Task 17.2 Developing an observation scheduleSelect a teaching skill you need to work on to develop your teaching ability. Usingthe information in this chapter, in Chapter 4 and examples on this book’s website(see www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415561648), devise an observationschedule to focus on your use of this teaching skill. Activity 4.3c in Capel, Breckonand O’Neill (2006) includes two simple and useful observation instruments.Ask your tutor to use the observation schedule to observe your use of thisteaching skill in a lesson. Explain how the observation schedule should be used.Discuss the effectiveness of the observation schedule after the lesson and adapt ifnecessary. Also discuss the outcomes of the observation with the observer. Workto develop your ability in using the teaching skill, then repeat the observation usingthe same (or revised) observation schedule. Put the completed observation in yourPDP.An essential follow up to this observation is time to discuss the teaching with theobserver. In some cases you may realise what you did or did not do, but in other casesyou may not be aware of events. Listen carefully to all the advice given and learn asmuch as you can from this feedback. In your teaching being observed by another teacherand the subsequent discussion after the lesson your ability to reflect critically is enhancedthrough your observer engaging in a debate with you. You are likely to be asked to eval-uate the lesson as a whole and conduct a constructive self-criticism of your teaching,identifying your strengths and areas for improvement. Significant here are the ways inwhich your teaching is related to pupil learning. You may be asked to explain and justifyaspects of your teaching and to ponder if, with the benefit of hindsight, you might haveadopted a different approach. Together with the observer you may identify aspects ofyour teaching that were effective and how you can embed these into your teaching andin addition reflect on and think about how a problem might be avoided in the future.More broadly you may debate the relationship between learning and teaching andtogether weigh the potential value of implementing different approaches to promotelearning. You may be challenged to be imaginative and innovative in respect of futureplanning. In short in situations where you are observed there is the opportunity for youto develop the valuable reflective skills of honest self-appraisal, in-depth analysis of theevents of the lesson, identification of your strengths, intelligent conjecture of the causesof problems and flexibility in devising solutions.LEARNING THROUGH SELF-REFLECTION ON YOUR OWNTEACHINGAs your ITE course progresses you are expected to take more and more responsibility foryour own development as a teacher. Your tutor’s feedback is likely to be prefaced byquestions such as ‘How far did the pupils achieve the ILOs?’, ‘Which aspects of yourteaching were most effective in promoting learning?’, ‘Where do you think you couldmake improvements in your teaching?’, ‘What issues should you take into account as youplan the next lesson?’. You are expected to be alert to all aspects of your teaching