OBSERVATION IN TEACHING AS A LEARNING TOOL

The beauty of teaching resides in the fact that it is unpredictable because it evolves with time. To keep up with
such beauty, one has to remain beautiful in terms of intelligence and interaction with the environment like students, peers
and parents. When teachers teach, they provide an opportunity to their brain to breathe and their mind to flirt with ideas that
challenge the imagination while hugging creativity.

If you are a teacher and you don’t feel that your teaching is helping you to learn and enjoy the joy of learning every single
day, then something is wrong with your approach of teaching. In fact, your first source of learning as a teacher is your peers
when you debate about teaching and your second source of learning is your students when you interact with them daily
trying to teach them and reflect about your teaching. Both sources are found in the school where you spend most of your
daily time .

Now having said that, when was the last time you were brave enough to invite one of your peers to come and watch you
teaching? Also, when was the last time you attended a lesson just to see how it feels to observe a teacher teaching while
trying to find yourself in the midst of that lesson? While nobody carries the perfect keys to ideal teaching, taking the time to
observe your peer teachers in action can be considered one of the most powerful learning tool that any teacher should take
seriously in their profession. Observing teaching and debating about it objectively can be very fruitful.

As a result, teachers who are keen to make observation a part of their professional development can acquire the language of
teaching as well as so many skills that would not only help them improve their teaching but also master constructive
criticism and rewarding debate where both the observed and the observer gain tremendous benefits. Also, headmasters,
supervisors and teacher trainers should all come together and encourage teachers to observe each other and learn about and
from each other.

Additionally, the leadership should promote the concept of observation within the school in a professional manner where
every move should be observed, documented and debated to refine teaching and learning. It is imperative that participants in
the observation process should equip themselves with the attitude of objectivity and never take things personally as the
purpose is research, analysis and experimentation for betterment of teaching and learning.

In fact, the observer should be the reflection of the observed where every move should be targeted and questioned for
enhancement purposes. From the way the teacher stands and progresses while presenting a lesson, to the way he articulates
the language, to the way he uses his face to convey messages, to the way he raises questions and the language he uses in the
questions, to the way he organizes his questions logically to reach a purpose , to the way he projects himself to students
trying to make a point, to the way he engages students teasing their thinking and satiating their curiosity .

Indeed, the fact that teaching is considered as one of the most complex and artistic operation ever known, mastering such art
requires teachers to remain a profound observer. An observer that can see through walls. An observer that can connect dots
in a complex puzzle to draw a clear image. An observer who can find ways to mend what it is broken and fix what needs to
be fixed intelligently. I believe refining teaching to reach the top comes more through observation and reflection than
anything else

My last advice to novice and experienced teachers is to never neglect the idea of observation in teaching no matter how good
a teacher you think you are. It is a rich and wealthy domain in skills that no book in the world can teach you without
experiencing it yourself as an observer and/or an observed.