Developing lesson observation skills: the key to improving teaching and learning

When I first became a Head of Physics I was handed the line management of two colleagues, a responsibility which included their performance management. Consequently I found myself having to observe lessons when I had only been teaching myself for a few years. I was handed forms and grids but to be honest I was relatively clueless. I'm eternally grateful to those I managed at the time for allowing me to continue this charade but in reality they were humouring me. By the time I hit senior leadership I believe I did know what I was doing but it wasn't until I undertook joint observations with far more experienced colleagues that I truly knew I was on the right track. It took a long time for me to reach this point and looking back on my experiences I feel that I lost many years of valuable observations simply because no-one had validated my observations or given me any guidance.

Being a good teacher doesn't necessarily make you a good observer. We believe we can teach colleagues to become better teachers but one of the key techniques by which we do this (observing lessons) is left to luck! Surely if you are going to improve teaching by observing then you ought to know what you are doing.

When I first became a head my first round of observations were conducted in pairs, to validate each others findings but also as a developmental activity for the observers.

I feel that there are two key reasons why leaders should receive training on lesson observation, firstly it is used as a core measure of performance and can be linked to pay progression, and secondly it is only through actually watching someone teach that you can constructively improve their teaching (I accept that you can improve marking and so on without watching lessons but the actual business of teaching really requires first-hand observations).

Here's how I do it.

Step 1. Find a willing volunteer who doesn't mind being observed.

Step 2. Prep your colleague. What are you looking for in the lesson? Where would you sit? When should you move? What should you note down and how?

Step 3. Off you go! Remember that your job is twofold, firstly to observe the observer and secondly to collate observations for comparison purposes after the lesson. I also like to do some  in-lesson coaching in these situations. Pointing out where to sit, when to move, what to look at and so on. A quiet word in an ear or a little note can maximise the value of the shared observation.

Step 4. After the lesson compare notes. Let your colleague kick off. If you use a framework  it is easier. I have mentioned the 5Ps many times but it really does help with lesson observations; concentrate on pitch, pace and progress and you've hit the nail on the head. See HERE for the 5Ps.
This is also a good time to give feedback on the process of observation itself.

Step 5. Now watch your colleague give feedback. This is also so important. I have written about feedback HERE but when done well it can encourage and develop good teaching.

Step 6. Again feedback on the feedback.

Who will this benefit? Middle and senior leaders, NQT mentors, student teacher mentors, teachers requiring development, in fact just about anyone! This is one of the best pieces of CPD you can deliver; invest in this and you will see the benefits.

So what is the point of lesson observation feedback?

Why do we spend lots of time watching our colleagues teach? Why do we also spend lots of time talking to our colleagues about their lessons? The cynic will say "because we have to", "it is part of the appraisal cycle" and so on, and this is true if there is a culture in the school that lesson observations and feedback are activities that are done to colleagues rather than with them. Some may suggest that there are times when we observe in "OFSTED" mode so that leaders and teachers are ready for inspection, however I believe that there is only one way, one philosophy, and one motivation behind lesson observations, and that is to develop teachers to improve outcomes for children.

It is true that lesson observations should form a key piece in the monitoring and evaluation life of a school, but by developing a philosophy that says the M&E side is a fortunate by-product of a more constructive lesson observation philosophy then it is more likely that observations will help to raise standards.

Within a cycle of leadership there will always be tension at the beginning. Lesson observations will be tense but the way the observation is handled and the manner in which feedback is conducted will sow the seeds for increasingly productive observations in the future. So what did I do? You've possibly seen me ramble on about "5+2 Ps" elsewhere in this blog; this set the expectations for the lesson and colleagues knew what I would be looking for. But also, and very importantly, I told them how I would be conducting the feedback. It is at this point that you can make a real difference. My colleagues knew that the feedback would be around the ideas of Purpose, Planning, Pitch, Pace and Progress and that they would be leading the feedback. That last bit is the radical part. Rather than feeding-back to the teacher, the feedback then becomes a reflective dialogue. As my colleagues knew what they would be discussing they evaluated their own lessons and were able to analyse the effectiveness of the lesson. Before I started on my 5Ps crusade the feedback I gave was like the feedback I had received, tell them the good and bad points and then tell them (or invite them to tell me) what to do better. This approach is different, the feedback becomes mentoring and not simply a M&E activity. The result of this is that the observation and feedback become real opportunities for staff to development.

