Designing a tailor-made classroom observation program

Abstract

Comunicación sobre los beneficios de un programa de observación en tres fases: Learning walk/buzz observation - observación entre pares - observación evaulativa. Ejemplo del programa del Language Center en la Universidad Europea de Madrid, desarrollado en colaboración con Bell Educational Trust y Laureate International Universities.

As a result of the 2013 and 2014 quality assurance visit by Bell Educational Trust, the UEM Language Center decided and implemented an observation program which included: 1) evaluative observations, conducted by management; 2) developmental observations, with a developmental observation team set up by management; 3) peer review, where teachers observed each other in pairs. The initial results of the observation program were presented and published in 2105 in the JIIU. In this paper the authors will present a follow up study of how the above mentioned results formed the basis of a tailor-made teacher development program for 2016. Innovative aspects of this developed program are: 1) guided peer-review, where professors at the Language Center were paired intentionally with the aim of covering each other s specific development needs; 2) management observations focusing on areas to be improved at a department level, in this instance classroom management; 3) training for developmental observations where a Laureate specialist consultant improved inter-rater reliability among the members of the developmental observation team. Results of the satisfaction survey with all participants will be presented as well as recommendations for best practices in formative observations given.