OER4Schools/Leadership for Learning/review of follow up
Last time, we asked you to practice using the LfL lenses when you are back in your own classroom settings, or even when you are watching others in the act of teaching and learning.
Whole class dialogue (10 min) about the LfL framework. We asked you to take time to use the LfL framework to think about the OER4Schools programme, your own learning and how you contributed to, and were supported in, your learning. Go round the group and give an example of your own teaching, or teaching you have witnessed, or other ideas about learning through the framework of the 5 LfL lenses. Once everybody has contributed something, spend some time discussing your observations.
Whole class dialogue (10 min): Reflection on peer observation. We asked you to undertake a 30-minute observation of student learning in a colleague’s classroom using the LfL lenses. Using the notes you made, go round saying in turn how it went, and which lens you chose to observe. Remember to try and report what you saw, through the particular lens chosen. As an example of how the reporting can take place, you may like to quickly report in this format:
- I have chosen to look at student learning through the ‘conditions of learning’ lens.
- We agreed that I will look out for whether the students have opportunities to pose questions (or whether they feel safe to ask questions) in the lesson.
- I notice that students are generally quite quiet throughout the lesson. Teacher X asked several times whether they had any questions they wanted to ask. Students did not respond.
- My inference from this is that students are not used to posing questions. Perhaps they feel embarrassed to ask questions? Or perhaps they don’t know what to ask?
By reporting what was seen and heard, and then making an inference based on the practice observed, the discussion can avoid problems of possible unhelpful critique of peer professional practices.
As we continue to discuss LfL in this session, it may be helpful to have a large sheet of paper with the five LfL principles in front of everybody, or perhaps get participants to have the LfL principles in front of them. You could also draw on the expanded list of LfL principles (with questions) from the last session.
