Following a report from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted, 2003), the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) announced a major reform for the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) provision within the Learning and Skills Sector (DfES, 2004). The reform recommended a better integration of the pedagogical and practical elements of the course and emphasised the fundamental role of observation of teaching practice.

A project was designed to improve formative assessment of the trainees’ teaching practice. The research involved two institutes of further (FE) and higher Education (HE), City College Norwich and Otley College and a secondary school, Chantry High School in Suffolk, allowing some comparison for teacher training in both sectors.

The first objective was to review the literature on best practice of classroom observation and feedback procedures and to identify the strengths and any issues of the present practice. The project also examined other critical procedures in classroom observation including observation of experienced teachers, videoing and paired observations. Four models of classroom observation were tested to check their efficacy and practicality. With the feedback provided by the trial participants, recommendations and best practice guidelines were compiled together in a booklet with a report, both available on the Quality Improvement Agency (QIA) website (www.QIA.org.uk).

This document presents a detailed literature review on classroom observation and teaching assessment which is not exhaustive but highlights a number of interesting ideas.

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