The main focus in our project is lesson observation, reflection and feedback using the original VEO Education tag set. On this page, we will explain the tags and how they work together in the VEO observation framework.
Teacher Talk
Teacher talk is essential for setting up a lesson and explaining or modelling a task. It’s also vital for giving instant feedback, developing a rapport with students and linking learning concepts. However, effective teachers develop their technique, so that what they say is enhanced by the way that they say it as well as their body language. Using the Teacher Talk tags and subtags allows for professional dialogue based on specific examples from a teacher’s practice.
Questioning
Teachers use a range of different questioning techniques. Whether teachers favour specific questioning techniques such as buzz groups, pose-pause-pounce-bounce, socratic or any other kind of questioning strategy, Video Enhanced Observation with VEO encourages reflection and dialogue about how well the strategies have worked within the context that the observation has taken place. Tagged moments of particularly successful questioning sequences can also be shared to show examples of good practice.
Management
The broad heading of management covers a multitude of teacher actions in the classroom. For early career teachers, developing authority and rapport and making use of school behaviour management systems are usually a key concern. Developing teacher presence and hyper-awareness develops as some of these routines become second nature, which then frees the teacher up to work on higher-level matters of differentiation and trying out more creative ways of organising learning. VEO allows the observer to focus in on specific management examples to highlight existing effective practice as well as areas that could be developed. Giving good feedback is a skill in itself, and observers can develop their techniques to make the process more productive, whether through a ‘feedback sandwich’ or ‘stop, start, continue’. See Wright (2016) for a fuller discussion on lesson observation feedback.
Assessment
