Making teaching visible through learning opportunities

Observing teaching with a practiced, professional eye can yield valuable insights into the specific learning opportunities that students are (or are not) provided. However, recent policy initiatives have emphasized using formulaic rubrics and checklists to rate teacher behaviors and evaluate their use of particular instructional moves. Rather than investing so much time and money in such an approach, which is designed to evaluate teachers’ performance, school systems should focus on helping educators observe teaching in more sophisticated ways and make such focused observation a regular part of their professional routines.