ABSTRACT
Observation of teaching, as a means of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning, is now commonplace in the UK higher education sector. However, until the early 1990s there was little of this taking place, except as part of the training of teachers for the school sector. The practice has since increased steadily as many universities and colleges have come to recognize the value of observation schemes. For others, the impetus to adopt direct observation was driven by the Teaching Quality Assessment methodology (QAA Subject Review). Although this is not continuing in the same way, the process has become embedded and most institutions have built teaching observation into their quality assurance mechanisms. Many staff now regard direct observation as an integral part of their own professional development as teachers and value the process, both in their roles as the observer and the observed. This gradual acceptance of observation has helped to break down some of the ‘no-go’ areas previously associated with colleagues observing each other’s teaching. Many have been supported by a collection of papers (Brown, Jones and Rawnsley, 1993), outlining a range of approaches and models of observing teaching.
