30 January, 2016

The Importance Of Having Classroom Walkthroughs

By Walter Barnes


This is actually a trending practice among the most organized and well performing schools in the world. This practice is normally carried out by supervisors or principals or going around the school observing various teacher teachers teaching skills and how good their instruction delivery is. Classroom walkthroughs are now being used as a tool to check performance of particular teachers.

School principals face one challenge of ensuring that effective and efficient instructional leadership is provided always. Apart from basically hosting assemblies, managing schedules and instill disciplining in students, school heads are usually expected to have the skill and knowledge to generally make positive impact on teaching and also learning process.

The main role of walkthroughs was not actually to evaluate but rather to professionally develop teachers professional skills and ensure they deliver as expected of them. This is the sole reason why they have become quite popular. The practice is a trending nowadays or its on the rise. This practice is very vital for all schools.

But the most essential part of instructional leadership is the interaction between the teachers and principal that arises as a result of the practice. Some scholars defines the exercise as a brief, non evaluative, non judgmental, structured observation done by supervisor or principal that is basically followed by brief conversation between the supervisor and the concerned teacher or lecturer about what the principal observed.

The process should not be considered as harassing or embarrassing to teachers but as a way of getting along with the school administrator. All school administrators want what is best for their institutions and so the teachers should be optimist that such practices is for the benefit of the entire school. This is actually a practice that is trending among many schools worldwide.

This practice though is supposed to be distinguished from the common formal evaluation processes for teachers. The technique focuses mainly on engaging teachers or other teaching staff in a dialogue and generally reflecting on teaching practices and also reflecting on school wide goals. The lecturer usually benefits by basically learning how reflection can be used to improve or increase ones knowledge, performance and skills.

Some of common characteristics that are visible from these exercise are, the exercise is quite short around 2 minutes each, they are often not announced, follow up does not occur immediately and they are followed with a report being generated. The objectives include improving learning and teaching and identifying other components available in various models.

The labels commonly used for walkthroughs are, data walks, learning walks, rounds, mini observations and instructional as well as reflective walking through. The benefit a school gets from such walks include, acquiring additional or extra data and information concerning learning and teaching of students and promoting collegial as well as collaborative conversations. The benefit that a teacher derives from the walks include reflecting on own curricular practices and instructional delivery, identifying their professional development requirements and lastly promoting collegial dialogue that is reflective with the school principal. For students, they get a chance to participate in school improvement programs.




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