ARC PROJECTS 2019 HIVE
Who are involved in the project?
Number of learners? N/A
Level of learners ? Entry level – level 2
Age range of learners? 16-18
How many lecturers are involved? 14
What happened?
Teachers from the maths and English team (16-18) took part in peer observations of each other’s teaching between January and April 2019.
The aims of this were to:
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share practice
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build a community
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offer a non-judgemental opportunity to get feedback about our practice
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develop our approaches to TLA
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“give us continuing opportunities to observe students as they learn in colleagues’ teaching sessions, and reflect on how we can enhance their learning in our own sessions” (Race, 2009)
Teachers joined lessons for 30-40 minutes at a time. Feedback was recorded on a document and shared with the teacher after.
Barriers along the way
Time was a limiting factor – it was difficult to find opportunities to visit each other’s lessons. Despite this, all teachers participated in at least one peer observation.
Feedback
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Offered a ‘safe’ environment where they could get feedback on their teaching practice (as a counterpoint to formal observation)
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Provides the observe with a more objective judgement
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Are more natural and less invasive than formal observation, which in turn allows the observer to be more critical of things that are happening
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More practical, with no documentation needing to be provided to the observer
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Gave opportunities to learn from other lecturers > offering a different perspective on how to teach specific topics
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Provided opportunities to see learners they work with in a different environment and subject area (for example, an English teacher observing learners they teach in a maths lesson)
Gathered from a project meeting in April 2019
