The grading of teaching observations: implications for teacher educators in Higher Education partnerships

This research project was carried out in response to the introduction of Ofsted’s new grading criteria for inspection of ITE in the LSS (2009), which state that over fifty percent of trainees need to be judged ‘outstanding’ for an ITE provider to achieve the highest inspection grade. Ofsted now places an increased emphasis on classroom observation of teaching to provide evidence for inspection, which raises the issue of what tutors observing trainee teachers consider to be ‘outstanding’ teaching.

The research considered what tutors in the Huddersfield PCET Consortium understand by the term ‘outstanding’ in relation to trainee performance, with a focus on classroom teaching. The views of tutors involved in teaching observations of trainees on the Certificate in Education/PGCE were compared with a list of features associated with outstanding teaching. This was generated through analysis of case studies of ‘outstanding’ and ‘weak’ trainees produced by Consortium Centre managers. The observing tutors were then observed carrying out teaching observations and giving feedback. This was followed by semi-structured interviews and analysis of the documentation supporting the observation.