What is it? Peer observation is the name given to an event where one practitioner is observed by another. It is an opportunity to receive constructive feedback from a colleague on what is working well in your practice and what might be an area for you to work on in the future. It involves direct observation of you in practice, in a normal, everyday situation. The temptation to pull out all the stops when you're being observed should be avoided; a "show" session which a practitioner has slaved over in preparation is unhelpful, as the purpose of peer observation is to improve general, everyday practice. An atypical session would therefore not give accurate information about the current practice and the resulting evaluation would not be relevant. This article is primarily concerned with using peer observations as an informal formative system to improve your practice, not as part of a more formal summative review for staff appraisal or performance management purposes. Formative peer observation is first and foremost an opportunity for you to examine, reflect upon, evaluate and improve your pedagogical practice within a supportive, non-threatening environment. Peer observation is an excellent opportunity to share reflections and observations with a trusted colleague, to raise questions from both participants, and to explore ones' approach to early years pedagogy. The observation should always be followed by a constructive discussion of the observation, where you and your colleague have a shared aim of improving practice in the setting. Your peers are uniquely placed to offer constructive suggestions within an atmosphere of support and encouragement and to help you engage in reflection, as they know your role and responsibilities and they carry out similar ones themselves. A regular system of supportive and non-threatening peer observations that become part of practice at your setting, will go a long way to building a learning community; one where everyone continues to learn from each other, and works towards developing a shared understanding of best practice in the early years. Many positive outcomes emerge from peer review. Professional relationships can be strengthened, and this can lead to enhanced mutual trust and respect. Often, there is increased confidence of both participants involved; this is derived from feedback on being observed and good ideas picked up while observing colleagues. Being able to identify good practice allows it to be shared with others, and developed. Peer review can often pick up on experiences and problems that are common to many, and these can be identified for possible future staff training or support. Learning to talk about learning, the environment for learning, and the provision and practice observed allows us to develop professionally as an observant critical friend: an extremely useful set of skills to have in the current climate of self-evaluation and reflecting on practice. Benefits for the observed practitioner Try not to worry about peer observations! Easier said than done, but the more you engage in them, from both sides of the experience, the easier they become until you become completely unconcerned at being watched; your confidence increases at handling these situations, for example during Ofsted inspections or as part of a local authority audit of practice. Colleagues new to the system should obviously be treated gently, and any feedback should be highly supportive and matched to the levels of skill, knowledge and understanding of good practice that the observed practitioner holds. The level of detail within the feedback will also differ, according to the level of qualification and experience that the observed practitioner has; a more experienced practitioner is likely to require quite considerable detail to tease out finer issues, whereas a less experienced colleague would benefit from feedback featuring a wider perspective, for example focussing on an aspect such as managing child-initiated play, or leading a stimulating story time. Don't forget, that in early years we are almost never alone with the children, and we work alongside colleagues or "team teach" for most of the time. This involves watching and listening to our colleagues interact with the children and parents, and you can view this as a type of peer observation; there are just fewer opportunities for us to record what we have seen. We learn from our colleagues all the time and peer observation is just an extension of our daily practice. Peer observation is an excellent method of avoiding getting into a rut with your practice. Do you always lead circle time or a movement session in the same way? Wouldn't you welcome someone giving you some ideas for trying something new, in addition to them commenting how focussed and happy the children were in your session? Consider it as free early years consultancy! A highly experienced practitioner might need to reign in the desire to offer extensive feedback in lots of detail. A less experienced practitioner might need to avoid comments such "That was great!" and learn ways of getting down to specifics. Some practitioners may feel extremely uncomfortable discussing something that might be seen to be drawing attention to a colleague's weaknesses; other practitioners may feel this is exactly what it's about and that once it's out in the open, the practitioner can do something about it. You'll need to work hard when setting up the peer observation method in your setting to ensure everyone knows what is expected of them, and what is acceptable and supportive behaviour. Sometimes it's difficult for early years practitioners to accept praise, but now is the time to get used to it! Often there is a sense of embarrassment when someone tells you how well you are doing or what an exciting activity you organised for the children. The tendency is to shrug off the praise and move on, but do try to learn to accept it graciously and thank the person delivering it. It will allow you the opportunity to consider what aspects of your practice were viewed as successful and how you might build on those. Conversely, one needs to learn to accept anything regarded as criticism as useful for your professional development, and attach no personal emotions to it. Try to avoid becoming defensive and justifying your actions. With your observer, engage in a dialogue that teases out the critical issues and helps you to evaluate and adapt your practice. If you actively seek constructive