Collaboration around observation of teaching: Powerful professional learning

This study investigated a group of six junior primary school teachers’ learning as they collaboratively inquired into teaching practice they observed together. The focus of the study was on understanding how teachers collaborated around observed teaching practice to improve their pedagogy. The design involved four iterative stages of co-planning, observation, analysis and reflection. Results indicated a shift in participation of group members from seeing themselves as passive observers to active designers proposing improvements in teaching practice to their colleagues. An implication is that collaborative observation and reflection on teaching situated within the enactment of challenging tasks can be effective in supporting teachers to make sense of teaching in new ways.