PriofEducator
I spent 40 years of my 45 years as a Consultant In Teaching Strategies with the Los Angeles County Office of Education. The job of our 4-member team was to develop and offer various teacher and administrator training programs for the 86 school districts of Los Angeles County. As a function of that role we did much action research fundamental to the development of our training programs. In learning of your "walk through program" as forwarded to me via email from a co-member of our Teaching Strategies Center, while a walk-through the classroom can yield some information about classroom climate and so on, it is doubtful that one can learning much about the more critical act of teaching that way. In developing programs for administrators' supervision of classroom instruction, one thing we quickly learned is that what is happening is the classroom isn't quite as important as what isn't happening! Also, lacking what we have come to characterize as certain professional concepts, one simply does not recognize those issues critical to students' learning that are present as well as those that are missing. One needs a body of professional concepts to yield observational data about what is going on in the classroom. Without those concepts normally only ancillary observations result - which do not and can not lead the significant, lasting improvements in classroom instruction.
As an example of this fundamental issue, let's suppose you are watching a private pilot land a Cessna aircraft. If you are not a pilot (lacking their professional concepts) you may comment that it looked good and was a smooth landing. On the other hand if you are a professional pilot watching the same landing you'll have lots to say about his landing pattern, approach speed, flare-out, touchdown, how much flaps were used, and so on and on and on. That's my point about teaching. Without certain professional concepts about effective instruction, its doubtful that any cursory walk-through will yield much of significance about what teachers are doing and what they aren't doing.
Ben B. Strasser
As an example of this fundamental issue, let's suppose you are watching a private pilot land a Cessna aircraft. If you are not a pilot (lacking their professional concepts) you may comment that it looked good and was a smooth landing. On the other hand if you are a professional pilot watching the same landing you'll have lots to say about his landing pattern, approach speed, flare-out, touchdown, how much flaps were used, and so on and on and on. That's my point about teaching. Without certain professional concepts about effective instruction, its doubtful that any cursory walk-through will yield much of significance about what teachers are doing and what they aren't doing.
Ben B. Strasser