ABSTRACT
Observing teachers in action is important not only at the start of training but also as the student teacher progresses and develops skills. It is essential that observation sessions are structured, focusing on a specific aspect, so that the student teacher can tease out the elements that make up a lesson and modify and adapt what has been witnessed to suit a personal teaching style. Even when the student teacher has advanced to teaching whole lessons, it is still important to continue observing lessons. Early observations will provide student teachers with repertoires from which they can choose when linking activities together in their own lesson plans. Later observations will allow student teachers to refine their developing skills by focusing on details that were previously unnoticed. The aims of this chapter are therefore to help student teachers to:
• structure their observations in a systematic manner; • focus their attention on specific aspects of classroom action; • reflect on how their own teaching may be changed; • observe how the choice of activities for pupils realizes curricular aims.
