OP Observer – A Class Observation Tool for Measuring the Effectiveness of Teaching Practice

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present an evaluation of the effectiveness of a class observation tool in measuring learner-centred practice at a New Zealand tertiary institution. This research arose from an awareness that many lecturers are still mainly providing teacher-centred classes, which have been proven to be less effective and engaging for the students’ learning process. We believe that making this measurement tool more efficient will help capture more information that is beneficial for lecturers’ reflective practice and will overall bring about a higher quality tertiary education for students. We designed this project in collaboration with a group of IT students and their lecturer at Otago Polytechnic, Auckland International Campus, New Zealand. We initially conducted class observations on a paper-based tool to identify teacher-centred and learner-centred activities used by lecturers. This was later turned into a Web-based class observation tool for more efficiency. We conducted 25 observations and the results were then discussed with the respective lecturers to involve them in a reflective session on the effectiveness of their teaching practice. Our experience with this tool helped to further create a mobile phone application (app), to make it more user-friendly. We believe that the function of this observation tool could be further extended/customised to also measure other aspects of teaching practice.



Author Information
Don Amila Sajeevan Samarasinghe, Otago Polytechnic Auckland International Campus, New Zealand
Vera Maria Nistor, Otago Polytechnic Auckland International Campus, New Zealand

Paper Information
Conference: ACE2019
Stream: Implementation & Assessment of Innovative Technologies in Education

This paper is part of the ACE2019 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon