1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ PHƯƠNG THÚY BEGINNING TEACHERS’ OBSERVATIONS OF PEERS – THE VALUES, LIMITATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF THE INSIDERS GIÁ TRỊ, HẠN CHẾ, VÀ GỢI Ý CHO VIỆC DỰ GIỜ LẪN NHAU CỦA GIÁO VIÊN MỚI VÀO NGHỀ M. Combined Programme Thesis English Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOI – 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ PHƯƠNG THÚY BEGINNING TEACHERS’ OBSERVATIONS OF PEERS – THE VALUES, LIMITATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF THE INSIDERS (GIÁ TRỊ, HẠN CHẾ, VÀ GỢI Ý CHO VIỆC DỰ GIỜ LẪN NHAU CỦA GIÁO VIÊN MỚI VÀO NGHỀ) M. Combined Programme Thesis Major: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Lê Văn Canh, PhD. HANOI – 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration .iii Table of contents .iv PART I: INTRODUCTION.
Background information and rationale for the study. Peer observation, a reflective approach to teacher development. The current situation of peer observation. Purposes of the study.
Significance of the study. Data collection and analysis. Organization of the study .5 PART II: DEVELOPMENT .6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of peer observation.
Peer observation as a tool for professional development. Teacher professional development. Peer observation as a tool for professional development. Procedures for peer observation.
Feel the need for action .19 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Choose a peer to work with. Conduct the three-step peer observation. Methods of data collection.
The on-going combination of data collection methods. Data collection instruments. Method of data analysis and presentation .35 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. Benefits of peer observation to professional development.
Benefits of peer observation in comparison with related concepts. Benefits of peer observation in promoting self-awareness. Benefits of peer observation in assisting the sharing of teaching principles, teaching ideas, and teaching experiences. Benefits of peer observation in triggering discussion about teaching contexts including the students, the curricula, and the classroom facilities.
Benefits of peer observation in promoting job satisfaction in the participants. Benefits of peer observation in encouraging future change. Benefits of peer observation in networking the teachers in the same institution. Benefits of peer observation in introducing new ways of researching into classrooms.
Limitations of peer observation. Limitation of peer observation as a result of time. Limitation of peer observation as a result of its effects on the observed teachers .58 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Limitation of peer observation as a result of the difficulty in finding a suitable peer.
Limitation of peer observation as a result of the way to give and receive feedback. Suggestions for the use of peer observation as a tool for professional development. Suggestions on factors that initiate the application of peer observation. Suggestions on factors that determine a peer to work with.
Suggestions on the tasks for three stages of peer observation .64 PART III: CONCLUSION. For the educators, and managers. Limitations and suggestions for further study .I LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 9 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Background information and rationale for the study 1.
Peer observation, a reflective approach to teacher development For teachers, “who dares to teach never ceases to learn” (Dana cited in Chang, 2006: 700). However, concerning the nonstop process of knowledge acquisition, the question has been what to learn and where to get it. According to Wallace (1991), knowledge can come to teachers in two types: “received knowledge” or “research-based knowledge” and “experiential knowledge”. The former is acquired through teacher training with the knowledge and experience handed out from teacher educators as transmitters of knowledge, or from reading books about teaching theories while the later is derived from two phenomena “knowing-in-action” and “reflection”, which is from real teaching and self-evaluation.
Since “teaching styles and methods are very subjective, and … so far there has been no proof that any one method or style of teaching is significantly more successful than others” (Ellis, cited in Cosh, 1999), “experiential knowledge” has been convinced to be more important. Such a shift in teachers‟ sources of knowledge concords with the change in the focus of teacher education. In this field, more has been discussed in favor of teacher development than teacher training. No longer can one become a teacher just by receiving the knowledge from the educator.
In fact, she/he has to be self-initiated, self- directed, and self-evaluated with her own development, and what the educator can do for her/him then is to support, promote and further that development. Together with the emphasis on “reflection” and “teacher development”, peer observation, “a reflective approach to teacher development” (Vacilotto & Cumming, 2007:153), “is gaining popularity in the field of education” (Munson, 1998:108). Peer observation will be more clearly understood when compared with the traditional evaluative classroom observation. The common feature of the two approaches is the three stages with which they are organized, namely pre-observation, observation and post-observation.
However, differences can be found in all the stages and they can be LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 10 categorized into the participants, the purposes, and the outcome (Cosh, 1999; Munson 1998; William, 1989; Pham Viet Ha, 2004; Anderson et al, 2005). Traditionally, classroom observation has been carried out by either the supervisors or the administrators, who choose to sit at the back of some classes, silently observing and checking in the evaluation sheet as a judgmental move to decide on „good teaching‟ and „bad teaching‟ (William, 1989). The post-observation, if there is, is full of negative feedback. The observed teachers “often receive some sort of rating checklist that tends to be overly general, highly subjective, and vague in its analysis” (Munson, 1998:108).
