Page 300 - Beyond Methods

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Monitoring teaching acts
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they are unidirectional, that is, the information flow is generally from the observer to the teacher, the observer being a supervisor in the case of practicing teachers, or a teacher educator in the case of student-teachers; and
theyareunidimensional,thatis,thebasisofobservationislargely confined to one single perspective, that of the observer.
These models then emphasize observer perceptions of observ- able teacher behavior for the limited purpose of building a teacher profile. By their very nature and scope, they can offer only a narrow view of classroom processes and practices.
Process-Oriented Models
Process-oriented models of classroom observation (e.g., Allwright, 1980; van Lier, 1988) are based on the assumption that an interpre- tation of classroom activities is necessary in order to understand classroom processes and practices. With that objective, they focus on classroom input as well as interaction, and also on managerial as well as cognitive aspects of classroom activities. They attempt to describe and account for individual behavior, and thus treat class- room participants as individuals rather than as a collective mass. Furthermore, they use qualitative methods of analysis, along with quantitative methods, to interpret classroom data.
Like the product-oriented models, most of the process-oriented ones are also intended to observe, describe, classify, and assign cer- tain numerical values to verbal behaviors using a preselected and predetermined set of categorical items. However, they are different from and an improvement over product-oriented models in at least two important ways. First, through a qualitative or ethnographic method of analysis (such as interviews), they seek to interpret class- room events, not just describe them. Second, in order to achieve the goal of interpretation, some of them attempt to go beyond the ob- server perspective of classroom events and attempt to elicit other related perspectives as well.
Process-oriented observation models have undoubtedly strength- ened our capacity to understand classroom events. However, they, too, have certain shortcomings:
• although they are meant to help teachers, they are designed pri- marily to be used by researchers, supervisors, and teacher edu- cators.