Observació entre iguals

There is evidence that teachers who share educational ideas and practices report higher levels of job satisfaction, self-efficacy and better relationships with students (OCDE, 2020).

​

The latest TALIS report indicates that the forms that have the greatest impact on improving their teaching practices are collaborative professional development practices, such as peer observation. However, only 9% declare to have used this practice. In Spain, the percentage drops to 5% (OCDE, 2020).

​

Although research on peer observation (PO), in which teachers play both roles (observer and observee), is still limited, as is their practice, the available research, both in the school and the university context, agree in pointing out interesting benefits.

​

      A) BENEFITS INSTITUTION

 

At the institutional level, research provides solid evidence that through peer observation teachers perceive improvements in collegial relationships with their colleagues.

​

At the school level, different studies show that teachers perceive PO as a mechanism to establish more supportive and trustful collaborative relationships between teachers (Alam et al., 2020; Daniels et al., 2013; Gray, 2012; Motallebzadeh, 2019; Sparks & Bruder, 1986). It is also a useful mechanism to improve the cohesion of teaching teams through the development of a common language (Hall & McKeen, 1989; Rosselló & De la Iglesia, 2021), as well as to break the isolation between teachers (Arnau, 2004; Bruce and Ross, 1989; Slater & Simmons, 2001).

​

At the university level, different studies show that university professors perceive that PO helps to strengthen their working relationships with their colleagues, to connect with colleagues from different disciplines and/or from the same department to create better professional learning alliances and a more supportive and empathetic work culture. They also indicate that both face-to-face (Bang, 2009; Bleiler-Baxter et al., 2020; Hendry et al., 2014) and online PO (İnceçay & Dikilitaş, 2022; Nicolson & Harper, 2014) can be a measure to combat isolation in university teaching as it helps to reduce the fragmentation of university teaching and offers a shared space to build a professional learning community (Bosman & Voglewede, 2019; Guo, 2005; İnceçay & Dikilitaş, 2022).

​

So, as a mechanism for teacher training or teacher professional development, PO can decisively contribute to building a collaborative school culture and to allowing teachers to also learn in their daily practice, thus promoting schools that learn or professional learning communities, able to respond to the needs of continuous improvement and responses to educational challenges (Duran & Miquel, 2019; Corcelles-Seuba et al., 2024).

​

Specifically, research also shows that participation in PO processes, even in simple procedures based on a single cycle of observation, can become a powerful tool to increase teachers' perception of the culture of collaboration in their school, increase the sense of collective agency and teachers' preference for collaboration over individual work (Corcelles-Seuba et al., 2024).

​

 

      B) BENEFITS FOR TEACHERS

 

There is strong evidence pointing out that teachers perceive that PO is an excellent opportunity for their professional development when they perform both roles—observer and observe— (Duran et al., 2020; Corcelles- Seuba et al., 2023b; Corcelles-Seuba et al., in press).

​

Being an observer, beyond developing one's own observation skills—necessary for teaching practice—, is an opportunity to see other classroom management and methodologies in practice, and to develop teaching self-confidence (Duran et al., 2020; Hendry and Oliver, 2012; Motallebzadeh et al., 2015). In the role of observer, teachers particularly value identifying areas to improve practice (Corcelles-Seuba et al., 2023a, 2023b).

​

Being observed allows you to reflect on your own practice, identify strengths, develop self-confidence and foster one’s own processes of teaching improvement through collaborative inquiry and constructive feedback (Duran, et al. 2020; Bruce and Ross, 2008; Motallebzadeh, 2017; Shousha, 2023a).

​

Research findings also underline the importance of writing reports after the observation to identify objectives for improving the teaching practice (Corcelles-Seuba et al., 2023b). In addition, they also show that after the intervention teachers tend to reduce their initial resistance, which highlights that a reciprocal collaborative model is effective in reducing the negative emotions that often arise in the face of this practice (Corcelles -Seuba et al., 2023a; Ribosa et al., 2024).

​

At the university level, studies on PO have highlighted the value of observing a colleague who teaches, both in the same discipline and in a different discipline.

​

In the case of intradisciplinary observation, studies show that it allows comparison between different groups of students, obtaining a more objective and rigorous view of one's teaching and more opportunities for situated and meaningful learning (Bang, 2009; Bell and Mladenovic, 2008; Drew and Klopper, 2021; Schuck, 2015; Tezcan-Unal, 2018).

​

In interdisciplinary observation, teachers can identify strategies used in other disciplines that are applicable to their own discipline, helping to shift the focus from specific content to more holistic pedagogical aspects (Beaumont, 2020; Carroll & O'Loughlin, 2014; Donnelly, 2007; Heredia-Arboleda et al. 2021; Miranda et al. 2021; Nicolson & Harper, 2014; O'Keffee et al, 2021; Torres et al., 2017; Walker, 2015; Walker & Forbes, 2018).  

​

In summary, the research shows that teachers who participate in PO processes perceive three main benefits:

1) Increased awareness and reflection on their practice; 2) adoption of new teaching strategies;  3) increased confidence in their competence as a teacher (Corcelles-Seuba et al., in press).

​

References