Report on Classroom Observation Essay

Introduction Internship teaching is the culminating experience of the first degree program in education. It provides the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge on pedagogies in the actual classroom setting and gain the experience. The internees are exposed to an environment where they encounter learners for the first time and face them with multitude of ideas, approaches, techniques and processes. During the internship period I got ample opportunities to demonstrate the art of teaching in actual situation and participate in all activities at the school level. The duration of internship was one semester. I tried to perform the assigned responsibilities in Azimpur Girl’s School and College under the direct management and control of the heads of respective school and under the supervision of two subject-supervisors and a school co-coordinator, assigned by Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka. Aim Teaching is in the center regarding all educational issues. So as a student of Institute of Education and Research, we should have an experience in teaching at the field level. Before starting teaching face to face it helps a practice teacher to acquaint themselves with the process, method of teaching if they observe a class of a certain level before entering in a class as a teacher. I have observed 3 science classes of grade 8. I have analyzed those classes and gave a brief description of one of the classes below. Azimpur Girl’s School and College Class: 8Sec: B Time: 11. 45-12. 25 Date: 29. 08. 05 Period: 2nd About the lesson The class was on physical science on â€Å"Work, Power and Energy†. The lesson contains discussion about the following topics: 1) Work and the mathematical expression of work 2) Different types of work 3) Power Description I had to observe the physical science class of Md. Shamsul Alam sir. I was waiting in front of his classroom. When he came I asked him politely if he could give me the permission to observe his class. He told me to sit in the class. When the teacher entered the class all the students’ stood up and when he told them to sit, they took their sits. At first he declared the lesson. Then he started his lecture by relating the lesson with practical experiences. Then he showed the mathematical expression in the black board. He explained the different types of work and to do so he dropped the duster from his hand and so also took a book higher from the desk. Now he told that if any student is more curious to know more about this he could go through the text book of higher secondary level, but this is adequate to write down in the exam paper. Then he asked the class â€Å"what is power? † one of the students answered. He agreed with him. Then he discussed on the unit of power. After that, he discussed with the students on energy, its unit and different forms of energy. He sometimes asked some examples and the students’ participated. While continuing the class he also told students to co operator with me. He left the class before the due time to let me introduce myself in the class. I talked with the class about their class times, syllabus, hobbies etc. when the bell rang for the next class, I left the room. Main features of the lesson observed: A. Physical facilities: †¢ Location of the class: The class is in the middle of the 2nd floor in the main school building. †¢ Shape of the class: The shape of the class room is almost square. †¢ Doors and windows: All the windows are in the right side of the class and the only door is in the left side of the room. The door is not very much spacious. †¢ Students’ bench and table: Every 23 students sit in a bench. The bench and the writing table are joined together. There is a long wooden string in every two sides of bench. There are columns and every column has rows with only one bench. There are 4 columns and 5 rows of benches in the classroom. The benches are not that much congested. Students have space to easily move. †¢ Blackboard: The blackboard is put in the wall of the class. It is not portable but fixed. It is not in the middle of the front wall. So all of the students cannot see easily what is written in the board. †¢ Lighting and ventilation: The natural lighting is not quite adequate for the class. The cross ventilation is not available in the classroom. †¢ Provision of artificial lighting and ventilation: There are 4 electric fans and lights in the class. But this is not quite adequate for the room. As there is no generator in the school and power failure being a common problem, sometimes students face problems as they suffer from the hot summer and cannot concentrate to their lessons. There is another problem of the artificial lighting as it is reflected in the blackboard and the front right side of the class cannot see the right corner of the board. †¢ Teachers table and chair: The wooden chair and table are in the front side of the class. The table is spacious but its drawers are hardly movable. The chair is quite ok as we should use in not for a long time to sit there while teaching. †¢ Color of the class: The colors of the walls are white but fade. It should be brighter. †¢ Other furniture: There are no other furniture except the above mentioned desk and benches for the students and the chair and table. B. Evaluation of the teacher’s proficiency: †¢ Dress up: His dress up was suitable for the class. †¢ Teaching method: His teaching method is good. When he was working out the problems, he asked the students for its possible solution. It shows that he applied the participatory approach. Sometimes he feels the need for recalling. So he asked the students