The ABCD rules for all my lesson observations
Introduction
Lesson observations are often daunting for us, even if we have many years of experience. If we only have lesson observations once a year, we naturally want to showcase as much as we can, just so that we are fair to our “Years of experiences”.
If we have tried inquiry-based approaches before, we want to showcase how we use inquiry-based approaches in the lesson. We might also want to include some differentiated instructions, formative assessment and EdTech.
One potential problem is that the more approaches we plan in a lesson, the less we may focus on the students’ learning. If you have ever observed another teacher’s lesson before, most probably, you will not be counting the number of approaches the teacher uses in one lesson, but rather, if the students are meeting the learning outcome and enjoying the lesson. Right?
I only realised that when I became a senior teacher, where I had more opportunities to observe lessons. So, over the years, I narrow down the focus of each lesson observation to a few important elements. I will then explicitly tell the teachers what we aim for in the lesson.
Similarly for me, if I am being observed, I will focus on these few important elements. Over time, I have narrowed down the elements to four must-haves. The four must-haves are:
- A — Active Learning
- B — Bite-sized instruction
- C — Clear learning outcome
- D — Different ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development)
A — Active Learning
If you have a geography test tomorrow, what would you do today to prepare for the test? Although we all have different methods of studying, I am sure almost no one will just read the textbook once or twice and go for the test.
The most common studying method is to recite to yourself or write what you know on rough paper. If you have the money, you might have bought some assessment books and do the questions.
If you want to make studying more enjoyable, you might meet friends outside to practise together and help each other. You and your friends may not be able to answer certain questions. Hence, you work together to figure out the answer.
Imagine all these studying strategies are brought into the classroom instead of being done after school. These are active learning strategies — thinking, discussing, investigating, and creating (Center for Teaching Innovation, 2024).
In the PE classroom, instead of telling them the learning cues of a badminton serve, you can ask them to see a demonstration and then try to imitate the same action to produce the same outcome. You can also ask them to work in pairs, which makes the learning environment safer.
When the students manage to do the serve, you can ask them to write down on a piece of paper the possible cues that they have experienced. To develop metacognition, you can ask them to do a mini-debate on the cues, which are collated on the piece of paper.
For example, some may suggest the non-master foot in front, some may write master foot in front, and others may suggest feet shoulder-width apart. By having a mini-debate, the students are thinking deeper about the purpose of the leg position and might figure out what works best for them.
When students practice basketball shooting, those who do not have thinking habits will not think much about the best way to shoot. They may not think too much if they find it difficult to shoot into the ring.
However, students with thinking habits would wonder why the shooting was unsuccessful. They may think of ways to increase their success rate or look at others who are successful in the shooting.
B — Bite-sized instruction
If you do not like people to give you so many instructions at once, so do the students. Because we all have limited working memory capacity, we get frustrated if our working memory is overloaded with instructions or information.
No matter how much you want to explain to the students, we must be mindful not to cause cognitive overload (Khan, 2022). However, bite-sized instructions or information are not easy to deliver. Especially if you have many things to explain before the students know how to do the practice tasks.
Instead of completing all instructions. Say one part first and ask them to start the practice. Continue the other parts of the instructions after each few minutes of practice.
For example, if the learning task is a 3v2 possession game. You want the defenders to be passive defenders so that there are higher success rates of possession. Explaining how to play the 3v2 possession game and still having to explain the rationale of passive defenders might overload the students’ working memory.
What you can do is break the instructions into a few parts. The first part asks the students to play a 3v2 game, and 3 passes to win a point. Then, anticipate that the games would often break down because the students were not used to running to space or dribbling well to maintain possession.
You go to one group and tell the second part of the instruction, which is passive defending. Then, after the group is able to show you what passive defending looks like, you gather the class to look at how they do it.
The demonstration helps to give the students a visual scaffold (Main, 2023) of passive defending because not everyone can understand passive defending if you verbally tell them.
If there is time, you might want to stop the game and ask them to discuss some ways that make them successful in keeping possession of the ball. This keeps every instruction short, which is manageable for the students to follow only one at a time.
If you strongly feel that their passing and dribbling of the ball need to be improved, do not add to the instruction. Ask yourself, “What is the learning outcome of the lesson?” If the learning outcome is to keep possession of the ball by moving to free space to receive a pass, then keep to the learning outcome.
