How do History NQTs view lesson observation?

Thinkpiece 3: How do History NQTs view lesson observation?

As a former Assistant Head and Professional Mentor, and more recently a course leader on a University based PGCE programme, observing lessons has been integral to helping me form judgements about the progress of ITE participants over the past 10 years. Lesson observation, as O’Leary (2013) observes, is a ‘ubiquitous mechanism’ and is the principal means of assessment of trainee teachers. I’ve always been interested in its efficacy, particularly where teacher development is concerned. It’s difficult to imagine a system of assessment for ITE participants that does not include a significant number of formal and informal observations for trainees, but there seem to be lacuna in the body of knowledge surrounding how trainees view observation and from whom they gain value in the process.

It is only really since the emergence of New Labour in the 1990s that lesson observation in schools has become ‘universal’ in secondary schools, yet in the intervening 23 years, little research has been undertaken about trainee perceptions of its impact, particularly in the field of History education. Recent research from the EEF teacher observation project (2017) found no evidence that teacher observation improves combined GCSE English and maths scores, yet little or no work exists that explores the impact of lesson observation, and the attendant perceptions of beginning History teachers about the value and impact of lesson observation in its many forms.

Experience of working as a lesson observer in both school and university contexts encouraged me to explore lesson observation in more depth, and the following graphics and discussion, taken from work on my MA dissertation, explore the views of a cluster of 25 History NQTs who were based in North West schools in the 2017/18 academic year. As a History PGCE course leader I feel strongly that finding out more about the subject is critical; revisions to the Ofsted framework school inspection and for the inspection of ITE mean that capturing the views of beginning teachers are more important than ever.  Are current approaches to lesson observation perceived to be effective? Which types of observation are viewed as the most impactful and valid? Whilst this small scale study provided no conclusive answers, the following graphics provide some interesting food for thought and will form the basis on ongoing research.

Question 1: For formal observation, does your school use..’

It was interesting to note the range of approaches employed by schools to lesson observation and the findings from this question formed the basis for further questions about the perceived value of each. Incidentally, the grading of individual lessons appears to be historic practice and is all but obsolete; none of the 25 respondents reported lesson grading in their schools.

 Question 2: ‘Formal lesson observation has helped to improve my teaching skills’

The move away from grading lessons may explain to some extent why perceptions of formal observations were positive in general; perhaps the move away from ‘performative’ style  observations and  an increasing focus on ‘developmental’  feedback helps to explain such perceptions. Responses to the follow-up questions in semi-structured interviews revealed generally positive perceptions around the extent to which formal observation improves teaching skills and helps NQTs to make progress against the Teachers’ Standards. It was interesting to see the theme of collegiality recur in these interviews and this might go some way to explaining why perceptions of interviewees was generally very positive where formal observation is concerned.

Question 3: How do you judge the impact of observation by your Subject Mentor?

I was fascinated by the response to this, and the following question. The depth of approval for a subject specialist observer was clear.

Question 4: How do you judge the impact of observation from a History specialist?

In fact, observation by a subject specialist (Figures 9 and 10) received the highest level of approval of all the different observation types explored. Clearly, subject specialist observations for beginning History teachers offer a unique opportunity for pedagogical development, and the support for this type of observation seems to be echoed by the strong level of approval from questionnaire participants and interviewees. My hunch is that trust and respect are important preconditions in the observation of trainee teachers; responses here seem to support this view.

Question 5: ‘How do you judge the impact of observation from an external observer/Ofsted inspector?’

Questionnaire and interview responses revealed surprisingly strong level of disapproval for observation by an external observer or from an Ofsted inspector. Such sentiments also appear recent work from O’Leary and Wood (2017),whose research observes apathy and distrust from beginning teachers to the process and value of external inspection. Without contextual knowledge about the teacher or the class, they argue that observers are prone to making spurious and ill-informed judgements, and this was certainly echoed by some of the responses in interviews:

Reflections

These excerpts from my research go some way to illustrating what I perceive to be a shift in observational culture since the practice of grading individual lessons [by both Ofsted and during school’s internal processes] ceased between 2013 and 2015. Increasingly, when speaking to current PGCE trainees and past trainees, I am surprised by the lack of resistance to formal observation and have noted, if anything, a thirst for more observation.

What seems clear is the importance of subject specificity in lesson observation in feedback, and the limitations of observation through the lens of ‘generic competences’.

We need to talk about History

References

O’Leary, M., (2013) Classroom observation: A guide to the effective observation of teaching and learning. Abingdon: Routledge.

O’Leary,M., (2013) Surveillance, performativity and normalised practice: the use and impact of graded lesson observations in Further Education colleges, Journal of Further and Higher Education London: Routledge Vol. 37, No. 5, 694–714.

Worth, J., Sizmur, J., Walker, M., Bradshaw, S. and Styles, B., 2017. Teacher Observation: Evaluation Report and Executive Summary. Education Endowment Foundation.