to write down the important notes. He relates his lessen with real life. He told the students about he group of problems which had an equivalent solution and then worked out one or two from that group of problems. †¢ Teaching materials: He used no other teaching material except the black board. †¢ Learning environment: He learning environment was come and quite which was obvious for science lesson. But the environment was not fear free because of his way of punishment. †¢ Use of teaching materials: Except the blackboard he did not use any other teaching material. †¢ Use of black board: He used the blackboard neatly. His writings were legible and could be seen from even the last bench. He also did not stand parallel to the board making the students facing his back, but stand making angle with the board. But he did not look at the students while writing on the chalk board and the students took the advantage for side talking. Before going out of the class he wiped the board. †¢ Students’ involvement and participation: Students’ involvement and participation is not very high. Moreover most of the participants the conventional good students. †¢ Classroom questioning: After finishing a problem, he encouraged classroom questioning. But to arouse interest he did not asked any question to the students. †¢ Punishment and reward: His quantity of rewards was less than the quantity of punishment. Moreover his way of punishment did not suit to the child psychology. †¢ Classroom control: His classroom controlling power is really strong. No student disturbed in the class while he gave his lesson. Only few students talked in the class while he was using the blackboard. He used a nice technique while calling the rolls. †¢ Teacher student relationship: Teacher student relationship is not friendly, but grim. He maintained a big distance with them. Students were afraid of him. The teacher was caring but not frank. †¢ Way of expressing: He explained the steps of the solution clearly to the students with agile expression. †¢ Expertise in his particular lesson: He had a good expertise on his subject. He can answer the students’ questions proving his sagacity and he had other knowledge related to his subject beyond the text book. †¢ Beginning of the lesson: He didn’t make any specific motivation for the lesson. But his starting was quite good. †¢ Class work observation: He observed the given class by walking and watching the activities of the students entering the passages between the columns. He also gave individual feed back to some students. He did not collect the class work copies from the students. †¢ Home work: He gave homework at the end of the class and at the beginning of the class collected the homework copies. He corrected every copy and gave back the copies that day. But he did not give any feedback according to homework. †¢ Wittiness: Hardly ever he created suitable funny situation in the class making the students laugh. But obviously it is related to the lesson. He used some different words in the class, like he said that if anyone feels any pain in his mind meaning that if they had understood the topic. †¢ Voice and tone: His voice is suitable for the class. It can be heard from the last bench. The changing tone of his voice creates some special situations or attention in the class which is something urgent. †¢ Confidence: His face, behavior, talking shows that he is confident, confident about his expertise and controlling power. It is proved from the situation when students ask him questions and he answered in a very smart way. †¢ Punctuality: He was punctual. He started the class at the right time and finished before 5 minutes for me to introduce myself to the class. †¢ Discipline: The students were disciplined through out his class time. †¢ Cleanliness: He maintains cleanliness in every step. C. Strengths of the teacher: †¢ Good controlling power over the class. †¢ Appropriate voice and flexible tone †¢ Tries to relate the lesson to everyday life. †¢ Maintains the rules of using black board. †¢ Asks the students about the possible way of solving problems to enhance student participation. †¢ Punctual. †¢ He can clarify the salvation of a problem clearly. D. Weakness of the teacher: †¢ Does not give attention to classroom participation and student involvement. †¢ Does not give much emphasis on girls. †¢ Cannot crate a friendly, fear free classroom situation. †¢ Emphasizes on negative reinforcement rather than positive reinforcement. †¢ Bad way of punishment and scolding. †¢ Does not use any other teaching material but the blackboard. †¢ Does not make a specific and effective motivation towards a specific lesson. †¢ He didn’t check the class work copies. E. Possible ways of improving the lesson: †¢ He could use a poster with the necessary algebraic formulas, in this lesson. That poster could hang on one corner of the black board thus the students could remind the formulas in a friendly and effective way. †¢ To be confirmed about the students’ class performance the class work copy of every student can be collected and corrected. And basing on it the teacher can keep a record by grading them about their class work copies. †¢ He could do something at the beginning of the lesson to motivate the students. †¢ If he could check the class work copies of all the students it would help the students to do his class works more sincerely. Conclusion This class observation helped me a lot to improve myself in teaching and learning. In this sense I will ever greatful to the administration of Azimpur School and College for giving me the unique opportunity. Tamanna Kalim Material Developer BRAC Education Programme Bangladesh.