Observations on Peer Observation

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Observations on Peer Observation

• Sally Fincher
• hcidc
• 4th April 2008

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Our keenest observers

• Any school-child playing teacher will reproduce
  most of the behaviours used by most teachers.
• Typical behaviours are
• standing in the front of a group of relatively
  passive onlookers (a position of authority),
• doing most of the talking (telling),
• asking questions to which they know the answers
  (testing), and
• evaluating by passing judgements.
• Yet, no research base indicates that these
  behaviours have a payoff in terms of learning,
  and much indicates that they do not.

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Confessional pause
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Observation can describe various categories of
behaviour
The emotional content of communication
Affective
The intellectual content of communication
Cognitive
Nonverbal behaviours, such as posture, body
position, facial expression gestures
Psychomotor
What is being done that relates a person to
someone - or something - else. (For example
reading, or hitting)
Activity
What is being talked about
Content
The sociology of the interactive setting,
including who is talking to whom and in what roles
Sociological Structure
Descriptions of the physical space in which the
observation is taking place, including materials
and equipment being used
Physical environment
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Reflective Pause

• What artefacts did your observation generate?
• Have you further processed them, or referred to
  them subsequently?

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Observation artefacts

• There are several ways to record observation,
  partially depending on the purpose of the
  observation. You may see
• Checklist forms (The instructor stated the
  objectives of the class yes/no)
• Scaled rating forms (The instructor was
  well-prepared for class 5/4/3/2/1)
• Narrative prompt forms Comment on the
  importance, currency accuracy of the content
  presented by the instructor)

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Observation artefacts narrative logs

• More elaborate forms include narrative logs,
  which describes the course of a class. These can
  be presented in double entry form with
  description in one column and reflections in the
  other.

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Observation artefacts teacher behaviour

• Teacher behaviour systems are quite complex and
  require training and purposeful use.
• For example, the Cognitive Interaction Analysis
  System (CAIS) requires the observer to make a
  category notation every 3 seconds recording the
  nature of the interaction.

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Example CAIS categories

• 1. Accepting student attitudes
• 1h Use of humour1f Affective instructor
  comments
• 4. Asking questions
• 4c Knowledge level4e Example level4a Analysis
  level4y Synthesis level4j Evaluation level4f
  Affective questions4s Process questions4r
  Rhetorical questions4p Probing questions

• 6. Providing cues
• 6m Focusing on main points6d Giving
  directions6c Calling on a student6s Giving
  assignments6v Cues with visual presentation
• 7. Criticism of student answer
• 8. Cognitive Student Talk
• 8c-8j Answers to teacher questions8n Student
  doesnt know answer8q Student question

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Example CAIS sequence, and explanation
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Uses for observation
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Uses for observation (i) Development

• You can use observation for expanding your
  repertoire of teaching styles and for getting
  data about how your teaching style(s) match your
  intent.
• Some dimensions of teaching
• Participation amount and kind
• Cognitive level
• Affective climate
• Classroom control
• Student-student interaction
• Teacher role flexibility
• Classroom methods

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Uses for observation
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Uses for observation (ii) Supervision/Appraisal

• Observations can change this role from rater to
  resource
• Can we become effective self-evaluators of our
  own skills?

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Uses for observation
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Uses for observation (iii) Discovery/Evidencing

• Observation systems can be used for describing
  the conditions needed to support any learning
  environment (including electronic, of course)
• To provide the necessary environment for
  learning, teachers must first be aware of, and in
  control of, their own verbal and non-verbal
  communication to students just as they control
  the subject matter.
• They must also understand what kinds of
  environment tend to foster (or inhibit) what
  effects in others.
• What makes a learning environment low risk?
  What makes your learning environment low risk?

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References

• The content of this presentation was inspired by
  Mirrors for Observation III An anthology of
  observation instruments edited by Anita Simon and
  E. Gil Boyer Communications Materials Center,
  Pennsylvania USA, 1974
• Examples were taken from Peer Review of
  Teaching A Sourcebook Nancy Van Note Chism,
  Anker Publishing Company, Bolton, MA, USA, 1999

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