Key Elements of Observing Practice

Based on Data Wise and Data Wise in Action, Key Elements of Observing Practice offers insight into one of the most challenging steps in capturing data about school performance: observing and analyzing instructional practice. A central premise of the Data Wise approach is that teams of educators must have a good understanding of what instruction looks like in order to improve it. The most direct approach to developing this collective knowledge is to have teachers observe one anothers practice. However, many schools do not have a collegial culture in which examining instruction feels supportive rather than threatening, and most teachers do not have the skills to describe teaching in a fine-grained, evidence-based way. This DVD and Facilitators Guide provide school leaders with a set of tools for developing teachers capacity to learn from their own practice. The DVD features a 20-minute film that follows members of one school team as they apply the five key elements of observing instruction. It also contains five sections that offer viewers a closer look at each element. Brief videos providing an overview of the Data Wise improvement process and a summary of the eight steps of the Data Wise cycle are also included. The Facilitators Guide provides meeting agendas, protocols, and discussion questions to help principals, academic coaches, and other providers of professional development use the video segments to structure their conversations with colleagues about observing practice. The complete program involves a series of eight meetings, each of which runs forty to seventy minutes. This package includes one DVD and one Facilitator's Guide.