When a culture of understanding and respect has developed within a school then all sorts of opportunities open up. For example I wanted to develop the leadership capacity of less experienced teachers. Because no teacher feared observation I was able to arrange for teachers to be observed by their colleagues with me also in the room. Now nothing new here except for my role in the room. I wasn't observing the lesson, I was observing the observer. Throughout the lesson I would whisper in their ear, pass them notes, get them to take up certain positions and point to things so as to develop their observing capacity. After the lesson I would ask them to brief me about the lesson and then I would observe them to the debrief with the class teacher. You may think that this all seems a little expensive in terms of time, but the impact of developing staff to undertake meaningful lesson observations is immense.

My experience of an OFSTED inspection in 2015 will last with me forever. I observed a lot of lessons with the inspectors and then they watched me giving feedback to 4 or 5 colleagues. Each time I started with "well how do you think the lesson went?", and every time I immediately had the teacher leading off with statements about progress, pace and pitch. This wasn't feedback, this was dialogue, this was staff development, and it was no surprise to me that every lesson would have been graded at least "good". 

The human side of leadership

The Hay-McBer analysis of leadership styles has been cropping up in educational leadership for a good few years. I first encountered it in the early 2000s and it is regularly encountered on current leadership programs. It aims to break leadership styles into 6 categories and analyses the way in which leaders operate according to their predominant leadership style. The 6 leadership types (according to Hay McBer) are:

• Coercive
• Authoritative
• Affiliative
• Democratic
• Pacesetting
• Coaching

The issue that I have with this is that it is all about the leader and not the leadership relationship. It is acknowledged that most leaders will display all of these at some time or another but nevertheless I believe that it is wrong to pigeon-hole leaders. At best it is overly simplistic and naively reductionist and at worst it absolves the leader from the responsibility of establishing quality relationships. “I am an authoritative leader so deal with it” seems to be the attitude. It is then the responsibility of those being led to adapt to the leader, which is wrong!

Educational leadership has a great deal to learn from leadership in the wider world of business but education has a unique set of employees, employees who are all very different. I would sooner the see a different Hay McBer analysis, where the predominant characteristic of the employee comes first. I would assert that a school is most successful when it is inclusive with its staff. No-one should feel excluded from the life of the school but if leaders feel that they can legitimise a certain way of leading because they fit the category then I fear that employees will be excluded.

So here is my radical proposal. Leaders, don’t categorise yourself at all. Embrace all leadership styles and always seek to gain greater inter-personal skills. To work out how many leadership styles you actually need apply “Whalley’s law of leadership styles” which states “the minimum number of leadership styles needed is calculated by taking the number of those you lead and multiplying it by 2”. Why the “2”? Well you need a different style for when your employee is having a good day and when they are having a bad day! You may even want to multiply by 2 again to allow you to recognise that your leadership style with any individual is determined by your state of mind as well.

Leadership is a human process based on unique interactions. Put your employees first (not yourself) and remember they are all individuals. Leadership is about relationships and if you cannot form meaningful relationships you may make a great manager but you will struggle with leadership. You may actually think you’re a great leader but what would your staff say. Have you actually got genuine authority or are you exercising power (see earlier post HERE)?

I have learned that every member of staff deserves personalised leadership if you invest in them they will invest in you and the school.  

Addition to blog (13 Sept 2016)
What could you do practically to make this happen? I reckon you could conduct 2 audits, a personal one, and one for those you lead. What are your characteristics, values, strengths and weaknesses that make you a good leader? Now do a similar thing for your team, explicitly identifying key characteristics. Given that I assert that leadership is a relationship-centred human activity, understanding personalities (including your own) must be at the heart of our activities. 

On a personal level I have found that I have developed significantly over my leadership career, my characteristics have changed (some radically). In addition the teams I have led have all been different and so my skill-set has had to adapt to meet the needs of the team. Rather than waiting for this to happen I have actively looked at my teams and worked out how their personalities require me to lead. 

Developing middle leaders - a different perspective

I have been in leadership for over 16 years and have done all sort of CPD. I've been through courses on running science departments, managing budgets, pastoral leadership and so on but what all of these had in common was that they were trying to turn me into a technician, turn me into someone who could do a specific job, turn me into an exact copy of anyone else on the course. Unfortunately this seems not be uncommon in leadership development at any level, the aim being to produce leader clones who all operate in the same way.

