Effective principals cultivate strong observation and feedback skills.
As school administrators become more engaged in providing feedback and coaching to teachers, it
is important to also continue to develop observations skills. The two skillsets are complementary-
more skillful observation supports more meaningful feedback. To practice active observation is to
learn to gather more valuable insights in less time–to be both more effective and more efficient.
EXERCISE: Read the article: 7 principles of active observation. Read the article through once for
consideration. Then, with highlighter in hand, mark particular passages that were particularly
interesting, valuable, or meaningful. Next, assess your current practice against the seven principles,
marking your current level of practice as strong, moderate, or weak for each of the seven principles.
Seven Principles of Active Observation
Great teacher developers are first great observers. They enjoy being in and around classrooms and
know their way around once inside. They see more, understand more, probe more, focus more, and
move around more. They pose more questions, test more hypotheses, and collect more artifacts. In
essence, they gain more useful information per minute of observation than other observers. Based
on observations of thousands of classrooms and observers, here is a set of principles that can guide
toward more active and skillful observation. Principles are not laws and therefore should sometimes
be ignored. They are stronger than suggestions, however, and are offered as a set of guidelines for
making the most of every minute of classroom observation time.
Principles of active observation:
1. Stay on your feet. Except for occasionally sitting next to students to see their work more clearly,
observers strike a better vantage point by standing up. There are many advantages to standing.
The line of sight is better to see more student work. Once standing, moving is easier
and less obtrusive. Moving around the classroom provides the observer with different angles and
observation opportunities. Standing is a more active body position than sitting, so there is more
energy available for observing. Observations are typically shorter and more productive when the
observer remains standing.
2. Don’t worry too much about interrupting the action. As soon as an observer enters a
classroom environment, it has been interrupted. Observing anything alters, if only slightly, the
thing that is being observed. Too often, observers attempt to be a fly on the wall or say “just
pretend I’m not here.” Of course, one should avoid affecting the teacher’s intentions or
distracting students while they are engaging in important work. Beyond this, however, observers
do well to embrace the fact that they are now a part of the action and not an inert observer
behind a one- way glass.
3. Delay the focus on details. An observer’s first instinct is to follow the action and immediately
begin noticing details about what the teacher or students are doing. It is beneficial to resist this
urge and, instead, take some time to orient oneself to the classroom’s physical and social
environment. An observer who first notices the contextual field of the classroom will be able to
make more meaningful and insightful observations of the actions and details that follow. To
this end, allow two or three minutes at the beginning of an observation to let the classroom
climate and environment become more apparent. If taking notes, don’t write anything down
for a few moments. Walk around the classroom and try to take it all in; what is on the walls,
on the board, on posters, on the screen? Get a sense of the energy flow in the classroom.
How engaged are students? How energetic is the teacher? How are people interacting with
one another? How are students interacting with learning materials? How is the seating
arranged? Mentally generate a few descriptive words that illustrate the gestalt of the
classroom… active, self-directed, high- energy, organized, intentional, warm, safe, etc.
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4. Enter as a visitor, not an owner. Administrators certainly have the authority to enter into and
out of classrooms at any time, with or without permission or warning. However, it is best not to
overtly claim this right. The most skillful observers treat each teacher’s classroom as sacred
ground. They understand that the classroom space is a home away from home for students and
their teacher. They enter with respect, courtesy, and humility. It is a nice touch to make eye
contact with the teacher upon entering the classroom and, at an appropriate time, say something
like “Thanks for having me in for a few moments.” It is also important to make contact with the
teacher as one leaves the classroom. A simple “thank you,” thumbs up, or “I enjoyed watching
you and your students work today.” sends a message of professional respect. Even as one
observes students at work, it is a kind gesture to ask “May I listen in for a moment? Or, “Do you
mind if I watch you work that problem?” Most teachers create a personal space on and around
their desk area where they may display family photos, keep their plan book, and store other
personal items. The best observational etiquette is to stay away from this area, except to quickly
leave a note of thanks or a bit of positive feedback.
5. Maintain focus and intensity. Observing skillfully is not watching someone else work. It is work!
Even ten or fifteen minutes of active observation can be exhausting, as observers look, listen,
move, question, jot notes, draw sketches, search for clues, and gather artifacts to enhance
feedback. It is affirming to teachers to have someone engage intensely and substantially in the
observation process. When observers are seen to be working intensely on the teacher’s
behalf, and have substantial notes, artifacts, and insights ready to share, it adds credibility to
the feedback or coaching session that may follow. Some practical suggestions: Don’t multi-
task. Teachers are great at sneaking a peek at the observer. It sends the wrong message if
the observer is caught daydreaming, or checking phone messages or e-mail. Also, be
intentional concerning non-verbal behavior. Communication experts say that as much as
70% of the content of a message is communicated non-verbally. An observer’s posture,
facial expression, eye contact, gestures, movement, and position communicate the
observer’s internal state to the teacher. Since observers usually can’t converse with
teachers during an observation, non-verbal communication becomes more important.
Observers do well to stand upright, look alive, smile, laugh, appear curious, and be seen
enjoying the process.
6. Observe both field and ground. Human attention is analogous to a camera with two
lenses.The wide angle lens observes the field, the big picture, the macro events, and the
gestalt of the classroom. The telephoto lens captures the ground, the details, the fleeting
looks and expressions, and the individual responses. Most novice observers focus their
attention somewhere in the middle, neither wide enough to capture the big picture nor
narrow enough to appreciate the details. An accomplished photographer often cycles
between wide angle—to survey the field, and telephoto—to emphasize the interesting detail.
This cycling between field and ground is an effective way to capture the action of a
classroom. During a fifteen-minute observation, a skilled observer might scan the field three
or four times, each time choosing a different element of the ground on which to focus
intently to capture the small details that often lead to valuable insights. In this type of
observation, where the observer is searching for meaningful insights to share back with the
teacher, it is important to take the time to drill down for a while into a single student’s
actions, reactions, or non-verbal cues, to look carefully at students’ work, not fleetingly. It is
important to look expectantly for insights revealed as fine details, subtle patterns, or hidden
clues. An often productive technique is to look away from the action and past the obvious.
For example, one might watch a single student while the teacher is talking to find clues to
indicate the level of engagement and understanding. Or, as the teacher circulates
throughout the classroom, one might observe the group of students the teacher just left,
instead of always following the teacher’s direct action. This might uncover valuable insights
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to share with the teacher on the residual effects of her circulation
7. Practice frequent, short duration observations. Unless required by law or policy, keep most
observations relatively short. Ten to twenty minutes is plenty of time to collect many more
artifacts and insights than one could possibly share with the teacher. Remember that, in an
observation, duration and intensity are inversely related. So, observers are able to keep a higher
energy level and greater observational focus throughout a shorter session than a longer one.
Shorter observations also create the possibility for more frequent observations. Schools
whose teachers report more frequent observations tend to have a more positive,
professional culture and administrators in these schools are seen as more credible
instructional leaders.
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