Classroom Observation System as an Opportunity
to Improve Curricula and Quality of Studies
The topic of the quality and excellence of studies is becoming increasingly popular.
Therefore, higher educational institutions place greater importance on their teaching
staff – their qualifications and methodological skills – in order to satisfy consumer
needs, i.e. the needs of students and future employers with the content and quality of
studies.
The Estonian National Defence College (ENDC) is an institution of professional
higher education. However, the ENDC is different from other institutions of higher
education because it is in the sphere of responsibility of the Ministry of Defence not in
that of the Ministry of Education and Research. Another characteristic feature of the
ENDC is that in addition to civilian lecturers, the majority of the teaching staff
members are military personnel whose assignments – apart from their teaching
period at the ENDC – are considerably different from teaching activities.
Nonetheless, the main task for the ENDC remains the same as with other higher
educational institutions – to give professional education that meets all requirements.
Yet the duality described above has raised several questions and perhaps even
some impediments in the ENDC. A common understanding amongst civilian and
military teachers is that civilian and military spheres are enormously different and it
may be impossible to use them for the achievement of the same goal.
The Primus program gave an excellent opportunity for the ENDC to overcome the
above problems. Along the lines of compiling the outcome-based curricula and
syllabi, where the whole teaching staff of the ENDC was involved, a real cooperation
between the members of the teaching staff emerged, and the concept of a learning
organisation was applied. As a result, the idea to start with a classroom observation
system was initiated, in order to support the exchange experiences and also expand
the possibilities to improve cooperation and integration between different subjects.
The management of the ENDC supported the idea. As a result, the ENDC’s
Classroom Observation Guidelines were approved in 2011. This document regulates
the whole process and sets out the main rules for the observation process.
The process is regulated so that every teacher participates in the observation system
twice per academic year as a teacher observed and twice as an observer. Depending
on the observation system purposes and efficiency, the list of the observation is
complied in such a manner that the observer and the observed teacher are form
different chairs. The observations take place according to one of the observation
forms. The observation is followed by discussion where the observed teacher has the
possibility to analyse the class and the observer has the opportunity to specify
observations and comments.
It should be highlighted that the observation system is not a control mechanism to the
study process and teachers in general. It is initiated for the following reasons: the
teachers of the ENDC can exchange their experiences and share best practices, they
could learn more about other subjects, extend cooperation between teachers to
improve the integration between subjects and to reinforce the teamwork between the
teachers.
Despite some setbacks, the system works. Most of the planned observations took
place and the teachers’ feedback to the system was mostly positive. An encouraging
factor for us is also the interest of other higher educational institutions towards this
classroom observation system. The ENDC has shared its experience among others
with the Tartu University, Tartu Art College, Tartu Health Care College and Estonian
Aviation Academy.
In 2012, the ENDC teachers decided that they would like to continue with classroom
observations. A common understanding was that regardless of their background –
civilian or military – the problems related to teaching are the same. And what is even
more important – cooperation between seemingly different subjects is always
possible.