What happens when practice is not delivered with fidelity

When instructional leaders do not facilitate the observation of peer delivery of effective teaching techniques and practices, they are not supporting and encouraging the teaching team in sharing their classroom experience and continuously build their professional practice. When they do not provide opportunities to observe delivery, the teaching team are not able to see best practice and replicate the success of their peers. Follow up classroom observations and student engagement and mastery data reveal little improvements in the teaching team’s effective teaching practices.

What happens

The problem is compounded
When the instructional leaders do not schedule and facilitate observation of delivery, they are not providing professional learning and support to the teaching team or promoting a culture of collaboration. When observations of delivery by a peer are not held, the teaching team are not able to witness best practice in the classroom context. They do not have the opportunity to learn from their peers or benefit from the feedback and guidance from the instruction coach. They do not implement what they have learned by observing best practice delivered by a peer in their classroom. Student engagement and learning either remains unchanged or declines over time, as the problem is compounded.When the teaching team do not engage fully in coaching it results in teachers or teaching assistants who are either unaware of how to address areas of their practice that need improvement or how to improve to maximise educationaloutcomes for students. The teaching team work in isolated classrooms with little or no collaboration. Over time, the lack of commitment to continuous improvement erodes the learning culture of a school.