Ungraded lesson observations: The Why and the How
Over the last year myself and my colleague @dickseeboy have been reading around a lot of the posts and research on ungraded lesson observations. Last summer we piloted our own version of ungraded lesson observations and felt that the benefits of adopting an entirely different system far outweighed the possible obstacles to implementing it, and so over the last couple of months we have rolled out a new programme of lesson observations which we feel represents a far more healthy approach to observing lessons and supporting teacher development.
We currently work in a school that Ofsted graded as 'Requires Improvement' and a number of my colleagues outside of my school have questioned our decision, quoting phrases like 'tight for good, loose for outstanding' and implied that we are taking a risk. Perhaps. But we are not changing our approach for the sake of Ofsted or in the hope of securing a given grading. The purpose of our mindset shift is purely staff focused. We have done a lot of work on assessment with our students and know that best practice involves giving students time to reflect, meaningful feedback, the absence of a grade to remove comparisons to peers, opportunities to close the loop and so on. So it seems frankly bizarre that we would not apply the same understanding to staff. Typically, a lesson observation would involve someone (usually in a senior position) turning up to observe a lesson, completing a series of boxes judging various elements of a teacher's practice, a one way dialogue in which expertise is imposed on the teacher - 'this is what I saw and this is what I think', followed by a numbered grading, two targets and a promise of re-visiting one term later. I am being flippant and a little damning of a system that many of us have adopted for a long time and may have used effectively and sensitively but just because we have always done it, is no reason to continue, and for us it was time for a change.
What this performative system created (in my opinion) are teachers who needed a grade to validate their practice, who would try to guess when you might observe because the fear of a number overwhelmed everything else. It created stress and tension among all staff and no matter how hard we tried, we could not get teachers to just do what they would do if we weren't there, because for them, the risks were too great - the fear of 'being' a 3 or 4. In reality a lesson observation is a short term snapshot of an element of someone's practice and it is not right to think someone 'is' a 3 based on 20 minutes of a lesson. In my experience this is quite a damaging approach to take because it is unhelpful. I know that I have in my time upset people by giving this type of feedback. Ofsted have broken extremely talented colleagues of mine with this kind of feedback because ultimately all it does is knock confidence. And worse, I think (I know) sometimes I got it wrong. Under pressure, when time was against me and someone was demanding a number I made the wrong call. I must have done. So we made the decision that we would not do things this way anymore.
My lightbulb moment came when I read a piece by @dylanwiliam entitled 'love the one you're with' which basically points out the flaws in the way we do things. We have our priorities wrong. We believe that we can grade people out of education but in reality this is not what happens and perhaps what we need to do is make a commitment to make every teacher the best that they can be. The quote "Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better" really resonated with me and this became the structural underpinning for our new system of lesson observation. This is the principle that we want every teacher and every observer to keep in the back of their mind when participating in lessons observations. We also want them to draw on a number of other influences: coaching, marginal gains and growth mindset. In reality our adoption of the elements of growth mindset and marginal gains is a little tokenistic but to me it is important that all staff adopt a growth mindset when participating in lesson observations - that they believe that improvements can be made regardless of the context of the observation. We also want actions to be based on the concept of marginal gains - not big sweeping targets that are impossible to address but smaller, more achievable actions that could make a difference - the idea that if we sweat the small stuff then over time, practice will develop and improve. The biggest influence on the process however is the introduction of coaching as the vehicle for observing lessons and this investment has been in no way tokenistic. The key aim of the new lesson observation process is that all written feedback is purely descriptive and all forms of commentary on the lesson will take place through two-way collaborative dialogue in which strengths and areas for development are discussed with the observed teacher leading this discussion. Our hope is that once you reduce the fear and take away the judgement then people will open their classroom doors to the lessons that challenge them and seek out advice where needed, or take risks and try something new knowing that they will not be penalised by doing so.
So the process would look something along the lines of the following:
Teacher A is observed. The initial observation is unannounced (not to catch anyone out but to try and get a true sense of typicality) and will last for about 20-25 minutes. The observer will write descriptive comments only about what they have seen in the lesson.
The observer will share the written description with teacher A and both will take the description away separately to read and reflect upon. A time will be agreed (within 24-48 hours) to get together and discuss the lesson.
The observer will coach teacher A through a 5 step process in which the teacher is given the opportunity to share any background or context that is important to the observation, they will be encouraged to reflect on what went well in the lesson and any areas that they would like to have done differently.
The observer will then ask the teacher to focus on a specific area or marginal gain that they would like to make (either with the observed class or an alternative). This will be agreed between both observer and observed.
The observer will find out what support or resources teacher A requires to develop - this may include reading, modelling, a trial run, etc. They then agree when they would like the follow up observation to occur (entirely at the choice of the teacher).
The follow up observation takes place at the agreed time and the process is repeated with teacher A deciding if they would any additional follow up at that point through a further coaching conversation. If it is decided the loop has been closed, then the cycle ends and a new one begins in the following term. If they decide they would like further support, then equally this is put into place.
Currently it is early days. So far we have invested 12-15 hours in developing a team of coaches, trained leadership team and middle leaders on the principles of the system, and observed senior and middle leaders, giving them the opportunity to see the process modelled by our coaches. Following our launch with staff this week, we will complete the final cycle of training and attempt to observe the whole school. I have no idea if it will work in exactly the way we want it to because we need to try it, to find the kinks, and tweak/fix these as they arise. I am extremely fortunate to have an exceptional team of senior and middle leaders who will work with us to provide feedback and work out the issues in the system. There are many ways that you could approach something like this, this is simply our way for now. Will it be successful? I don't know but I believe in it. I believe we have the philosophy for lesson observation right and I believe it is better than what we used to do. The next bit is to be reflective, measure the impact, talk to teachers and find out whether this is a better system or not. Early indications are positive but the true test will be the whole school roll-out. Fingers crossed!!!!
