Peer observation of teaching patch

I would consider myself to be a reflective practitioner. I only have anecdotal evidence to substantiate this belief although my ability to reflect has been highlighted as a strength throughout my career. After every lesson, CPD session or lecture, I reflect on my performance and on whether, and how well, the children/students have learned; this then feeds into my next teaching episode. Having someone cast a fresh eye on what I am doing has been both motivating and daunting.

So what have I learned?

I have been reminded that I am able to teach and that my gut instincts, based on what I have learned in the past 24 years, are usually not far off the mark. My experiences, both as a class teacher and senior manager in a school, have given me a variety of pedagogical and people-management skills on which to draw to teach in higher education. I have not lost my enthusiasm for teaching or my drive to do the best job I can do and my determination to ‘walk my talk’ has endured. I have reconsidered my philosophy of learning and teaching and discussed my values with my colleagues as a consequence of them watching me and me watching them teach. As often I retreat to a pattern of behaviour that feels safe and comfortable, these opportunities have enabled me to look at what I do from someone else’s perspective and adjust my practice accordingly. One of the most important things I have learned is that engaging with colleagues is vital in order to provide prisms through which ideas and practices can be reflected and refracted and that working alongside other people adds variety and depth to our students’ learning experiences. Consequently, making time to work with and learn from each other should not be an add-on, it should be part of what we do. As teachers in training we learn about Vygotsky’s (1978) work on social constructivism and contention that learning is a collaborative process and indeed use his ideas about both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation when working with children; however, as teachers and professionals we do not always apply these theories to our own learning. As previously described in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning – Appendix 2, it is a teacher’s professional responsibility to work collaboratively in partnership with others in order to share expertise and experience. It is also expected that we examine our attitudes and beliefs and reappraise our values throughout our careers in order that we are adaptable, responsive and keep up-to-date (GTCS, 2012). I would also add that we need to be resilient and steadfast in our beliefs and use our criticality to sift out the policies and practices that do not add value to what we do. Peer and self-evaluation provide opportunities for enhancing this criticality and a platform for developing communities of learning and therefore peer observation, as part of the evaluation process, is a valuable tool.