Therefore, teachers don‟t like it. In contrast, peer observation engages two or more “teachers of equal status” in “a process of mutual collaboration and interpersonal support, assisting one another in reflecting on their own practices on a regular basis” (Gottesman, Showers & Joyce cited in Vacilotto & Cumming, 2007:154). Unlike evaluative classroom observation, “peer observation is not carried out in order to judge the teaching of others, but to encourage self-reflection and self-awareness about our own teaching” (Cosh, 1999: 25). It offers the teachers with opportunity to “share their professional experiences, doubts, insecurities, successes, and failure, free from fear of being evaluated” (Vacilotto & Cummings, 2007:153).
A numbers of studies have been done on the benefits of peer observation in both pre- service and in-service teachers‟ teaching practices and their attitudes towards the activity (Anderson et al, 2005; Munson, 1998; and Vacilotto & Cummings, 2007, and so on). The findings confirmed that peer observation fosters development of teaching skills and that teachers feel very comfortable participating. The current situation of peer observation in the researcher’s working context In Vietnam, it seemed to the researcher that peer observation was a new concept, or sometimes mistaken to traditional evaluative classroom observation. Moreover, with her own experience in teaching in Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, she recognized that reflecting on one‟s own teaching was not a very common practice LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 11 among teachers here.
Moreover if they reflected on their teaching, peer observation was barely used. The situations drove the researcher to do a study on “Novice Teachers’ Observations of Peers – The Values, Limitations, and Suggestions from the Perspectives of the Insiders” 2. Purposes of the study This study was carried out with the purposes to examine the extent to which the participants benefited from peer observation examine the difficulties the participants might have in implementing peer observation propose some recommendations for the implementation of the practice 3. Research questions In order to achieve the abovementioned purposes, the study was conducted to answer the following research questions: What are the benefits of peer observation to professional development as perceived by the teachers? What are the limitations of peer observation to professional development as perceived by the teachers? What suggestions do these teachers make for the use of peer observation as a tool of professional development so that its maximal benefits can be achieved? 4.
Significance of the study This study would be of interest to teachers at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi because peer observation, believed to be beneficial for teachers‟ professional development by such reputational scholars as Wallace (1998), Richards & Farrell (2005) and Vacilotto & Cummings (2007), was investigated with the participants teaching in the same context. They would be excited to find out the similarities and differences between their own situations and the one described in the study so as to decide on the applicability of the activity. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 12 This study would draw the attention of educators, managers of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi to one of the approaches in developing their trainees and employees. The outcome of the study was hoped to lead to some changes in the Faculty‟s teacher development policies.
This study would also be of certain benefits to those who were involved in the field of education training in Vietnam since it provided an experience of peer observation. All aspects such as the assessment of strengths and weaknesses, and its implementation were thoroughly discussed so that pedagogical implications could be withdrawn for future reference and research. The study was hoped to contribute also to the system of research on teacher peer observation, professional development and support worldwide. Participants The study involved 5 novice teachers in Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, whose teaching experience ranged from 1 year to 4 years.
These five were divided into 3 pairs with one being in two pairs. It would be ideal if the number of the teachers participating could be more than 5. However, five seemed to be suitable considering the feasibility and controllability of the study. Procedures First, the participants were interviewed individually.
The interviews aimed to investigate the participants‟ belief of and experience with peer observation. At the end of the interviews, the researcher provided the interviewees with brief instruction on the procedures of observation and feedback giving. Then they were set for the observations. Even though, the observations done and analyzed in the study were merely for the purpose of researching, they were arranged to follow the guidance that researchers like Munson (1998), Richards (1998), etc.
suggested so as for peer observation to be an effective tool for teacher professional development. The observations went through three steps: pre-observation, observation, LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 13 and post observation. The post-observation conferences were followed by brief interviews between the researcher and both participants for further explanation and clarification of the points made during the conferences. Also, in these interviews, the participants were asked for their fresh feelings and comments on the benefits and limitations of the observation they had just done.
The conferences and the interviews were audio-recorded for data analysis. Findings from the post-observation conferences and the follow-up interviews would be of great value since they demonstrated genuinely the extent to which peer observation benefited the participants. After each observation, the participants freely described what they had done and how they felt about the activity in their journals. What the journals came up with provided further evidences of the benefits of peer observation, the difficulties the participants encountered, and their suggestions for the application of the activity.