Observació entre iguals

There is evidence that teachers who share educational ideas and practices report higher levels of job satisfaction, self-efficacy and better relationships with students (OCDE, 2020).

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The latest TALIS report indicates that the forms that have the greatest impact on improving their teaching practices are collaborative professional development practices, such as peer observation. However, only 9% declare to have used this practice. In Spain, the percentage drops to 5% (OCDE, 2020).

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Although research on peer observation (PO), in which teachers play both roles (observer and observed), is still limited, as is their practice, the available research, both in the school and the university context, agree in pointing out interesting benefits.

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      A) BENEFITS INSTITUTION

 

At the institutional level, research provides solid evidence that through peer observation, teachers perceive improvements in collegial relationships with their colleagues.

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In the school level, different studies show that teachers perceive peer observation as a mechanism to establish collaborative relationships between teachers of more support and trust (Alam et al., 2020; Daniels et al., 2013; Gray, 2012; Motallebzadeh, 2019; Sparks & Bruder, 1986), as a useful mechanism also to improve the cohesion of teaching teams through the development of a common language (Hall & McKeen, 1989; Rosselló & De la Iglesia, 2021), as well as to break the isolation between teachers (Arnau, 2004; Bruce and Ross, 1989; Slater & Simmons, 2001).

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At the university level, different studies also show that university professors perceive that peer observation helps to strengthen their working relationships with their colleagues, to connect with colleagues from different disciplines and/or from the same department to create better professional learning alliances and a more supportive and empathetic work culture. They also indicate that both face-to-face peer observation (Bang, 2009; Bleiler-Baxter et al., 2020; Hendry et al., 2014) and online (İnceçay & Dikilitaş, 2022; Nicolson & Harper, 2014) can be a measure to combat isolation in university teaching as it helps to reduce the fragmentation of university teaching and offers a shared space to build a professional learning community (Bosman & Voglewede, 2019; Guo, 2005; İnceçay & Dikilitaş, 2022 ).

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So, as a mechanism for teacher training or teacher professional development, the PO can also contribute decisively to building a collaborative school culture and to allowing teachers to also learn in their daily practice, thus promoting schools that learn or professional learning communities, able to respond to the needs of continuous improvement and responses to educational challenges (Duran & Miquel, 2019; Corcelles-Seuba et al., 2024).

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Specifically, the research also shows that participation in peer observation processes, even in simple procedures based on a single cycle of observation, can become a powerful tool to increase teachers' perception of the culture of collaboration in their school, increase the sense of collective agency and teachers' preference for collaboration over individual work (Corcelles-Seuba et al., 2024).

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      B) BENEFITS FOR TEACHERS

 

There is strong evidence pointing out that teachers perceive that peer observation is an excellent opportunity for their professional development when they perform both roles - observer and observed - (Duran et al., 2020; Corcelles- Seuba et al., 2023b; Corcelles-Seuba et al., in press).

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Being an observer, beyond developing one's own observation skills, necessary for teaching practice, is an opportunity to see other classroom management and methodologies in practice, and to develop teaching self-confidence (Hendry and Oliver, 2012; Motallebzadeh et al., 2015; Duran et al., 2020). In the role of observer, teachers particularly value identifying areas to improve practice (Corcelles-Seuba et al., 2023a; 2023b).

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Being observed allows you to reflect on your own practice, identify strengths, develop self-confidence and encourage, through collaborative inquiry and constructive feedback, own processes of teaching improvement (Duran, et al. 2020; Bruce and Ross, 2008; Motallebzadeh, 2017; Shousha, 2023a).

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The research results also underline the importance of writing reports after the observation to identify objectives for improving teaching practice (Corcelles-Seuba et al., 2023b). In addition, they also show that after the intervention, teachers tend to reduce their initial resistance, which highlights that a reciprocal collaborative model is effective in reducing the negative emotions that often arise in the face of this practice (Corcelles -Seuba et al., 2023a; Ribosa et al., 2024).

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At the university level, studies on OREI have highlighted the value of observing a colleague who teaches, both in the same discipline and in a different discipline.

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In the case of intradisciplinary observation, studies show that it allows comparison between different groups of students, obtaining a more objective and rigorous view of one's teaching and more opportunities for situated and meaningful learning (Bang, 2009; Bell and Mladenovic , 2008; Drew and Klopper, 2021; Schuck, 2015; Tezcan-Unal, 2018).

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In interdisciplinary observation, teachers can identify strategies used in other disciplines that are applicable to their own discipline, helping to shift a focus on specific content to one focused on more holistic pedagogical aspects (Beaumont, 2020; Carroll & O'Loughlin, 2014; Donnelly, 2007; Heredia-Arboleda et al. 2021; Miranda et al. 2021; Nicolson & Harper, 2014; O'Keffee et al, 2021; Torres et al., 2017; Walker, 2015; Walker & Forbes, 2018).  

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In summary, the research shows that teachers who participate in PO processes perceive three main benefits:

1) Increased awareness and reflection on their practice; 2) adoption of new teaching strategies; 3) increased confidence in their competence as a teacher (Corcelles-Seuba et al., in press).

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References