Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The Importance Of Conducting Classroom Walkthroughs

By Ines Flores


Conducting classroom dry runs is an excellent procedure for getting an overall idea of instruction in the school. Although naturally brief, these dry runs produce data patterns in terms of the different opportunities to meet the different interests and skills of the students, the types of work the students produce, levels of student engagement and instructional procedures that teachers use. These data patterns can be shared with the faculty to serve as a basis for discussion about how to increase student achievement and meet the needs of students.

Classroom visits and giving feedback to teachers can either build a competent culture of nonstop development and learning or create a setting that is filled with suspicion and resentment. Nevertheless, the stand of the school administrators will be the basis for the outcome. Just like when the feedback coming from the school administrators and principals can boost the confidence level and growth of the teachers if their classroom walkthroughs are conducted to focus on positive and meaningful practices rather than on the negative ones.

School principals and administrators use dry runs to acknowledge the teachers' good effort and engage them in a professional dialogue. This is an excellent procedure for them to collect data. A value-added feedback can be in a form of questions. For example, school principals and administrators may ask the teachers they have observed if there are additional ways or procedures to make sure that every student succeeds in content learning and application.

Without a doubt, in any institution there is always room for development. The runthrough method is an effective approach to assist administrators as well as teacher to do a better job at enhancing the learning opportunities of their students.

On the other hand, the purpose of this procedure can be defeated if assumptions are made or tiny criticisms are paid with more attention without knowing more about the intentions of the teachers and how they gauge student success. The success of dry runs will greatly depend on the respect the administrators give to the teachers.

The situation in the lecture area should be safe at all times and this is one thing that should be given ample attention. Unfortunately, there are instances when a student may cause learning distraction or put fellow students at risk. The school administrators and principals may even find students being isolated or excluded from the class.

Immediate attention is necessary. Correction of these circumstances should be done by means of intervention to get rid of the behavior that is causing problems and speaking to the teacher after class too to be guaranteed that these bad practices eliminated. This means it is necessary for follow up visits to be conducted.

The understanding of school leaders should be increased especially in terms of what is going on in the classroom. Being more reflective and supporting good practice are also important. The professional culture of the school can be improved by increasing the sense of common purpose and trust. These can only be achieved by getting and sharing dry run data in a way that a positive outcome can be accomplished.




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