We currently work in a school that Ofsted graded as 'Requires Improvement' and a number of my colleagues outside of my school have questioned our decision, quoting phrases like 'tight for good, loose for outstanding' and implied that we are taking a risk. Perhaps. But we are not changing our approach for the sake of Ofsted or in the hope of securing a given grading. The purpose of our mindset shift is purely staff focused. We have done a lot of work on assessment with our students and know that best practice involves giving students time to reflect, meaningful feedback, the absence of a grade to remove comparisons to peers, opportunities to close the loop and so on. So it seems frankly bizarre that we would not apply the same understanding to staff. Typically, a lesson observation would involve someone (usually in a senior position) turning up to observe a lesson, completing a series of boxes judging various elements of a teacher's practice, a one way dialogue in which expertise is imposed on the teacher - 'this is what I saw and this is what I think', followed by a numbered grading, two targets and a promise of re-visiting one term later. I am being flippant and a little damning of a system that many of us have adopted for a long time and may have used effectively and sensitively but just because we have always done it, is no reason to continue, and for us it was time for a change.
What this performative system created (in my opinion) are teachers who needed a grade to validate their practice, who would try to guess when you might observe because the fear of a number overwhelmed everything else. It created stress and tension among all staff and no matter how hard we tried, we could not get teachers to just do what they would do if we weren't there, because for them, the risks were too great - the fear of 'being' a 3 or 4. In reality a lesson observation is a short term snapshot of an element of someone's practice and it is not right to think someone 'is' a 3 based on 20 minutes of a lesson. In my experience this is quite a damaging approach to take because it is unhelpful. I know that I have in my time upset people by giving this type of feedback. Ofsted have broken extremely talented colleagues of mine with this kind of feedback because ultimately all it does is knock confidence. And worse, I think (I know) sometimes I got it wrong. Under pressure, when time was against me and someone was demanding a number I made the wrong call. I must have done. So we made the decision that we would not do things this way anymore.
My lightbulb moment came when I read a piece by @dylanwiliam entitled 'love the one you're with' which basically points out the flaws in the way we do things. We have our priorities wrong. We believe that we can grade people out of education but in reality this is not what happens and perhaps what we need to do is make a commitment to make every teacher the best that they can be. The quote "Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better" really resonated with me and this became the structural underpinning for our new system of lesson observation. This is the principle that we want every teacher and every observer to keep in the back of their mind when participating in lessons observations. We also want them to draw on a number of other influences: coaching, marginal gains and growth mindset. In reality our adoption of the elements of growth mindset and marginal gains is a little tokenistic but to me it is important that all staff adopt a growth mindset when participating in lesson observations - that they believe that improvements can be made regardless of the context of the observation. We also want actions to be based on the concept of marginal gains - not big sweeping targets that are impossible to address but smaller, more achievable actions that could make a difference - the idea that if we sweat the small stuff then over time, practice will develop and improve. The biggest influence on the process however is the introduction of coaching as the vehicle for observing lessons and this investment has been in no way tokenistic. The key aim of the new lesson observation process is that all written feedback is purely descriptive and all forms of commentary on the lesson will take place through two-way collaborative dialogue in which strengths and areas for development are discussed with the observed teacher leading this discussion. Our hope is that once you reduce the fear and take away the judgement then people will open their classroom doors to the lessons that challenge them and seek out advice where needed, or take risks and try something new knowing that they will not be penalised by doing so.
So the process would look something along the lines of the following:
Teacher A is observed. The initial observation is unannounced (not to catch anyone out but to try and get a true sense of typicality) and will last for about 20-25 minutes. The observer will write descriptive comments only about what they have seen in the lesson.
The observer will share the written description with teacher A and both will take the description away separately to read and reflect upon. A time will be agreed (within 24-48 hours) to get together and discuss the lesson.
The observer will coach teacher A through a 5 step process in which the teacher is given the opportunity to share any background or context that is important to the observation, they will be encouraged to reflect on what went well in the lesson and any areas that they would like to have done differently.
The observer will then ask the teacher to focus on a specific area or marginal gain that they would like to make (either with the observed class or an alternative). This will be agreed between both observer and observed.
The observer will find out what support or resources teacher A requires to develop - this may include reading, modelling, a trial run, etc. They then agree when they would like the follow up observation to occur (entirely at the choice of the teacher).
The follow up observation takes place at the agreed time and the process is repeated with teacher A deciding if they would any additional follow up at that point through a further coaching conversation. If it is decided the loop has been closed, then the cycle ends and a new one begins in the following term. If they decide they would like further support, then equally this is put into place.
Currently it is early days. So far we have invested 12-15 hours in developing a team of coaches, trained leadership team and middle leaders on the principles of the system, and observed senior and middle leaders, giving them the opportunity to see the process modelled by our coaches. Following our launch with staff this week, we will complete the final cycle of training and attempt to observe the whole school. I have no idea if it will work in exactly the way we want it to because we need to try it, to find the kinks, and tweak/fix these as they arise. I am extremely fortunate to have an exceptional team of senior and middle leaders who will work with us to provide feedback and work out the issues in the system. There are many ways that you could approach something like this, this is simply our way for now. Will it be successful? I don't know but I believe in it. I believe we have the philosophy for lesson observation right and I believe it is better than what we used to do. The next bit is to be reflective, measure the impact, talk to teachers and find out whether this is a better system or not. Early indications are positive but the true test will be the whole school roll-out. Fingers crossed!!!!
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