Job Discussion Forums

[nomad soul]

Ah... teacher observations. You either love 'em, dread 'em, or are somewhere in the middle.

What are your overall feelings about being observed and/or performing observations as part of your job? Are they an effective evaluation tool or just a waste of time? If you've never been observed, please comment as well.

[fluffyhamster]

I'm not sure if you've seen the following thread, but there was some good discussion in it:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=67858

[sharter]

I think they are necessary. Employers have to weed out bad teachers. Observations can also be used very effectively to develop new teachers and make older teachers aware of their 'bad habits'.

I see them as an opportunity for something positive to happen.

However, TEFL is full of precious types who stress out about them way too much.

[Denim-Maniac]

Im course tutor on a CELTA-esque type course at the moment, and of course, observations are a big part of that, including my own class being observed. Sure, there is a bit of stress involved, but its also part and parcel of the job.

I have observed some rather shocking lessons from my colleagues in the last week .... but we were observing from the course trainee perspective, so I didnt actually give feedback to the teachers in question.

I am quite hard as an observer in terms of feedback given, but I like to think I give it in a gentle way. Kinda good cop/bad cop rolled into one. I agree with a previous comment about EFL types often being precious...most of my peers wouldnt take my feedback very well, but at the end of the day...its only given to help/improve, rather than to dismiss or punish.

[fluffyhamster]

Hmm, the only precious types I've found in TEFL have been some of the trainers and observers.

My frank opinion (I mean nowadays, not at the very beginning of my career, when I might've been inclined to at least half-listen) would be that if anybody reckoned they could do better than me with my classes, hey, why not take over my teaching schedule? (The response of course would be "But that's not my job", to which one can only really say "Then don't act like it should be! My place may or may not be in the classroom, but yours is now most definitely with your feet up behind a desk and enjoying a cuppa and a few biccies"). So yeah, I think I can teach a mean-enough lesson nowadays.

And as the percentage of truly awful EFL teachers is probably only a very vaguely worrying 25% or thereabouts, and weeding them out usually a slow painful process (if only because it's never that economically convenient to replace them at short notice), why should the better teachers be made to suffer equally? Plus those better teachers are probably only ever '(barely) satisfatory' whenever observed, so there wouldn't seem much possibility for improvement either way. But in the unlikely event that the observer's comment's are ever "Wow, fantastic lesson!", all one can really think if not reply is "How on EARTH did that transpire?! What a total fluke!" (=Tell me something I don't already know!).

[nomad soul]

[fluffyhamster]

No need IMHO for the scare quotes or even the word they enclose (generous), Nomad Soul - I contributed some comments there, plain and simple, as I have to now this thread. (Whether you agree with my opinions or not is obviously another matter entirely though!).

My current situation is that I'm only doing a bit of occasional private tutoring here and there (my main thing now is bookselling LOL - that, and slowly writing and compiling some TEFL and Chinese-related resources), so if any of my few "customers" don't like my teaching they can vote with their feet, no need for an observer at all if and when they do (not that that happens too often!).

Were I to start teaching in a language school again, my concern wouldn't be so much that I was teaching so very badly, but whether my whole teaching style and persona (teachers are people too LOL), which was forming even before I did the CTEFLA, and has continued pretty much unaffected by that CTEFLA, was a reasonable match with that of the school (there can be some quite strange and anything but communicative methods out there). I have actually come to the conclusion that most mainstream teaching hasn't much idea of how to teach grammar, let alone e.g. really "teach" (show, develop, impart) genuine conversation and communication skills (despite the claims they make in advertisments). Most classes are too stiff, arid and patronizing, imparting little in terms of knowledge-ability or even interpersonal experience.

The majority of my time in Asia I spent as an AET in Japan, so it wasn't so much a question of being observed as of me getting to "observe" the good, the bad, and the ugly in JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) materials and methods (though of course I was only very rarely asked for my actual opinion on such matters...and then I guess it would simply be "It is what it is, and it isn't all bad"). I've probably been observed often enough in not only eastern but also western settings though, and at all stages in my (so-called LOL) career, that I honestly have to say that observation has made little if any difference to my thinking and teaching - I'm serious enough about my teaching that I've absorbed a fair bit of wisdom and a number of ideas from quite a few books, discussions (among peers) etc already, and most observers wouldn't have the time or inclination (or possibly even the raw knowledge) to impart stuff of comparable quality and depth anyway, even if it had been really necessary in my case.

[nomad soul]

Hey, Fluffyhamster, the quotes were intended to emphasize that you were an active poster for that topic and contributed intelligently---a compliment in my books!

You mention teaching skills and style being a match for the school. I agree that it's not so much about having super-duper teaching skills than it is in being a good fit for that particular teaching situation. What works for one school may not jive with another because the observer is essentially assessing the teacher based on that school's specific expectations and standards (if they have any). From the observee's perspective, those expectations may be low, high, in between, or just plain wacky. Moreover, inflexible teachers would most likely put observations and the resulting feedback into the "dreaded" category.

[fluffyhamster]

[nomad soul]

[7969]

Here's a recent discussion on the same topic, different part of the forum:

Is it normal for universities to observe your classes?

A few contributors on that thread got stressed out at the idea.

[Perilla]

I contributed to the original thread in a former life on the forum, before being unjustly banished for my part in the fight against a racist on the HK forum. Anyway, my rather negative opinion about observations hasn't changed. To quote myself:

"At the risk of repetition, I have to say that an observed lesson cannot be the real thing. Any observer should at least concede that what s/he is observing is, in some manner or form, altered, as a result if his/her presence. The degree to which it is altered will depend on a host of contributing factors, e.g. how the teacher in question reacts to being observed, how the students react (this will vary depending on age, culture, English ability, etc.), and not least it will depend on the observer him/herself - is he or she known to the students/teacher? If yes, what is their relationship - good or bad, indifferent or sad - this will also come into play. If the observer is not known this will bring other variables into the lesson. The list is a long one..."

[Sashadroogie]

Competent observers concede observed lessons are different to regular ones, of course. However, in my experience, these factors are nearly always thrown up in defence by teachers who do not seem to have much confidence in their teaching, or who realise that they need to find an excuse, any excuse for poor performance and find it fast. One that somehow transfers all blame to the observer is ideal. Not saying the posters here are doing that, however. Just sharing experience and suffering from my misfortune.

[golsa]

[Denim-Maniac]