If you are a teacher, you’ve probably had lesson observations by your administrators, colleagues, or even parents at some point in your career. Most teachers find these observations nerve-racking. In fact, teachers usually spend hours or even days planning, poring over the details of the content, creating beautifully crafted PowerPoint, and going over the flow of the lesson to make sure everything will run perfectly. Teachers do this because they care about the students that they teach and the opinions of those coming to observe them. However, the focus of the lesson observation is no longer just on the teacher. It is also on the students. More importantly, it’s on students’ participation during the lesson, and the students’ mastery of the content post-delivery.

Traditionally, the focus of an observation is on the teacher.

Benefits
There are three major benefits to opening up one’s classroom for observation for the teacher being observed and the observing teacher.

Problem Solving Support
The first is that it’s a way for teachers to support one another and problem-solve. For the teacher being observed, if there are issues that he or she is having concerns about in his or her classroom, then, the observer can focus more of his or her attention on those issues during the classroom visit. For example, if a teacher wants to learn why there’s an increase in noise level during activity transitions, it would be a good opportunity to invite a colleague to help identify the cause. Once determined, steps could be taken to address the increase in noise level by giving clearer directions before allowing students to transition, or modifying the procedure by allowing students to transition in small groups, to name a few. The benefit for the teacher observed is that with the help of a colleague, he or she can identify the cause behind issues faced in the classroom. Through discussions with another teacher, he or she may even come up with multiple solutions to resolve the classroom issues. For the observing teacher, brainstorming ideas with a colleague may lead to creative inspirations that may be applied to other aspects of the observing teacher’s classroom.

Exchange of Teaching Ideas and Practices
Second, having regular inter-classroom or even cross- discipline observations allow teachers to learn from each other and find new inspirations to bring back to his or her classroom. In fact, this can even occur informally through buddy class interactions. When an upper grade teacher is paired with a lower grade teacher for a buddy activity between the two classes, the two teachers can take turns taking the lead for the two classes. This will allow the supporting teacher to see the lead teacher in action and in turn observe how the other teacher manages the two classes or how that teacher engages students in learning in a new subject matter. The supporting teacher can also have an opportunity to see how his or her students engage in learning with a different teacher with a different teaching style. For instance, the lead teacher may do a singing activity to help students learn and transition the class using a specific music cue. If the supporting teacher has never tried to transition using music, he or she may want to try to incorporate music in his or her teaching. Or, the supporting teacher may also share of another interesting way to teach the same content matter without using music. Both teachers can benefit by further fine-tuning their teaching practices and teaching activity through suggestions or questions raised by the other teacher. Additionally, both teachers could benefit from learning new teaching activities, or teaching practices they have observed to add to their repertoire.

Having an extra pair of eyes in the classroom can offer new insights into one’s teaching!

A Opportunity to Experience Ideological Differences
Third, opening one’s classroom is as beneficial for veteran teachers as it is for beginning teachers because it’s an opportunity to experience another teacher’s teaching ideology through the types of activities chosen for the students in class. Veteran teachers may perhaps want to try a new activity that will make students more thoughtful individuals through project-based activities. These project-based activities are based on experiences from students’ personal lives. The goal is to make students more thoughtful and responsible in real life. The observing teacher can take note of student engagement and provide feedback for the teacher observed and also think about whether tying project-based learning to real-life scenarios is something he or she would like to pursue in his or her own teaching. Through this experience, the two teachers may discover ideological differences in their teaching and benefit by learning and adopting useful practices or ideas from each other.

Implementation
In order to maximize the benefits, it is important for teachers who will open up their classroom to have pre- and post-observation conferences. In the pre-observation conference, the teacher being observed can share his or her lesson plan and identify goals and specific things for the observing teacher to pay special attention to. During the pre-observation conference, the observing teacher can gain a basic understanding of the workings of the classroom being observed and the instructional objectives of teacher being observed. Through the basic understanding of the classroom he or she will visit, the observing teaching can also have a list of things that he or she may want to pay attention to for his or her own learning. During the observation, the observing teacher could see if the intended instructional goals were realized in the manner originally planned. Furthermore, it would be particularly helpful for the visiting teacher to have a rough diagram the students’ seating arrangement and do a quick survey of students’ engagement and mastery of the material.

Teachers can self-assess and reflect on one’s own instructional practices through pre- and post-observation discussions.

It is suggested that teachers should observe a class more than once. The reason being that the success of a lesson hinges on factors such as student engagement, and students’ readiness to learn. These factors vary from day to day. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers should be observed more than once to gain a clearer picture of the inner workings of student learning within the teacher’s classroom.

The focus on the observation centers on student participation during the lesson and the students’ mastery of the content post-delivery.

Inter-classroom observation is a very powerful tool for teachers to reflect upon and self assess the success of his or her instructional goal through discussions with colleagues. There are significant benefits for the teacher being observed as well as the observing teaching. It is also a great way for teacher to build rapport and provide support for one another. After, two heads are better than one!