criticism, by asking explicitly for help in a particular area, then you will feel less inclined to feel hostile towards the peer observation method. Asking your observer questions such as "What would you have changed in the way I introduced the materials to the children?" or "How do you think I could include all the children next time?" will lead to effective discussions, a rigorous analysis of practice, and a true sense of professional development. Your professional developmental needs will be shared during the experience; it is your observer's role to assist you in the process of review and reflection with the aim of improving the quality of your teaching as well as identifying good practice for wider dissemination. Benefits for the observer Observers, even if they are very experienced practitioners, often see examples of practice that they would like to emulate. It's often extremely useful to watch a colleague in action before you try out a new way to lead circle time, read /tell a story, or re-motivate the children in the role-play area. Observing a range of colleagues in diverse situations allows you to experience approaches you may not have come across before, and you may well feel inspired to give them a try. Peer observation, and the subsequent discussions, are an excellent way of finding new supportive peers, perhaps colleagues you may not have previously thought of in that light. You'll be helping to build a supportive network of people to turn to when you need help or advice. In particular, it's good to build relationships across the different rooms and age-groups you might have in your setting. Observers often feel that they gain tremendous satisfaction in supporting colleagues, some of whom may be new to the role. They can remember how daunting early years practice can be, where practitioners are unconfident and always questioning whether or not they are doing things "right". It's beneficial for observers to offer support and encouragement to people new to the job, or age-group, or a particular aspect of the areas of learning. Having time out to watch and reflect on what you see is a luxury: you have the time to watch and listen closely, write down what you see, and reflect on the experience for later sharing with your colleague. You are the learner, and you can share the joy when things are going well and the tensions and frustrations when things turned out unexpectedly. Offering congratulations and commiserations support the formation of a sound working relationship. You are able to watch the children interact with your colleague in a way that is not possible when you are actively engaged with the experiences yourself. This will often give you a different view of the children you are observing and the information you gain can feed into assessment and planning for their next steps. You can learn how your colleagues do things with a different age-group of children. You can learn about how they set up their rooms, how they encourage children to access their own choice of resources, how they manage behaviour, and so on. You are also able to really study how learning happens. Whilst observing, you can reflect on your own methods and note down things that you might like to try yourself. Some settings use peer observation as a training tool. They begin the process by asking practitioners to identify their areas of strength; for example, they might say they are particularly comfortable managing a small group in a focussed activity, or leading a music and movement session, or developing communication, language and literacy in the outdoor environment. Members of staff who would like to develop their expertise in these areas could then approach those practitioners and request that they be their partners in peer review. Giving feedback to colleagues on their practice helps you to become more relaxed and receptive to receiving feedback yourself. If something has gone really well, you would want to make sure that you make a point of telling them, so that they can repeat and perhaps extend it. If something has gone less well, you will want to discuss ways of improvement. In both cases, you'll be considering ways of offering support to a colleague whose practice you have observed, and this prepares you well for when it's your turn to be observed and to welcome feedback. We need to keep in mind that peer observation is not about monitoring each other, checking up on each other, or assessing the practitioner's competence. The observer looks for agreed specific practice, and describes and assesses the impact of that practice. They are not designed to be judgemental, but a means of developing practice for each practitioner, at their own pace and level. A peer observation should be treated as a shared resource where both participants feel that they have taken something valuable away from the experience. So how do you start? Pre-observation meeting A good starting point is for each practitioner to choose their peer observation partners. This will avoid unnecessary stress whilst you are introducing the system. You may decide to introduce the system with more established, experienced colleagues first, so that the more anxious practitioners can appreciate the benefits when they hear staff talking positively (hopefully!) about their experience. When you are to be observed, you will need to give thought to your practice prior to the pre-observation meeting. What is it you would like your observer to see? Are you going to carry out established practice, or do you want to try something new? Are you having difficulties in a particular area, for example behaviour management in the creative area, that you would like help with? Would you like specific children or groups of children observed whilst you are carrying out the activity? To begin with, you need to complete the first sections on the proforma obtainable from the resource library here: names of practitioner and observer, proposed date and time for the observation, and the section beginning "For this observation I am going to......". Here, you will be setting the scene by briefly describing the activity or experiences you will be offering the children, and what your role will be. The following section, beginning "I would like my observer to focus on how I...." should include specific areas that you would like feedback on. You might discover that issues arising from the setting's SEF, Ofsted action plans, or QA schemes offer suggestions for what to