Teachers crave yet rarely receive qualitative performance feedback. Though student feedback has been studied, we know little about what kinds of feedback are useful to teachers for improving practice. This study begins to address the need in research on the nature of feedback teachers receive from classroom observations as well as on how teachers…

Principals, this author says, must allow teachers to appraise themselves. Introducing teachers to observation systems and inviting them to participate will give them the impetus to improve their teaching through increased self-knowledge. (Editor)

Offers a supervision plan designed to help identify teaching deficiencies, assist in planning and managing improvement, and create situations promoting dialogue beween principals and teachers. The plan involves yearly goal setting, pre- and postobservation conferences, and an informal observation process. (MLH)

Opportunity to respond is a valuable tool in any classroom. By observing a target student in the gym, the administrator can develop a picture of the class's response patterns and evaluate the activity's educational value. The gymnasium is a classroom where all students should be learning. Includes two references. (MLH)

A comprehensive written documentation system for teacher evaluation usually includes classroom observations, assessment documents, principal's log, specific incident reports, and summary memoranda. Principals should be specific, involve others, be timely, treat all employees alike, state facts and conclusions, and use negative language where…

Evaluators should help teachers promote professional excellence, improve student learning, and realize classroom consistency. Consistent evaluators possess certain skills, including gathering factual data, observing objectively, gauging teachers' effectiveness at reinforcing lesson plans, establishing ameliorative guidelines through clinical…

Evaluators using a naturalistic orientation observe a teacher's performance within the context of other lessons and interactions, view teacher observation and evaluation as processes rather than outcomes, and see events from the teacher's perspective. Principals can increase objectivity by recognizing the effects of their attitudes and experiences…

Administrators' classroom observations should be supplemented by more thorough evaluation techniques. This article describes a simple device for measuring teachers' progress toward completing instructional goals based on electronically submitted lesson plans. Repeated low "turn" rates may signify the need for extra classroom resources or problems…

A survey of Connecticut high school teachers and their supervisors (principals, department heads) reveals different perceptions of the value of teacher observation reports. (Author/DS)