When teachers observe a lesson, what do they see? And can training help improve this? Let’s explore this in this blog with Teaching Unpacked.
What do teachers ‘see’?
Consider the following study. A group of teachers sat down to watch a video of a real classroom lesson that was littered with disruptive behaviour and distracted, disengaged students. Whilst watching this, eye tracker software picked up where and on what the teachers were focusing on. To aid with this data collection, the teachers were also instructed to say out loud what they were thinking when watching.
The researchers found that the more inexperienced teachers were more likely to adopt a scattergun approach, whereas the more experienced teachers fixed their gaze for longer periods of time.
As a result, the more experienced teachers were better able to pick up on both more important and more subtle cues, in order to deduce what was going on in the classroom. Researchers refer to this as “professional vision”. Their less experienced colleagues, however, were much more likely to focus on more irrelevant information.
Fascinatingly, the differences didn’t end in what they saw; they extended to how they thought as well. Experienced teachers were more likely to describe what they were thinking during this period by using words that relate to their cognitive processes, such as “think” and “feel.” On the other hand, the inexperienced teachers tended to use simpler language such as “do,” “want,” and “see.”.
The researchers of this study conclude:
“Experts can maintain a broad awareness of classroom scenes and events, while novices can be easily overwhelmed by the complexity of incoming information.”
Clearly, experience matters.
Time alone doesn’t guarantee expertise
Unfortunately, time alone is no guarantee of expertise. Indeed, a seminal study found that, in their first three years of work, teachers showed a significant rate of improvement. If they are part of a strong professional environment, this improvement continues, albeit at a slower rate. Worryingly, if they are part of a professionally weak environment, the rate of improvement pretty much plateaus.
The researchers state that:
“On average, teachers working in schools at the 75th percentile of professional environment ratings improved 38% more than teachers in schools at the 25th percentile after 10 years.”.
So clearly, experience plays a key role. It can improve decision-making and can be accelerated by being part of a high-quality professional environment that prioritises teacher development.
Introducing Teaching Unpacked
It is because of this, and with great excitement, that we have launched Teaching Unpacked! In this series of exclusive videos, Doug Lemov of Teach Like a Champion fame shares his analysis of brilliant teachers as they use a range of strategies that help improve student learning.
This provides great material to help improve your staff’s “professional vision” by spotlighting what’s important, immersing them in a professionally strong environment by using footage of real teachers from real classrooms.
With genuine teaching examples alongside analysis of the why and how, it aims to take abstract and vague and make it concrete and practical. Here’s a sneak peek…
Teaching Unpacked covers a range of strategies: everything from Retrieval Practice, Cold-Calling, Wait Times, turn and talk, checking for understanding, to overcoming the Transient Information Effect and more!
For all our existing Teacher CPD Academy subscribers, this is all included as part of a subscription. And it is already on the platform, ready and waiting for you. But if this has whetted your appetite for great CPD material for your staff, then please do send us an email to info@innerdrive.co.uk to enquire about having a free trial now, or head to the Teacher CPD Academy for a quick free taster.