focus on. The following ideas may help too: I would like my observer to focus on how I...... intervene in child-initiated play ensure all children are included differentiate the learning experience ask open-ended questions and engage in sustained shared thinking give feedback and praise to children about their learning develop the children's speaking and listening skills reinforce positive behaviour encourage interaction between children encourage the children to stay interested, involved and engaged use available resources innovatively At the pre-observation meeting, both participants should establish ground rules regarding confidentiality and the role of the observer. Does the observed practitioner simply want the observer to observe, or to ask questions during the observation? Where would you like the observer to be in the room? Will the observer interact with the children? At the pre-observation meeting, the observer has a clear role to play; to help the observed practitioner clarify her thinking on what is planned for the observation, and what their roles will be. The observer should also be thinking "What can I gain from observing you?" The process works most successfully when the observer sees it as an opportunity for learning and for developing her professional observation and reflection skills. The observation itself The observer completes the "observation notes" section of the peer observation proforma. Make sure you are specific and write "You said/made/read/painted, etc" rather than "You tend to..." Including quotes from the practitioner and children will give you lots to discuss at the post-observation meeting and these notes can be used to complete children's learning journeys and assessment records at a later date. If you take extensive notes, you'll need to add some additional pages to the proforma. Post-observation meeting For the observed practitioner, the main purpose of the post-observation meeting is to allow you to gain feedback from your observer, and to offer an opportunity for a shared context for discussion. The meeting should be an opportunity to raise your self-awareness, including possibilities for change and professional growth. It should increase your confidence and build your self-esteem as your observer demonstrates respect for you and what you bring to the setting. It should enhance the working relationship between the two participants and promote the exploration of real and relevant issues. It can also lead to the formation of new questions to be explored and interests to be pursued. Try to make it as soon as possible after the observation, so events are still fresh in the mind. The practitioner will complete the "reflections on the observation" at the meeting during the discussion. To prompt dialogue, the observer could start with questions such as : How do you think the activity/session went? Was it as you had intended? What do you remember about the strategies you used? Did you think they were effective? Did anything unexpected happen? How/why? How did you cope? Would you like me to share what I observed? Focus on what you actually saw, and discuss the positive practice first. The important thing for an observer to remember is to offer your colleague feedback on the areas she has chosen as a focus rather than to view the observation as carte-blanche to say what you like about anything! The observer then completes the sections "a good idea that I will take away with me" and "something I may have done differently". The two participants will then evaluate the experience and make plans for the observed practitioner to develop her skills and knowledge further. She then completes the section "what will I do next?" This should include bullet point aims for developing practice, for example: lead a music and movement session change the interactive display in the toddler room, or find out more about asking children questions that will develop their thinking skills The following section, "How will I achieve this?" should give the details on how you will go about this, for example: use the resources in the staff room to plan a music and movement session make a CD of the music required use some of budget to obtain some scarves and ribbons liaise with line manager to plan a time for carrying out the activity arrange for a staff member to support me during the session Once completed, the proforma should be signed by both parties, and the sheets remain the property of the observed practitioner. To maintain the supportive, non-judgemental ethos of the system, ensure that after the post-observation meeting, no completed observation proformas are shared with other colleagues. However, you may decide as a setting for a summary of the discussion, (outlining examples of excellent practice, and professional development points that you have agreed together) should be given to a line manager, or placed in the practitioner's staff development file. To achieve this, the second page of the completed proforma could be photocopied and given to the relevant parties. How can individual peer observations impact practice across your setting? The system of peer observations, once established in your setting and embraced by all practitioners, is useful for developing observation skills and reflective practice. The process of being clear on what to look for when you are observing is so important across all areas of early years practice, from confirming the adherence to health and safety policies and procedures, to ensuring that all staff have high expectations of all children. The skills gained in learning what to look for, writing concise observations in relation to the "look fors" are important skills for self-evaluation practices, providing evidence to support reflections on provision. These can be used when completing SEFs or the equivalent, in engaging in QA schemes, or in participating in higher education such as Foundation Degrees and Early Years Professional Status. Some settings hold a celebration of good practice staff meeting, where each member of staff presents an example of good practice that they observed during the course of their observations. This will build the self-esteem of staff members and will establish and help to maintain a culture of continuous reflection and improvement of provision. So....I urge you to try out the system, tailoring it to suit your setting and your staff, and tell us in the forums how it goes!
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