This "Rating a Teacher Observation Tool" identifies five simple questions and provides an easy-to-use scorecard to help policymakers decide whether an observation framework is likely to produce fair and accurate results. The five questions are: (1) Do the criteria and tools cover the classroom performance areas most connected to student outcomes?…

In situations where it is not possible for trainees to practice teaching in local schools, teaching short lessons to their peers--called microteaching--can provide beneficial experience and feedback to teachers-in-training. The article includes guidelines for presenters, observers, and teacher trainers as well as a sample practicum class schedule…

This article proposes the Teacher Observation Programme for in-service teacher trainees. The program is reflective, collaborative, and builds confidence. It enables teachers to grow in their ability to self-evaluate. Trainees who have made decisions about their own observation, who have created and used their own observational tools, and who have…

This module, developed by the Research Applications for Teaching (RAFT) project, was written to assist students to write lesson plans that are effective and interactive. Students are given directions for the preparation of behavioral objectives and for the selection of appropriate instructional methodologies to meet the widely varying needs of…

This article presents guidelines to be used by student teachers for developing observational skills in field experience situations. Suggested topics for observation include: classroom arrangement, classroom interaction, teacher movement, social interaction, analysis of teaching techniques, classroom control, and participant-observers' involvement.…

This observation manual is meant to be used by English as a second language teacher-trainees observing classroom teachers at a college or university and by the teachers being observed. In the introductory material some of the literature on teaching effectiveness and coding procedures is discussed. It is noted that most educators who have been…

Microteaching, or peer teaching, is an activity that requires science methods students to plan, teach, and evaluate a particular lesson. The peer teaching activity, although obviously similar to teaching a lesson in a traditional classroom, enables the methods students to teach to a small group of their peers, thus easily receiving constructive…

Detailed materials for the assessment of language use in a responsive environment are provided for teachers and teaching assistants. Part A consists of a manual and guide for language assessment. A brief account of the responsive model's approach to language instruction is given. Additional sections introduce and describe the observation and…

As a botanist uses specific, non-judgmental descriptions that are part of a conceptual framework to help see different varieties and characteristics of plants, so teachers can see more clearly what they do if they describe rather than judge what is done. If the purpose of using a framework or model to discuss lesson presentations and classroom…