Giving lesson observation feedback Victoria Wright Senior Lecturer Post Compulsory Education University of Wolverhampton

Forewarned is..

Sharing experiences of receiving feedback: is this relatable? In one observation feedback, I was explicitly told that I couldn’t be given a grade one because my class hadn’t been a challenge for me. I asked what I needed to do to get a grade one:  Observer: “Something extra.”  Victoria: “What exactly? Can you give me an example?”  Observer: “If you’d have had two students causing a riot and you’d had to step in and sort it. Something that challenged you a bit more.”  Victoria: (nonplussed, thinking this is an Access class where all of the learners cooperate with each other. Thinking are you sure?)  Observer: “Well that something extra…..”

‘After all, what would be the value of the passion for knowledge if it resulted only in a certain amount of knowledgeableness and not, in one way or another and to the extent possible, in the knower’s straying afield of himself? There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks and perceive differently than one sees is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all’ (Foucault cited in Eribon,1992, p ). Autobiography: (Further Education) English---English and Quality---Teacher Education---dual Quality and Teacher Education----(Higher Education) Teacher Education

Small groups: quick share! From your own experiences of giving and receiving lesson observation feedback: Are there recognisable conventions? You might think of structure, roles, language use, expectations, purposes… Copland (2008a, p2) explores the idea that the feedback dialogue is a distinct genre with ‘conventionalised expectations that members of a social group or network use to shape and construe the communicative activity they are engaged in’.

What conventions do you recognise? I will share perceptions from student focus groups……

I asked volunteers from my tutor group, and to participate in a focus group. I asked them to respond to the following questions:  What is the purpose of lesson observations?  What are we [tutor/ mentor/ peer] looking for when we observe?  What is the purpose of the feedback dialogue?  What is the role of the observer in the feedback dialogue?  What is the role of the observee in the feedback dialogue?  How are actions identified?

Copland Teacher educator Foucault Autoethno -graphy Quality observer Relations of power Subject/s Discourse dialogic CHAT O’Leary

Mediating Artifact: The types of records I have used and continue to use The training I have received The influence of colleagues and other observers My experiences of observing Community: PGCE in PCE colleagues Previous F.E. colleagues Previous institutional specific policies on quality and observation Education sector policy and practice including guidance on teacher education programmes Object: To provide feedback to the student teacher and agree actions Outcome: to improve the practice of the student teacher Hidden Outcome: to improve my ways of feeding back Subject: myself as observer Rules: Conventions of lesson observation and lesson observation feedback dialogues Conventions of educational discourse Hidden rules: My approach Division of labour: Observer Student-teacher 2

Analysis of my observational strategy Regulatory Practice: exploring conventions (university, known/ researched, individual) and patterns/ phases Division of Labour: turn taking, marked interruptions, length of turn, negotiation of action, use of questions Political technology: attitude, values and expectations Contradictions: with conventions, with attitude and values

Armstrong (2000, p.4) ‘Quality is in the eye of the beholder...All definitions are invariably situated in a context, and a reflection of the interactions between a range of agencies, including the individual learner whose needs and expectations form part of the equation…In short, there is always an ideological as well as an ethical basis to definitions of quality’.

Small groups: quick share! Think back to ‘Mediating Artifacts’ (CHAT)Mediating Artifacts 1. How might/ do your ‘Mediating Artifacts’ influence your ways of giving observation feedback? Other choices: 2. or inform your priorities when being observed? 3. or your expectations of the observation feedback dialogue, once observed? A focus in my thesis: As a tutor observer, to what extent am I (my ‘capillary’ power) influenced by a ‘disciplinary power’ (ie. graded inspections and quality assurance) that serves to standardise or regulate (‘normalising judgment’) what is an ‘effective’ teacher? (terms from Foucault)

Sharing…… I will share a few findings from my observation dialogues…

To highlight the context bound nature of giving observation feedback To indicate some of the complexities around fostering a dialogic approach To share ‘the vigilant tension of the self taking care, above all, not to lose control of its representations and be overcome by either pains or pleasures’ (Foucault, 2001, p.534).

Working within ‘relations of power’ i.e. (in teacher education provision) the context the student is in, their expectations, the class they’re teaching, their mentor’s expectations, the political context we work within (e.g. the external expectations: Ofsted, the internal expectations: their placement), observer and teacher experience and expectations.. ‘relations of power’ Foucault (2003a, in Rabinow and Rose, p.34)

Armstrong, P. (2000) Never mind the quality, measure the length: Issues for Lifelong learning. Supporting Lifelong Learning Global Colloquium. Available from [Accessed12th September 2013] Copland, F. (2007) Classrooms as Cultural Context: The legitimacy of educational exchange [online]. Available from: 9. [Accessed 1 st July 2012] 9 Copland, F. (2008a) “Deconstructing the Discourse: Understanding the feedback event.” In Garton S. and Richards K (ed.) Professional Encounters in TESOL, London: Palgrave. pp Copland, F. (2008b) Feedback in pre-service English language teacher training: discourses of process and power. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham Copland, F. (2010) Causes of tension in post-observation feedback in pre-service teacher training: An alternative view. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26 (3): Copland, F., Ma, G. and Mann, S. (2009) Reflecting in and on post-observation feedback in initial teacher training on Certificate courses. ELTED, 12: Copland, F. and Mann, S. (2010) “Dialogic talk in the post-observation conference; an investment for reflection” In Cirocki, A., Park, G., and Widodo, H. Observation of teaching: bridging theory and practice through research on teaching. München, Germany: LINCOM Europa pp

Ellis, C. (2004) The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press Engeström, Y. (2001) Expansive Learning at Work: toward an activity theory reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14 (1): Foucault, M. (1988a) “Technologies of the Self” In Martin, L. and Hutton, P. (ed.) Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault London: Tavistock Publications Ltd pp Foucault, M. (1988b) “The Political Technology of Individuals” In Martin, L. and Hutton, P. (ed.) Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault London: Tavistock Publications Ltd pp Foucault, M. (2003a) “The Ethics of the concern of the self as a practice of freedom” In Rabinow, P. and Rose, N. (ed.) The Essential Foucault: Selections from the Essential Works of Foucault, New York: The New Press pp O’Leary, M. (2013b) Surveillance, performativity and normalised practice: the use and impact of graded lesson observations in Further Education Colleges, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 37 (5): p Rabinow, P. and Rose, N. (ed.) The Essential Foucault: Selections from the Essential Works of Foucault, New York: New Press Wragg, E. (1994) An introduction to classroom observation. London: Routledge.

Any questions?