This fourth article on observation discusses the role of the observee’s during the session, good practices, potential challenges and ways to tackle them.
Observee’s role
When the session starts, I suggest welcoming the observer and briefly introducing them before proceeding to the session. There’s no need to dwell on the observer’s presence for too long, as this may create a false impression that the lesson revolves around the observer, which should never be the case. A lesson, whether observed or not, is always about the learner’s experience.
After the introducing the observer, the tutor can focus on interaction with students and their work and avoid looking at the observer and trying to guess what they’re thinking of the lesson and tutor performance. Speaking from my own experiences of being observed on multiple occasions, I would say that the first few moments can create some nervousness about the whole experience due to the ‘unnatural’ process of a person who’s neither a tutor nor a learner being present in the session and engaging with it through listening, looking and note-taking. As soon as the observee realises that they are there to interact with learners and create a positive learning environment, the nervousness fades away and the tutor becomes engrossed with what is happening and is keen to create a great experience for students.
Flexibly using the lesson plan and adapting it as the lesson develops to meet the changing student needs is an essential lesson aspect. As explained in Article 2, it is important to exploit teaching opportunities and adapt the plan accordingly. The lesson plan can be viewed as a compass that gives tutors a good sense of direction, but how and towards where they are going to steer the wheel depends on the circumstances. It is important to acknowledge the need to adapt and quickly act on what happens rather than insist on what the plan says even if it does not seem suitable at that specific time. For example, if you had planned to do a task in pairs, but you realise on the spot that it will work better in groups, feel free to change the interaction pattern and ask student pairs to join other pairs and form groups instead. Or if you had envisaged an activity to be done in writing, but time seems to be less than what you’d plan, you can change it into a speaking activity that will probably take learners less time to complete and offer them additional speaking practice. Similarly, if a task has 10 items and there is insufficient time for task completion in class, students can answer the first 2-3 items and complete the task as part of their self-study.
As you wrap up the session, you can thank the observer for their presence.
Some good observee practices
At the pre-observation meeting if you had asked the observer to focus on specific aspects of the session, you now need to ensure that you provide enough evidence throughout the lesson to comment on those aspects. For example, if you’d requested feedback on how you organize pair and group work in class, your lesson should include some group work tasks for the observer to be able to comment on that lesson aspect. Even if your initial plan has not included a lot of group tasks, do not hesitate to add them during the session by modifying that first plan.
During the lesson make sure you utilize any additional resources at your disposal if students complete activities faster than expected or if you increase the lesson pace without realizing so. The latter is possible if you feel nervous about the observation, talk faster and increase the lesson pace, which inevitably means the whole session moves faster than expected and planned for.
Some challenges and suggested solutions
Several lesson aspects may prove more challenging than expected. Some are briefly analyzed below and suggestions are provided.
Time management for task allocation can be tricky and this can be taken into account at the lesson planning stage by allowing extra time for task completion and having additional activities at your disposal to use if and when required, as suggested in the earlier section here.
The level of support provided through scaffolding instructions, task explanations and examples is often difficult to judge, as keeping the balance between support provision and development of learner autonomy is usually hard to achieve. You can start with basic support and a couple of examples and then tailor this to student needs. While monitoring pair/ group work, it is important to encourage students to request assistance within the pair/ group and then consult with you if necessary.
Creating pairs and small groups that work well is not an easy job either, but supposedly, students are used to working in groups/ pairs and the presence of the observer should not, ideally, affect the effectiveness of work done. However, that presence may intimidate learners to some extent and this may impact on their willingness to participate. The observee should monitor work and intervene to deal with that reluctancy by actively asking students questions and encouraging them to share their ideas and contribute to a task.
Dealing with students who refuse to answer a question or participate in a group discussion is one of an observee’s nightmares and can happen to any tutor, regardless of their level of experience. In order to avoid tensions and make every learner feel that they are being included, if there is any kind of refusal, the tutor can simply accept it and remind the student that if they change their mind, they can share their idea at a later stage. After the session, the observee should talk with the learner, especially if their attitude has not changed and their participation was minimal or non-existent because it is extremely important to find out the reasons for their behavior.
Dealing with unexpected student reactions (i.e. tears, anger etc) is another nightmare, especially during an observation, but, similarly to the challenge discussed in the previous paragraph, the observee needs to remain calm and patient and give the student the time to ‘breathe’ and reconsider their contribution later if they wish to. In this case, in addition to the time, the student also needs the physical space to calm. For this reason, I suggest giving them the option to leave the classroom or turn off the camera (if the lesson is an online one) and have a break from the session and return to it later when they feel that they are ready to join in.
After exploring the tutor/ observee’s role, some good practices, some challenges encountered and solutions, we’re now ready to look into the significant last part of the observation process, namely the post-observation session. This will be the focus of Article 5, which is the last one in this series of articles on observations.
Sources consulted:
British Council (2012) A Guide to Continuing Professional Development- Formal Observations https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/c226_cpd_formal_observations_report_v4_1_0.pdf
British Council (2012) A Guide to Continuing Professional Development- Peer Observations https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/c227_cpd_peer_observations_report_v2_1_0.pdf
Ding Alex and Ian Bruce (2017) ‘Developing EAP practitioners’ in ‘The English for Academic Purposes Practitioner’, 117-177
Elsted, F. J. (2012). An investigation into the attitudes and attributes that can support teachers in their transition from General English to English for academic purposes. Unpublished masters thesis, The University of Essex, UK
White Graham https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/taking-responsibility/articles/peer-observation (accessed 28 January 2025)
