Observing teachers to support their professional development

Who is this webinar for?

Please note the content of this webinar is not aimed at teachers, and is specifically for teacher educators who have a role in supporting the professional development of English language teachers.

What is this webinar about?

Classroom observation is a useful tool for professional development. However, there are a number of challenges in ensuring that observations are effective for this purpose and not seen as solely a means to evaluate teacher performance. Observation can be done in a variety of ways, including by using technology in some innovative ways. This session will outline some approaches to observation recently used in Rwanda and Nepal, challenges that were faced and potential solutions. The webinar will enable reflection on whether similar methods could be used in your context.

By the end of the webinar, our audience of teacher educators will have:

• shared their own experiences of observing / being observed
• explored the different purposes of classroom observation, with a focus on observation for professional development
• reviewed some of the different approaches to classroom observations with pros and cons
• been introduced to the way that technology can be used for observations, considering the challenges and some solutions to these

When?

Recorded on Tuesday 10 October 2023 12.00 - 13.00 (UK time). See what time this is in your location.

About the speaker

Amy Lightfoot leads on strategy development for edtech initiatives and research for the British Council’s global portfolio of English language programmes. She has worked in language education for over 20 years, with a particular focus on language policy and education in South Asia. She has special interest and has published in the areas of multilingual education, the use of digital platforms, alternative models for teacher professional development and the evaluation of teacher competence.

Supporting material for this webinar

Pre-webinar reading

Read these reports with further ideas on teacher observation and professional development:

• Observation and Feedback: Why is it so important that we get them right?
• SETTVEO: Evidence-based reflection and teacher development
• Portraits of inspiring English teachers in China and Indonesia

Video observations

• Watch these authentic classes in action and practise your own observation skills.

Important information about our events - please read

How to watch the webinar

Our webinars are free.

They take place in Zoom Events. You do not need any special equipment to watch the webinars apart from a computer with the audio on. Registration is for the full event - you do not need to attend every session. 

Registration

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• a link to join  
• a passcode that you will need to enter to join the webinar 
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Instructions for joining a session in the event

1. Click on the link that was emailed to you when you registered for the event.
2. Enter the email address that you used to register for the event.
3. If requested, introduce the passcode that was emailed to you when you registered for the event.
4. You will join the 'lobby'. From the lobby you can chat to other participants. 
5. From the lobby you will see the session that is either currently live or soon to be live. When a session is live, you can click 'join' to watch the live session.

Webinar recordings

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Certificates

Certificates of attendance are available for all attendees. The link to obtain your certificate is provided in the following places:

• At the end of the webinar in the chat box
• In the 'Thank you for attending email' that you will receive after the webinar.
• At the end of the feedback survey once you have answered the questions.
• You should download the certificate to your computer. Once the certificate is saved to your computer, open it and type your name on the certificate. We recommend using Google Chrome or Internet Explorer to do this.

Copies of the presentation and post-webinar content

Where possible, we will make a PDF copy of the presentation available for you to download. However, for copyright reasons, this may not always be allowed. After the event we will publish a PDF with lesson activities/classroom tips/links relevant further reading. To view and download these PDFs, please visit the same page on TeachingEnglish, or go to https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-events/webinars where you will find the materials.

Code of conduct - participants

Please be respectful at all times to other participants and the presenter. Our webinars are freely available to attend by participants in all countries. Please be aware that comments you make in the general chat may have a negative impact on other participants and their enjoyment of the webinar.

Do not use insulting or offensive language or comments about the presenter or their presentation or criticise their style of presentation.

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Any offensive or insulting comments will be deleted and the participant making the comment will be removed from the webinar.

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Do not share links to your website or any websites that you are promoting for the purposes of making money.

Comments that include links to paid-for websites for the sole purpose of promotion will be deleted and you may be removed from the webinar.

Please use the Q&A to ask the presenter questions that are related to the theme or topic of the webinar only. If participant responses to questions are permitted, you should only make comments that are relevant to the question being asked.