initial teacher training on Certificate courses. ELTED, 12: 14- 23

Copland, F. and Mann, S. (2010) “Dialogic talk in the post-observation conference; an investment for reflection” In Cirocki, A., Park, G., and Widodo, H. Observation of teaching: bridging theory and practice through research on teaching. München, Germany: LINCOM Europa pp. 175-194.

Ellis, C. (2004) The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press

Engeström, Y. (2001) Expansive Learning at Work: toward an activity theory reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14 (1): 133-156

Foucault, M. (1988a) “Technologies of the Self” In Martin, L. and Hutton, P. (ed.) Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault London: Tavistock Publications Ltd pp.16-50

Foucault, M. (1988b) “The Political Technology of Individuals” In Martin, L. and Hutton, P. (ed.) Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault London: Tavistock Publications Ltd pp.145-163

Foucault, M. (2003a) “The Ethics of the concern of the self as a practice of freedom” In Rabinow, P. and Rose, N. (ed.) The Essential Foucault: Selections from the Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984. New York: The New Press pp.25-43

O’Leary, M. (2013b) Surveillance, performativity and normalised practice: the use and impact of graded lesson observations in Further Education Colleges, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 37 (5): p 694- 714

Rabinow, P. and Rose, N. (ed.) The Essential Foucault: Selections from the Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984 New York: New Press

Wragg, E. (1994) An introduction to classroom observation. London: Routledge.

Any questions?