C — Clear learning goal
It can be frustrating for students if, after ten minutes of the lesson, they still do not know what they are practising for. Even if you have clearly indicated the learning goal to the students at the start of the lesson, they may still forget what the learning goal is, especially if they are too immersed in the game.
As mentioned earlier, students have limited working memory. Any information that is given to them could be forgotten after 20–30 seconds if it is not acted on. Students with attention challenges may not even catch the part about the learning goal.
For example, if the learning goal is to dribble into a scoring zone to take a shot, and some students do not hear the learning goal, how will they play in the 3v3 basketball game?
If they are good at basketball, they will play how they usually play and might never dribble into a scoring zone to take a shot. If the students are not good at basketball, they will not even try to dribble in. They will quickly pass the ball to a teammate.
Those students who heard the learning goal would quickly get confused and follow the rest — Just play normally and try to win the point.
What you can do is to constantly assess if the students are working towards the learning goal. Do not judge too quickly about their motivation level. If they are not working towards the learning goal, there is a high chance they are not clear on what to do in the game.
If you assess that the students are not working towards the learning goal, stop the game and ask the students to discuss how they can modify the rules so that everyone can meet the learning goal.
Focusing on one goal helps the students to stay focused and not get overwhelmed by the game’s complexity.
If dribbling into the scoring zone to take a shot is the goal, then just focus on that. Allow the students to modify the game so everyone can achieve the goal. You can talk about other aspects of the game but keep returning to the learning goal and not confuse the students.
If the game has to be slowed down in order for them to meet the learning goal, let it be, even if it does not look like a game anymore. Believe that the students need a slower game to achieve the learning goal. And keep believing that they will become faster with enough practice.
D — Different ZPD
Some students might seem unmotivated in the game, but if you believe that every child can learn and want to learn, you will want to delve deeper into understanding the reason behind the low motivation.
Research has shown that students’ motivation to learn is affected by whether they are learning in their ZPD (Department of Education, n.d.). They may even perceive that they are not able to achieve the learning goal and, hence, become unmotivated before they even start the practice tasks. It is also possible that the challenge of the task is too easy for them and that they find it boring.
As mentioned in the segment on “Clear learning goal”, some students might need to slow down to achieve the goal. Some students might need the game to slow down even more, while others might need to game to be faster.
As such, it is important for you always to assess if the students are learning in their ZPD. While it is not easy to look at all forty students practising at one time. You can teach the student how to modify the practice tasks to suit their abilities. Then explain the rationale to them so they understand the intention of modifying the tasks.
Conclusion
Although I have narrowed down the elements to four must-haves, I have learned to focus on only one aspect at a time during mentoring. Because if we believe teaching is a skill, we should practice one part of the skill first before moving on to the next part.
Using the analogy of learning to drive a manual car, we first learn to find the clutch biting point before developing the competency to change the gear. Finding the clutch-biting point requires hours of practice. And it is the same as learning when to change the gear.
Therefore, we cannot look at professional development as understanding a pedagogical model or framework and expect ourselves to apply it tomorrow.
It took me many months of practice before I developed the habit of ensuring my lesson focused on the learning goal. It took me another few more months to a year to develop the habits of empowering students to modify the learning tasks to suit their abilities.
It is also helpful if you tell the observer what you are practising. For example, you can tell the observer that you are practising how to help students understand the learning goal throughout the lesson. And explain why a clear learning goal is important.
As an observer, it is definitely helpful if the teacher tells you what he or she wants to focus on. Looking out for one aspect is way easier than trying to look out for “Good teaching”, which can be very complex.
All the best if you are having a lesson observation!
References
Department of Education. (n.d.). Planning lessons at the point of need for high-ability students. Education. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/high-ability-toolkit/Pages/planning-lessons-at-the-point-of-need-for-high-ability-students.aspx
Khan, A. (2022, November 3). What is cognitive overload? eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/what-is-cognitive-overload
Main, P. (2023, January 25). Scaffolding in Education: A Teacher’s guide. Structural Learning. https://www.structural-learning.com/post/scaffolding-in-education-a-teachers-guide