I have a problem with this. Consider this; you wouldn't take 16 teachers into M&S and make all of them fit a 34" waist pair of black trousers! Maybe 1 or 2 of the them might fit but they are 16 individuals, all different, all unique. We wouldn't try to squeeze our leaders into the same garment so why on earth would we attempt to squeeze them into the same form of leadership. My belief is that you mould leadership around the leader rather than forcing a leader into a mould. Of course if you believe that leadership is simply a set of common behaviours, characteristics and attitudes then you won't agree with me, and you'll probably find yourself wondering why we can't find leaders in education. If however you're with me on this one, you will recognise that leadership is first and foremost a human process, a relationship-led structure in which individuals work with each other in certain capacities to achieve a desirable goal (in our case the education of children).

Some may want all aspiring leaders to be the same, I want exactly the opposite, I want them all to be different.

Leadership certainly has a core set of attitudes and behaviours but these have to be reimagined and practiced by the individual. A simple way of looking at it is to compare a Van Gogh and a Manet, give them the same paints and you'll get two very different pictures, both masterpieces in their own right but very different. I want our attitude to leadership development to be the same, let's give our leaders the same palette but let them paint their own picture.

An approach like this would assert that leaders are not formed but they emerge. They should use their own personalities to shape their practice rather than the personality of an author preaching a certain leadership model. A leader is more authentic if they are themselves rather than someone they are not. Leadership training should focus on behaviours, attitudes and values rather than specific processes. Encourage reflective practice where the leader is a learner rather than prescriptive practice where the leader is a transmitter of received knowledge.

So I don't think you need a course on being a Head of Maths or a Head of Year, leadership development is about incubating leadership so that when it emerges it can fill any role it encounters.

 

Dealing with staff conflict

This has appeared in my other blog Teachers' Minds Matter but as it is also about a key leadership activity I felt it was worth also publishing it here.

Possibly the most challenging incidents I have had to deal with in leadership are those when conflict erupts between staff. Conflict arises for all sorts of reasons, teaching allocations, access to resources, taking time off someone, ways in which pupils are treated and even simple animosity. Whatever the cause of the conflict it is always something that must be taken seriously, it cannot be ignored.

Conflict can have a range of consequences but additional pressure and stress are almost always inevitable. What makes conflict particularly problematic is that the stress fallout envelops far more people than simply the protagonists. It is inevitable that those trying to manage the situations (school leaders, union reps) and those close to the central actors in the piece will be effected. Conflict is a large pebble thrown into the pond, it ripples outwards and the whole pond tends to experience it in some way, shape or form. I have seen staffrooms, departments and year teams polarised and divided by conflict.

Remember that to those on either side of the conflict their perception of the situation is real (this links to an article on my leadership blog about the reality of alternative perceptions).

Conflict resolution is a skill in itself. Negotiating with conflicting parties to reach a mutually acceptable solution (for both parties and the school) is a challenge and shouldn't be taken on lightly as getting it wrong can have dire consequences. It is for this reason that conflict causes such stress for mediators. In truth, throughout my career, I have lost more sleep (real sleepless nights, not just metaphor) over this than anything else I have dealt with.

Unfortunately it is rare that anyone is truly satisfied with compromise even though it is the best that can often be hoped for. The aggrieved parties will feel that their case has been watered down and someone else has not faced the wrath they deserve. A feeling of injustice is almost always inevitable in these cases.

Some tips for those handling conflict
When handling conflict it is important to do your homework beforehand. Establish facts and opinions, liaise with union reps, work out end goals . If you are a union rep, recognise that the outcome will probably need to be a compromise. Most importantly give your colleagues the opportunity to "save face". Personal and professional pride are at the heart of conflict and an affront to these can strike a mortal blow. You must ensure that all of those involved can walk the corridors with heads held high.

Don't forget yourself in all of this. Take time to think over the case before the meetings. Visualise the meetings you will have and play a game of chess in your head. Work out the openings, the middle game and the acceptable endings. Do not go into a meeting which you haven't planned out in this way. There is always the chance that things will take an unexpected turn but mentally you will be ready if you have played out a range of scenarios. Remember that you must resolve the issue in the best interests of the school as well as the individuals but always be conscious of the emotional impact on the protagonists. Be reassuring, be conciliatory, be a peacemaker, be a counsellor.

Some tips for those at the centre of the conflict
This can be the most stressful part of a teacher's career, that period of time when you are at loggerheads with a colleague. Seek guidance but do so wisely. Close friends are not always the best listeners, they may tell you what you want to hear but not necessarily what you need to hear. I have always made sure that I knew who I could trust and turn to at times of conflict in any school I've worked in. Even as a head I have made sure I had one person whose discretion was assured, who would listen, console and counsel but not judge. Often this will be a union rep. The best union reps have these attributes (and if they don't they shouldn't be reps!).

