ABSTRACT
It has been stressed in the previous chapters that systematic observation can be carried out by professionals working alone. This is certainly true, but such innovations as team teaching; the employment of support assistants to help to meet the needs of children with disabilities and learning difficulties; special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs); subject teachers working together; and members of the multidisciplinary team cooperating, have opened up the possibilities of staff supporting each other in the classroom. In the past, teachers often worked in isolation behind closed doors and visitors to the classroom were uncommon and usually unwelcome. Research indicated that infrequent ‘observers’ had a marked effect on the performance of teachers (Samph 1976) and that they, and indeed pupils, ‘put on a show’ (divorced from reality) in an attempt to provide what it was thought the observers might be expecting. Using microphones secretly planted in the classroom at times when observers were, and were not, present Samph found that teachers provided more praise, took on board more ideas generated by their pupils and asked more questions when others were watching. In such research, it was apparent that the teachers and observers had not collaborated on the focus or nature of the observation.
