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Let us see the wealth of learning that observation affords by consider­ing: (1) who observes; and (2) for what purpose.

Part One Introduction




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towards a number of different ends (see Fig. 1.1). This book is addressed mainly to classroom teachers engaged in observation as part of their professional development. The observation may be initiated either by the teachers themselves or by the school, as part of a school-based support programme for teaching staff, or beginning teachers, or newly-employed teachers engaged in an induction period. Other observers include:

• 
  trainee teachers who observe teachers, other trainees and trainers as an important part of their own initial training process;
  
• 
  teacher trainers who observe trainees teaching;
  
• 
  teacher developers who observe teachers as part of a school-based support system;
  
• 
  trainee trainers who observe teachers and trainee teachers.
  

For what purpose?
There are a number of different purposes for observation. However, the primary one considered here is teachers' professional growth and development. Our aim is to give some guidance or structure to the process of observation.
Observation for assessment, such as that which takes place in pre-service teacher training courses or during probation periods or for employment-related matters, is not dealt with here. As it is usually value-based, directive, externally imposed, and coloured by factors not necessarily related to learning, it does not fall within our central notion of observation as a learning tool. Also, as this was the traditional, and often sole, reason for observing teachers and classrooms in action, it is an area that has previously received a lot of attention. Observation as a learning tool, on the other hand, is quite a recent development in the literature of teacher preparation and education.
2 Who is this book for?
This book is designed to interest and serve a number of people involved in language teaching. They are:
- the teacher;

• 
  the trainee teacher;
  
• 
  the trainer;
  
• 
  people involved in school-based support (e.g. co-ordinators, senior teachers, heads of school);
  
• 
  people involved in trainer training, whether in universities, teachers' colleges or private institutions.
  

Part One Introduction Who is this book for?
The observation contexts which this book seeks to support are:

• 
  pre-service teacher training;
  
• 
  school-based teacher support; — teacher development;
  
• 
  trainer training/development.
  

These contexts may or may not co-occur within the one teaching institution.
In Section 5 (see pages 17-26), more specific guidance in how to use this book is offered to the various groups of people listed above. For the moment, let us examine the broad aims of these various groups and how Classroom Observation Tasks is addressed to them.
The teacher
This book is addressed primarily to the teacher. The person we have in mind is someone who has completed an initial, pre-service training programme and is now working in a language teaching context. This might be English language teaching ('second' or 'foreign') or modern language teaching; with children or adults; in private schools or government institutions. It may be taking place in a target language speaking context (such as teaching English in an English-speaking country) or in a context where the target language is not spoken outside the classroom (such as teaching English in Japan, or French in England). In fact, neither the context of teaching nor the amount of teaching experience that the teacher has had is a constraint to users of the book. What is important is that teachers involved are interested in teaching (particularly their own) and in the various processes that occur and co-occur in language classrooms, and are motivated to engage in some structured tasks that will allow them to explore teaching in the areas of their interest and choice.
The teacher may wish to engage in some informal or semi-informal observations. These may be initiated and implemented by teachers in a collaborative effort. Alternatively, they might be structured in some way by the support offered by the school (see School-based teacher support, page 23). Another situation may involve a teacher engaged in a course of in-service study, a component of which involves a programme of peer observation.
Classroom Observation Tasks seeks to provide stimulus and ideas for ways of exploring one's own teaching by observing other teachers and classrooms in action, or by having one's own teaching/classroom observed for the purpose of continued learning and exploration.
For further information on how observing the classroom is linked to teacher development, see page 8 and pages 18-19.
The trainee teacher
Some trainees begin a pre-service teacher training course with some experience of the classroom, perhaps as a teacher of another language or perhaps as a primary-school teacher. Others have never before stepped into a classroom in the shoes of a teacher. Whatever the teaching background of the trainee, all have had educational experience in classrooms and hence they come to training with some expectations. These might be conscious or subconscious, or a blend of the two; they might be positive or negative; they might imbue the trainee with courage and optimism or with nervous apprehension or dread. Whatever the cargo of experiences and expectations that a trainee brings to a training course, one thing is certain — that the classroom has primacy of place in the learning and teaching experiences that lie ahead. It is important that these experiences are used in the process of learning to become a teacher.