If you can abstract yourself from the situation. Attempt to see multiple perspectives even if you don't agree with them, and more importantly attempt to empathise with your colleague. After all emotional well-being is not about content, its about feelings.

Beyond school seek counsel and friendship, relax and take your mind off conflict. Put yourself first!

In conclusion I can say that there is no guaranteed approach to effective conflict management. Everyone is unique, every situation is different. But remember that tomorrow is a new day and that someone is out there ready to look out for you.

Teachers' Minds Matter

I've just started a new blog on teachers and mental health. Given that the focus of this blog is leadership and I felt that a separate blog would be more appropriate. My intention is to raise awareness of mental health issues within the education community to both support teachers and those who have to manage colleagues with mental health conditions.

Unlike this blog it is likely that the new one will have lots of small items rather than more extended discussions, however we shall see.

Over time please visit and I would welcome your ideas.

If children's education matters, then teachers matter, and if teachers matter then so do their minds.

teachersminds.blogspot.com
 

When 2+2=5 and everyone is right: managing conflicting perceptions

Bear with me on this one. I’m going to start with a diversion into science education but there is a reason as I believe what applies to children learning science also applies to leaders dealing with teachers. (If you want to avoid the details skip straight to the pudding in the last paragraph!)

As a science teacher I have always been interested in how children learn science and make sense of the world. There is evidence to suggest that children are capable of holding two (at a minimum) views of the world at any time, one being that taught in school and the other being the “folk” science from home, family and the community. Often these are at odds. I have had several experiences of where children have told me that their views are correct because their grandmothers told them it was the case, and that all we do in school science is add a veneer of knowledge which is regurgitated for tests and promptly forgotten for the rest of life. However the science educationist, Ros Driver, recognised that this cycle is breakable if science teachers create moments of cognitive conflict where a child experiences a phenomena that is so contrary to their folk science interpretation that they are forced to abandon this is favour of the mainstream science view. A great example is when children believe that a 1kg mass will fall more quickly than a 100g mass, and it is only when simultaneously released masses hit the floor at the same time that their understanding begins to change. This is known as the constructivist model of science learning.

The key points here are that the child’s version of science is real to them even if it  is totally at odds with the scientific orthodoxy (and before you ask I believe it is highly unlikely that the child’s view is the right one!), and the second is that cognitive conflict is a potential (and powerful) mechanism in shifting perceptions.

Now let’s get back to school leadership. I am sure I exasperate my team with my conviction that everyone believes they can be right and that this should be taken seriously. I know that doesn’t appear to make sense but if someone comes to you and claims they are doing more work than someone else then just telling them they don’t won’t change anything. In fact if you just tell them they are mistaken they may end up thinking that you are dismissive towards and now not only do they do more work than anyone else but also their head or line manager doesn’t care.

Our colleagues’ perceptions are real, they may not be objectively true, but as they are believed then their subjective truth is all important. Perceptions are shaped through a range of lenses, personality, emotions, current outlook on life, relationships with others, and so on. Misunderstandings find their origins in this; an objective truth is subjectively processed by individuals and often internalised in very different ways. Problems arise when the personalised interpretations are diametrically opposite and conflict is inevitable. In all of this we have to assume that all parties are acting in good faith and with integrity; the water is muddied significantly when lies are told.

So how to promote change then? Many only change when their views are shown to be demonstrably wrong. You need to engineer cognitive conflict. Simply correcting someone may only add a veneer of leader-directed “truth” without replacing or even just modifying underlying views. You may need to collect and present evidence, you may need to allow someone to observe a lesson, look at someone else’s books, go to another school for day, and if it is a significant issue it may require a significant action. Nevertheless if you want a fundamental shift then you will not achieve with simply correcting someone.

To cut a long story short. If you want to change the mind of an intelligent professional make sure your approach is better than simply correcting them. Acknowledge their concern, understand their perspective, find and present evidence to the contrary and lead them towards the interpretation that the evidence suggests. Even then this process must be personalized; do not assume that the process is generic, it must be tailored to meet the needs of the individual. This takes a lot longer than telling someone they are wrong but it is worth it. It also shows that you care (if you don't care then you're in the wrong game). Most people can cope with being wrong, mistaken or whatever, and will sooner or later accept the evidence, but what they won’t take is being called stupid.