With the aim to enhance the lesson observation and conferencing skills of the teachers, Precious Blood Primary School had commissioned the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) to conduct a series of professional development events in 2021-2022. The consultancy support service included a needs analysis meeting, a whole-school professional development workshop, lesson observations and post-lesson conferences of all subjects, subject-based feedback workshops for the four core subjects (Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics, and General Studies with other subjects ), and a final feedback workshop for the school administrators.
The whole-school professional development workshop on “Lesson Observation and Conferencing Skills” conducted by Professor Ko Po Yuk, Miss Jannie Tsang, and Miss Leung Kit Yan was held on 17 December 2021. The workshop commenced with the introduction of the relevant theories of lesson observation and ways to collect quality evidence during lesson observation. Constructive alignment of instructional design integrated with education initiatives (like self-regulated learning, blended learning, etc.) had been illustrated through authentic examples of the four core subjects. A video clip of a lesson episode was shown as an input of a teaching scenario for the teachers to practice the conferencing skills by playing the roles of the teacher and an observer of the lesson. The Staff Development Workshop had laid a common ground for the teachers about what to observe, how to collect evidence during the lesson, and how to provide feedback to the teacher concerned after lesson observation.
The lesson observation period took place from 12 January to 25 February 2022, and a total of 35 online lessons had been observed by the respective subject consultants (Dr. Lai Meng Choo, Miss Jannie Tsang, Miss Leung Kit Yan, and Miss Chan Wing Yan). The school had made special arrangements with the timetable so that there would be a few teachers observing the lessons with the subject consultants. Post-lesson discussion with all the observers and the teacher concerned was conducted after each lesson. Such practice had provided ample opportunities for the teachers not only to share collegial ideas about how to further improve the lesson design but also to consolidate their lesson observation and conferencing skills, which would, in turn, enhance the effectiveness of peer lesson observation in the school.
The four subject-based feedback workshops were held on 29 April, and 3-5 May 2022 by the respective subject consultants. The learning and teaching performance of the subject(s) concerned was discussed and suggestions for future development of the respective subject were recommended with illustration of exemplars.
The final feedback workshop for the school administrators and middle managers was held on 6 May 2022. Apart from the feedback on the overall learning and teaching performance, the notion of a learning organization and the possible vertical curriculum for the development of self-directed learning in students were introduced. Recommendations of adopting diversified pedagogies, self- and peer assessment strategies to cater for learner diversity and to further stretch the potential of the gifted students were suggested as possible direction for the future development of the school.
The consultancy support service on “Lesson Observation and Conferencing Skills” had provided the teachers of the whole school a fruitful opportunity to engage intensively in peer lesson observation activities and giving comments on the effectiveness of the lessons from different perspectives (such as the relevance of the selected teaching materials, the scaffolding activities, the adoption of eLearning tools to facilitate classroom interactions of online lessons, and the learning outcomes related to the teaching acts, etc.). The insight gained from the experience would help the school develop the school development plan in the domain of learning and teaching of the next cycle.
