E09 - Walking the Shop Floor

In this episode Femi and Matt discuss lesson observations and lesson visits - the process Femi calls 'walking the shop floor'.  They touch on the bizarre phenomenon of teachers doing something other than 'business as usual' when being observed, the questionable practice of once-per-year observations or departmental reviews, feeding back after lesson visits and the importance of triangulation: looking at books and talking to students.They talk about 'the 3 Bs' and other heuristics (such as 'angle of lean' and 'speed of pen'), about 'closing the loop' (what leaders actually do with all the information they gather in order to improve outcomes for students), problems with whole-school approaches to CPD, alternatives to that model and ways to use departmental time more effectively.  They discuss why oversight for teaching and learning should lie with heads of department and the benefits of 'walking the shop floor' in other departments and other schools.