Tags

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_talkTeacher 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

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

management_new

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.

Wright, V. (2016) Examining lesson observation feedback. In O’Leary, M. (Ed.) Reclaiming lesson observation: Supporting excellence in teacher learning (pp. 75-85). Routledge.

Assessment

assessment
Timing and purpose are key to understanding assessment. Diagnostic, formative or remedial assessment are common and can be considered as assessment for learning, with a view to improving learning. Summative assessment can be considered as assessment of learning, a measure of what has been learnt. In contrast to teacher assessment, students can self-assess using assessment criteria, or alternatively can peer-assess by marking the work of other students. Research from the EPPI centre suggests that it is important to involve students in ‘co-designing’ the criteria for evaluation and that students need to be taught how to assess and how to work with others if this strategy is to be effective. Assessment methods can be varied. Some teachers in the VEO Europa project are using VEO to support student self-assessment.