Abstract:

Teaching observation (TO) is a powerful tool for providing feedback to teachers [1], disseminating good practices and fostering teaching enhancement [2].
In the international field of higher education, TO plays an important role in the understanding of the teaching experience and in supporting a new vision for Faculty Development (FD) [3,4]. These benefits are lost when formative opportunities are not fully integrated into observation (and training) processes [5]. In the Italian higher education system, FD initiatives are now increasing and there is interest on this front. The most part of universities started teachers’ training activities but few experiences of TO have been designed and implemented [6]. Students' point of view collected via the official questionnaires is, till now, the only adopted instrument. Nevertheless, expert observation can give a different perspective complementary to student’s feedback.

Although the implementation of observation criteria and tools matters, a better design allows a better performance achievement [7]. For this reason, an adequate design of the entire TO proposal is important to better define purposes and avoid the risk to let TO be only an evaluative tool. Based on this, our study aims to show methods and results of the collaborative process of design and validation of a TO grid involving both teachers and designers. Project's phases are the following: design of the grid draft; focus groups’ organization; focus groups’ delivery; focus groups’ outputs analysis; second draft of the grid; validation of the grid via the adoption in the real context. From a practical point of view, we offer suggestions on how to develop a TO grid co-design process. From a research point of view, we support TO acceptance by faculty and we monitor the introduction of a TO practice in a context in which it is not already usual. Future research could include the designer observation of the teacher and the teacher self-observation.

References:
[1] Brancato, V. C., Professional development in higher education. In King, K., & Lawler, P. (Eds.), New perspectives on designing and implementing professional development of teachers of adults (59–65). New directions for adult and continuing education, vol. 98. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass 2003.
[2] Yiend, J., Weller, S., & Kinchin, I.,Peer observation of teaching: The interaction between peer review and developmental models of practice. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 38(4), 465-484 2014.
[3] Windsor, S., Kriewaldt, J., Nash, M., Lilja, A. & Thornton, J. Developing teachers: adopting observation tools that suspend judgement to stimulate evidence-informed dialogue during the teaching practicum to enrich teacher professional development, Professional Development in Education, 1941-5257 2020.
[4] Scourfield, P., Teaching should be observed’: a critical consideration of the issues involved in including teaching observation in the inspection of social work education, Social Work Education, 38(7), 821-833 2019.
[5] Lang, Cheryl L., The Potential of Rethinking The Teacher Observation And Evaluation Model. All Theses And Dissertations. 223 2019.
[6] Reinholz, D., The assessment cycle: A model for learning through peer assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 41(2), 301-315 2016.
[7] Piburn, M., & Sawada, D., Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) reference manual. Arizona: Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers 2020.

Keywords:

Teaching observation, grid, focus groups, faculty observation.