GUIDELINES FOR CLASSROOM VISITATION

(From part of a larger CAS Core Faculty Seminar Report)

         Classroom visitations provide us with a rare opportunity to draw on the experience and insight of our peers in order to become better teachers. Observing someone else teach is not as straightforward an assignment as it might initially appear. It is important to keep in mind that there are many ways to teach well and that the significance of events during your hour depends on a semester-long context which will not be familiar to the visitor. One witness cannot possible chronicle all that goes on during the period, and the meaning of any detail is always subject to multiple interpretations.

         Many of us are more adept at criticism than at recognizing strengths in the work of others (or in ourselves). However, in a classroom visitation a desire to spot “what went wrong” may turn the exchange in a competitive, judgmental direction and away from the mutual analysis which promises the best results. In a spirit of collaboration the visitor and the host teacher should attempt to establish what worked during the session as well as what did not, to dissect the tactics which seemed to bring results in as much detail as those which appeared to meet with less success. At the end of the hour, instead of rushing off with promises to meet at some later time, the visitor might want to pause —however briefly— to express appreciation to the teacher for opening up his or her work to outside scrutiny.

        Later, when a more extended meeting is possible, the observer ought to begin by encouraging the teacher to give an account of the class from his or her point of view. The visitor's impressions do not necessarily correct, but they can supplement this version. By proceeding through the hour and by exchanging views, the participants can put together a picture of what transpired.

        In the end, discussion will be most useful if it succeeds beyond surface impressions to focus on what is really happening while we teach. Again, in a spirit of collaborative analysis, the observer can help the teacher “decode” his or her actions. It may be, for example, that the joking and informal tone we attempt to strike comes across as a vaguely ominous sarcasm; or that the seemingly unresolved session which frustrates and discourages us may leave the students with a sense that significant questions have been placed on the agenda for further consideration. Are our concerns with “covering the material” or with “getting students to participate in discussion” as closely associated with success in teaching as we have fallen into the habit of assuming? Metaphors of the learning process are embedded in the way teachers talk about their work, as the “weed out” unqualified students or “break down their resistance” to new ideas. These and the many other idioms which we employ need to be weighed, not for the purpose of sorting out “good' from “bad” metaphors, but in order to clarify the assumptions which they reflect and to be aware of the misunderstandings which they may arouse in the minds of the students.

        Members of the committee included Ruth Butler (Art), Suzy Groden (GCOE), Alan Harwood (Anth), David Hunt (History), Esther Kingston-Mann (Co-chair), Ellie Kutz (English), Lois Rudnick (Co-chair).

        The list of questions which follows is not intended to be inclusive, and participating teachers and observers should feel free to add to it. It might be helpful for them to confer beforehand so that the observer will have some idea of the particular issues which the host teacher is interested in exploring.

Guidelines

I. The Classroom Environment

• Describe the students' setting arrangement. Does the arrangement change with different kinds of classroom activity? Are students in particular locations more engaged than those in others?

• Describe the position and movement of the teacher. Is the teacher most often seated, standing, pacing back and forth? Do different movements or changes of position signal new phases of classroom activity? What are the nonverbal cues provided by the teacher? How does the teacher respond to nonverbal cues from students?

• Describe the use of blackboard, handouts and audio-visual materials. Does the teacher use the blackboard to provide an outline for the work of that class hour? To introduce terms? To list and categorize student responses to a question? To diagram materials and show interrelationships of ideas? If handouts are provided, what is their purpose and how do they relate to the content of this particular class? Do they provide review? An introduction to new material? When are they handed out? Are they explained or discussed in class or are they intended for non-class, private use? If audio-visual materials are used, what is their purpose and how do they relate to the content of this particular class?

II. Discourse

1. Describe the teachers approach to the course content. Does one of the following teaching strategies predominate?

           _____ Demonstration of a process or technique of analysis appropriate to the discipline?

           _____ Analysis of problems, issues or events?

           _____ Synthesis of concrete data from a variety of sources?

           _____ Presentation of one or more interpretations of a given body of evidence?

            _____ Other?

2.  Questions and Answers

      a. In general, how important were questions and answers by students or teacher in

          the classroom process?

      b. How does the teacher use questions in the classroom situation?

         ____ to test student recall of material from previous class, assigned

                   readings, earlier part of class period?

         ____ to consider possible causes or consequences, where a variety of

                   answers may be defensible or legitimate?

         ____ to relate issues to current events or immediate concerns?

         ____ to make comparisons and contrasts between the issues at hand and

                  material covered earlier in the semester?

         ____ to lead the student to take a independent position?

         ____ to lead the student to see the issue correctly?

        c. What kinds of questions did students ask the teacher?

          ____ request for more information?

          ____ request for explanation?

          ____ request for teacher's point of view on the issue under discussion?

        d. How did the teacher respond to student questions and answers?

          ____ did the teacher openly agree or disagree?

          ____ did the teacher call attention to evidence or issues which the student

                   had failed to mention?

          ____ was the student encouraged to explain or elaborate on questions or answers?

          ____ did the teacher ask other students to respond or comment on the answer or

                   question which one of them had raised?

III. Structure and Sequencing of Classroom and Activities

• Describe what happens in the room during the five minutes before class begins. Do students interact with one another? Are any of these interactions related to the course or to course materials?

• Describe the way that the opening time and closing time of the class is used. Does the class start and end on time? How does the teacher draw students' attention to the day's work? How does the teacher establish rapport with the students? Does the teacher communicate the explicit structure of this class and explain the relationship to previous and future classes?

• Describe the activities of this class period. Is the whole time devoted to one kind of activity (lecture, discussion, group work, etc) or is there more than one activity? If there is one activity, does it have a distinctive phases? What is the relative proportion of class time spent on the different activities or phases? (Note actual time)

• Describe the sequencing of activities. What is done first? What logic seems to be controlling the order of activities?

IV. Student Participation in the Class

• Do the students take notes? If so, when and in response to what kind of prompting? Does the teacher acknowledge and attempt to guide this note taking, for example, by stating that a point being made is important and ought to be recorded?

• Is there something to be learned from students' staring in space, frowns, or disagreement, indications of puzzlement or distress with losing the thread of an argument? Do some half-raise their hands in response to questions and therefore perhaps intentionally, fail to attract the teacher's attention? Or try more emphatically, but without success, to get recognized? Often the moment after a student has spoken, when the attention of the teacher and the other students has swung away, is particularly eloquent. What do students do now that they have relinquished the floor? Blush with embarrassment? Go blank, as if retreating inside themselves to recuperate from the shock of being “on?” Scowl with irritation at not having their contribution more emphatically acknowledged? Or do they seem satisfied with the transition from the role of speaker to that of listener?

• Do students talk among themselves? In conjunction with or in opposition to the direction which the teacher is promoting for the class? Are there differences between their attentiveness to the teacher and the interest they demonstrate in the contribution of other students?

• When the teacher sets out to answer a student's question, is the answer based on an accurate understanding of the thrust of the question? Do students grasp the rationale behind transitions from one phase of the class to the next? In side conversations, do they seek clarification from others concerning statements and instructions issued by the teacher?

• Sometimes a difference can be observed between the nucleus of the class and a periphery of students less involved in the session. Is there a “core” class seated close to the teacher and a margin of spectators around the edges of the room? Is there a class sub-culture among students evident in the way they relate to each other before the session begins (it helps to arrive early enough to observe such interactions) or after it has been adjourned? Or perhaps, several such subcultures, amicably relating, or merely coexisting, or regarding each other with mistrust?