Classroom Observation Protocols - Alaska Department of Education ...

Page 4Some researchers have developed self-administered, reflectiveapproaches for teachers to use as they introduce classroom reforms;others have developed third-party observation approaches.Some protocols focus on changes in attitudes; many addresschanges in classroom behaviors, especially the interactionsamong teachers and students.Classroom observation methods include a wide range of approaches:checklists, inventories, timed interval ratings, holisticratings, narrative descriptions, logs, questionnaires, rubrics, matrices,models, conceptual grids, and open-ended questions.An important consideration for researchers, one that is addresseddirectly by some and implicitly by others, is what unit of instructionthey will study. This consideration is especially important whenthe protocol involves third-party observers. Will they observe anentire class period? A segment? An entire day? An entire courseor program? Different protocols observe different units of instruction.Potential pitfallsConstructing a classroom observation protocol, especially a prot o-col involving third-party observers, presents many challenges andpotential pitfalls, including:• Observer bias. Each observer approaches the classroomwith his or her own experiences and biases. As a result,two observers may focus on different aspects of the classroom,and thus record different phenomena for the samelesson• Obtrusiveness. The presence of one or more observersintrudes on the normal class environment and can lead tolessons that do not represent the norm.• Contextual variances. Every school environment providesa different context in which the observations take place.This variation can affect the record-keeping behaviors ofthe observers.• Labor costs. Classroom observation is labor intensive,often requiring multiple observers and multiple visits to the