Thoughts on Observations

I had a really interesting and surprisingly productive day at one of my other roles as a freelance Education Development Manager for an organization called Independance.  Part of the remit of the job was to look after and run the community adult learning provision as part of   a contractual agreement to deliver adult learning in Lambeth. At Independence we deliver an inclusive  adult disability programme for adults with learning difficulties (b.diverse), a fitness programme  (Freez) designed for adults to engage in a dance programme to increase their skills and flexibility in a fun and accessible way through the medium of Street Dance, and finally a Lindy Hop programme, more of a social dance programme purely for fun, meeting people developing confidence and generally having a good time whilst learning how to do the ‘Fall-off-the Log” or Shorty George!.  

Independence is also a part of a cohort of other providers who deliver adult learning across the borough and are all very different in profile, content delivery, to Independence who is the only arts deliverer in this case.  As a provider of this service there is a requirement to attend various training workshops, of which this one today was relevant.   The training was entitled “Observation of Teaching, Learning and Assessment” and as a member of the providers network there are termly observations of teaching, learning practice focusing on the learners who are the end users essentially. It was aimed at helping us to improve how we observe and what to look for and identify what good teaching is/was.  A comment was made that when observing it was down to a matter of personal  interpretation and it was therefore important to standardize observations in terms of the types of language used to make rational judgements.  One thing particularly Lambeth Learning noticed was that the observation reports were almost always descriptive and didn’t always provide enough evidence to make an assessment against what was being observed.  For instance instead of saying that something was ‘good’ then why?  I admit that as a dance teacher I often get really nervous when anybody watches how I teach. I almost always fear the worst.  I usually clam up and notice the pitch and tone of my voice changes due to nerves and in the commentary that goes on in the back of my mind I ask  whether I am doing good, or ‘I’m  bad teacher and will be found out and judged harshly!!!’ or people who observe me couldn’t have come at a more worst time for me as I am feeling so off today! All sorts of thoughts racing in my mind.

That aside what was interesting  in the workshop today was the learning outcomes for me to become more confident when completing observations as a co-provider observing practice of other adult learning providers in the borough; to be able to make clear judgments against a common inspection framework which Adult Learning has to adhere to satisfy Skills Funding Agency criteria; and to understand for myself what the procedures are for observations and how this leads to improvements in practice.  This was the flip side and role change for me from that as a dance tutor to now learn how to become an observer of teaching and learning practice – work based learning at its most practical and hands on.  So I was scared on both fronts as teacher and observer and felt like I had a split personality and I begun to understand how it was for anyone sitting in and observing a lesson and the procedure you have to go through to observe a lesson. This was such a departure from me because before when I used to observe classes as part of my professional development as a teacher I usually had a template to work from in terms of what to look for in a class but it was usually quite informal and intuitive which is still the case. However for me the learning was in how to make judgments based on a criteria for gathering evidence of teaching and learner engagement and what was (in a later open discussion) hard to always quantify and evidence as examples of good practice – what makes a good teacher? In other words the intangible stuff and qualities of what makes an inspirational teacher, an encouraging teacher, a dynamic teacher, an engaging teacher? How do you evidence this?  As I find in adult education and I suppose in education in general is the acronym JEDI  (Judgement, Evidence,Development, Impact) I am guessing this term comes  from OFSTED where when an observer asks when observing a teacher/session leader what is the judgment made against the criteria being observed that shows the evidence and development (progression) that has an impact on the learner? So for me in my dance teacher role what judgment defines how well, effective  teacher I am with my learning methods that draw out the training and engagement of learners, what is the evidence (is it through the setting of differentiated tasks, is it the way I promote, encourage and embraces an inclusive ethos in the room, is it the way I situate my learners in the space) how is this progressed and developed and did my learners achieve something did it have an impact?  I know its not new to me as I think about it all the time but it was in the delivery of the session today that had a completely different context and perspective from which I had not experienced of looked at before.  It also made me reflect and think back to my earlier teachers particularly at school when I engaged in contemporary dance and how as teachers they inspired and motivated me to keep on going, encouraging, noticing, believing, coaching me to learn new steps, charge me with choreography they knew I could do and throw down the gauntlet technically to improve my learning and development physically.  I suppose for my module 3 research these are the qualities I hope to notice, hone and improve for myself and at the heart of the research observe and notice how I teach and make judgments  by constantly reflecting, reviewing and questioning improving the quality of my teaching and ultimately evolve good practice as I see it from my perspective.