OBSERVATION PROTOCOL

Name of Instructor Observed ___________________________________________ Class ___________________________Level ______________________________ Time ___________________________ Date ______________________________

The Program Setting

Describing the teaching environment. Who are the students? Who is the instructor? What kind of class? What is the physical description of the classroom? Particularities? Relation to other classes?

The Human, Social Environment

What is the relationship between faculty and students? How is language used in the classroom? Are there variations between faculty and students? Is there a relationship with other classes? Is there congruence or lack thereof between language and activities and actions? Are there normative or divergent behaviors? How are they manifested? Are there manifestations of conformity or resistance? Do students group themselves? Are there patterns of interactions? What is the frequency and the direction of interactions between faculty and students? Does the faculty seem to group them? How do students seem to identify themselves? How does the faculty seem to identify itself?

Program Activities and Participant Behaviors

What are the stated goals for the class/ensemble? How is the class organized in terms of curriculum and pedagogy? How are decisions made inside the classroom? How are they communicated? How does the professor act in the classroom? Teaching style? How is information delivered? Are there variations? Level of consistency? How do students behave? React to what is proposed? What are the observed actions and discourses perceived as technicist? What are the observed actions and discourses perceived as critical?

Do students seem to identify with it? Are there behaviors that connected or spurred by class, gender, race, or ethnic issues? Is there space for students to express their opinions? How do they express themselves? Does faculty create space for student expression? How? When?

Informal Interactions and Unplanned Activities

How does the professor and students interact in moments when instruction is not taking place? What kinds of discourses or enactments facilitated unplanned or unexpected activities? What might have prevented unplanned activities? Was the faculty receptive to changes? How? To what extend? Why? In what occasions? Were the students receptive? How? To what extend? Why? In what occasions? How and when does faculty intervene in unplanned interactions and situations?

Non Verbal Communications

What are the covert expectations present in the classroom? How do they get communicated? Enacted? How do students seem to react to them? Are there conformity and/or resistance toward them? Do issues of class, gender, race and ethnicity seem to incite or permeate non-verbal communication? Is identity expressed or suggested through in non-verbal ways? How? In what circumstances? How and to what extend are practices covertly? What are the assumptions used inside the classrooms? Is there a widespread understanding or acknowledgement of them? When is it tacitly done? What is the role of body-language in the classroom environment? When and by whom is it used? Is there awareness of the faculty or students reciprocal body-language? Do they influence practice? How are they connected to overt discourses?

Noting What Did Not Happen

Actions Interactions Development in activities Resolution of conflicts Change in attitudes Establishment or Change in perception and behavior Agreements or disagreements with faculty ideas or behavior