Teaching/training observations

 

£85 per review - 40 to 90 minutes observed, by video upload – we will send a ‘dropbox invitation’ once payment has been received. 10% discount available for over four observations for the same organisation. The taught topic can be on any subject, as long as it is safe, legal and has the consent of the participants to be recorded. The observation can also be conducted in person on your site. Additional cost for this. Please contact us for details.

 

Teaching observations can be important for:

 

Career and earning enhancement opportunities, quality assurance, exploring employee effectiveness with learners/trainees, maintaining and attracting new clients for sustained and enhanced income generation, CPD (continuing professional development), confidence building, to enhance teaching through critical reflection on your practice and the quality of teaching and learning.

 

If appropriate and requested, the report can be aligned with the professional standards related to your organisation, such as Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) and The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

 

By default, the report provided will be aligned in many respects to the Ofsted framework, which are not graded. The report will be related to some important underpinning educational/psychological theories and principles. I.e. using evidence on teacher/trainer behaviours and learner interactions in a high-inference** qualitative format.

 

You may not be subject to formal inspections by Ofsted, for example, but their vast experience and research knowledge puts them in a good place to tell us what constitutes being a good teacher/trainer in most learning environments in the UK today.

 

Note: The observation report will be a ‘one off’ review of what the assessor felt about the effectiveness of the teaching and learning experience. In reality, there will be many other important factors that will affect the effectiveness of the teacher/trainer. Formal inspections will usually ‘triangulate’ an observation review to include many of these important aspects, such as; results if learners/trainees take some sort of examination, learner’s comments about their experiences, learner support, management, parents and other important stakeholders.

 

This will not be the case on this occasion but the report will give the teacher/trainer a good idea about how they are performing as well as provide some important suggestions for making their teaching/training even more effective.

 

 

 

What you will get:

 

See HERE for an example report for one of our clients.

 

1) A personalised and honest review of what an experienced teacher trainer* has seen in your teaching session, related to some important underpinning educational/psychological theories and principles. I.e. using evidence on teacher/trainer behaviours and learner interactions in a high-inference** qualitative format.

 

2) Self-evaluation opportunities and review of the feedback about your teaching/training session if required and action planning for making your sessions even more effective.

 

3) Practical tips for making your sessions even more effective, again using some important underpinning educational/psychological theories and principles, as and when appropriate.

 

4) Signposting to further information and support structures that may influence the quality and effectiveness of your teaching/training sessions. (Especially related to dyslexia. The observer is a holder of the British Dyslexia Association 'Train the Trainer' - dyslexia awareness in a teacher training context at Reading University certificate).

 

5) Accredited teacher training offered by distance learning or ‘in-house’ for group of four or more people. Visit the home page of this website to find out more.

You may have a ‘gut feeling’ about the teaching methods that do and don’t work well with your learners/trainees. An exploration of some the underpinning educational research, theory and principles will help you to come to a conclusion about what teaching methods may be appropriate to use in your learning environment and what teaching methods you should avoid using.

 

*Lecturer since 1987, head of staff development and quality assurance for a college from 1996, teacher trainer from 1996, consultant and teacher trainer to many well-known organisations, including; major universities, charities and third sector organisations, PLC organisations for many years. Member of the Society for Education and Training’, consulted on the ‘The Education and Training Foundation’ (ETF) professional training standards. The Professional Standards provide a framework for teachers and trainers to critically appraise their own practice and improve their teaching through Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Post graduate qualification in Education (Professional Studies at Exeter University).

 

**High-inference tools are typically more informal, subjective and open-ended (based on the observer’s education and experience - Al Otaiba et al. 2006, p. 230). The assessor is expected to make a judgment about the occurrence and quality of the indicators in place of binary-response items. Low-inference tools are used to gather information on processes and actions between the teacher and students without drawing immediate conclusions. Instruments focus on directly observable actions and can use easy-to-code formats, such as checklists and binary response (i.e., yes/no or true/false) observation items, or more detailed written records that objectively document everything that happens.