NOT BASEBALL

This session is billed as classroom visits that are focused on evaluating student learning in another class. I’m interested in professional development of faculty as a method of program control. I’m curious why it is billed as a workshop. Either there should be a lot of content or a lot of audience participation. Since they are queuing videos I expect we will pretend to be in classroom doing Faculty Exchange after learning about it.

Classroom exchanges are used with Classroom Assessment Techniques and Faculty Inquiry Groups as part of a grant to improve learning by improving teaching.

The classroom instructor invites someone to the classroom. The visitor directs attention to the area where the teacher being visited wants it directed.

INVITATION-FOCUS-VISIT-DEBRIEF-ADJUST-FOLLOW UP is the process. As a visitor it is easier if only a few narrow topics are part of the visit. I have a hand out about the protocol.

This works better if the visits are reciprocal because it makes the teachers equal. It can lead to building a trusting relationship as well.

BEWARE: It is hard to stay focused on one thing and not expand the observation. Also, it is hard to not think about how to adapt their lesson for your use and stay focused on the observation.

We did in fact pretend to be visitors. This seems to be a reasonable way to get feedback in a non-threatening way. When/if we introduce pedagogy changes I’ll recommend we do this.