Teaching to impress or teaching to comply - some thoughts on teacher observations from a teacher's perspective
Formal teacher observations are an obligatory part of every teacher's journey but they can be rather stressful in most cases. They are institutional box-ticking exercises in most cases advertised as develpmental or opportunities for CPD. While they might be such for some (or in some contexts), for others they are an unnecessary and quite inauthentic experience bringing very little if anything by way of benefit to the tutor (not to mention it can be uncomfortable for the students as well). Some ways in which they are unnatural: ● they are disruptive as they impose additional burden on the teacher to prepare and perform for a higher level audience - it creates tension and stress ● they are inauthentic because they might urge the teacher to perform by the expected rules to show they have learnt them rather than go with the flow of their class and lesson ● they might leave the teacher anxious and feeling they are deficient as a teacher and professional because things didn't go as ...