Sunday 8 February 2015

The Benefits Of Conducting Classroom Walkthroughs

By Ines Flores


Conducting classroom dry runs is an excellent procedure for getting an overall idea of instruction in the school. Although naturally brief, these dry runs produce data patterns in terms of the different opportunities to meet the different interests and skills of the students, the types of work the students produce, levels of student engagement and instructional procedures that teachers use. These data patterns can be shared with the faculty to serve as a basis for discussion about how to increase student achievement and meet the needs of students.

Visiting institutions as well as giving teachers feedback can help build a professional manner of constant learning and development or a setting of resentment as well as suspicion. This will, however, be based the institution's stand. Just like for instance, conducting classroom walkthroughs to look for proof as well as acknowledge attributes just like meaningful student learning as well as positive practices cannot just increase the progress of the teachers but help them become more confident too based on the feedback that the school principals as well as administrators have given.

School principals and administrators use dry runs to acknowledge the teachers' good effort and engage them in a professional dialogue. This is an excellent procedure for them to collect data. A value-added feedback can be in a form of questions. For example, school principals and administrators may ask the teachers they have observed if there are additional ways or procedures to make sure that every student succeeds in content learning and application.

It cannot be denied that there is room for improvement in any school. The dry run procedure is an excellent way to help administrators and teachers to improve their job especially in increasing the students' learning opportunities.

However, the procedure can be ruined by making assumptions or focusing on small criticisms without finding out more about how student success was measured and what the teachers intend. Dry runs can be considered effective when administrators respect the role of the teachers and the environment they are trying to create.

Unsafe situation in the study room is one matter that should be taken seriously. For instance, principals including school administrators may find a student casing learning distraction, putting others in danger, being set apart or excluded by the teacher from learning.

Situations like these should be corrected immediately. These situations should be corrected by intervening to stop the behavior that causes a problem and talking to the teacher right after the class to make sure that these practices are stopped. It is also important that a follow-up visit the following day is done to be assured that bad practices will not happen again in the long run.

The understanding of school leaders should be increased especially in terms of what is going on in the classroom. Being more reflective and supporting good practice are also important. The professional culture of the school can be improved by increasing the sense of common purpose and trust. These can only be achieved by getting and sharing dry run data in a way that a positive outcome can be accomplished.




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