Collecting evidence of your teaching practices: Goals & tools for classroom observation

Megan BarkerLecturer, Biological Sciences

megan.barker@sfu.ca | @meganbarkerasehttp://meganbarkerase.wordpress.com

Your own experiences…

When did you last go watch someone teach, or invite someone to watch you teach?

How did the experience go for you?

What are some different goals for observing a class/lab/tutorial?

For the instructor For the observer

• Feedback on the content• Having a 2nd person there makes

you more aware of what you’re saying – being conscious of what

you’re doing• To spy on the students ;) – it’s

easy to miss what’s going on with them (good and bad) – a second

set of eyes• Specific things! How on-task the

students are (“being the e-cop!”)• To collect some kind of evidence

for your teaching practices• To collect data for your research

• Get fresh ideas• Challenges your own thinking

• To learn about the course• “To help the other person not

look terrible in front of the class!”• To develop relationships with

colleagues

To address these goals, what observable things (behaviours, contexts, etc.) might you want to

document?• Mechanics: pacing, loud, can they see in the back, accents• Body language of the instructor, characteristics• Rapport with the class: respect, open-ness, tone, response to student

questions• Content and flow – organization• Tools you use in the classroom – what tools are you using? are they a

distraction, do they work for the purpose• Student engagement• Do they ask questions? How often? How many students ask? Where

are the students?• How do you give feedback? How do you respond to their questions?• Are students engaged and helping each other out• Choreography and flow - agility• Student behaviours and conversations – topics, misconceptions• Specific activities, and a plan B for being responsive to the class• The content – is it correct, is it at the right level of challenge, are the

students involved, is there application and authentic questions

Looking at some observation tools:

With your group, make some notes:• A general description of the tool(s): How

does it work? What does it capture? • Strengths and weaknesses that you notice?• When might this be an appropriate tool?

(i.e. what goals might this tool be useful for?)

Some examples of what you can get from quantitative tools...

Classroom engagement:

• Data from E. Jeffery

Classroom practices (COPUS)

Data collected by M. Barker

Data collected by M. Barker

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Shifts in instructor practice over time(three semesters of COPUS observation)

Fall 2013 (n=1 class observed) Summer 2014 (n=1) Fall 2014 (n=4)

Student-centred

classroom

Instructor-centred

classroom

Blended classroom

Instructor is guiding whole class

Students are receivingData collected

by M. Barker

COPUS data across a department: Breadth of teaching practices

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Indi

vidu

al c

ours

e se

ctio

ns

Giving lecture Guiding whole group

(e.g. Q&A with whole group, providing feedback on

clicker...)

Facilitating student work

(e.g. moving through the group during peer

discussion...)

Admin/otherAs a % of 2-minute intervals during class, instructor is…

Data collected by CWSEI

STLFs

-

Data collected by M. Barker

Qualitative quote

COPUS data

Useful in a dossier:Evidence

of teaching practices

Online data collection…RIOT:• http://sjsuriot.appsp

ot.com/session/new

GORP • http://tea.iamstem.uc

davis.edu/

Build your own observation protocol!

• For example: Student engagement in the lab

From J. Stang

Location in the room

Students, instructor…

From J. Stang

Teaching practices and what we say:Non-content Instructor Talk

FromSeidel etal,2015

Classrooms: just one part of the student experience in your course

Information about student experiences before and after class can be really

useful as well.

Okay, some of these were overly fancy for most purposes.

• Most classroom observations are opportunities for formative feedback, and collecting some evidence about your practices and goals.

• The best way to implement:– Find someone to team up with– Meet before to talk about goal of observation,

and choose what to document.– Do the observation.– Meet afterwards to talk about how it went.– Trade places for the next one.

Okay, some of these were overly fancy for most purposes.

• Most classroom observations are opportunities for formative feedback, and collecting some evidence about your practices and goals.

• The best way to implement:– Find someone to team up with– Meet before to talk about goal of observation,

and choose what to document.– Do the observation.– Meet afterwards to talk about how it went.– Trade places for the next one.

What is something you are working on in your teaching this term?

In line with this, what kind of

feedback or documentation would be useful to you?

Find a buddy! And go forth!

Thank you!