The presentation provides information on the major aspects of conducting post)lesson chats<.

1. Post-Lesson Discussions
Mariam Bedraoui Center for Educational Inspector Taining
Inspector Trainee Rabat; Morocco

2. Limited time
Unfavourable
physical conditions
Management of
data
No clear strategy
Resistant attitudes
Based on your recent
practicum experience, what
challenges does the Post-
lesson discussion present?

3. Outline
1. Definition
2. Functions
3. Approaches
4. Influential Factors
5. Possible
Challenges

4. Post-lesson discussion: definition
Post-lesson discussions are “practices that follow the
observations to exchange the trainer’s knowledge
and evaluations of that specific teaching practice of
the trainee.”
Tuncay (2003:157)
 Post-lesson discussions are “conversation sessions
between supervisors and teachers over instructional
and assessment issues with the aim of improving the
performance of teachers.”
Caruso & Facett (1999:
22)

5. Post-lesson discussion: Other Labels…
Post-lesson
chat
Post-
observation
conference
Debriefing
session
Post-lesson discussion
It is more than debriefing
The limited amount of time may
not help holding a conference.
‘discussion’ suggests:
negotiation+ achieving goals

6. Post-lesson discussion: Rationale and Functions
Rationale
“The Post-lesson
discussion is predicated
on the concept that
teaching can improve by
gaining feedback.”
Bailey (2004:14)
Feedback
Awareness
Reflection
Change
Functions
To identify less-effective teaching;
To note effective teaching;
To promote positive change.
(Bailey:2004)

7. Post-lesson discussion: More Functions
PLDs can have more functions:
 ……………………………………….
 …………………………………………
 To provide rewards and satisfaction for teachers. (Goldhammer et al.:
1980)
 To help teachers solve pedagogical and didactic problems. (Stones:
1987)
 To help teachers develop skills of analysing their teaching with the
aim of promoting a self-supervision approach. ( Holland: 1989)
 To help teachers conceptualise their teaching experiences. (Orland
Barak: 2002)
 To communicate to teachers final decisions about job status.
(Bailey:2004)

8. Post-lesson discussion:Some Approaches…
Freeman (1990) identified three approaches to
conducting Post-lesson discussions:
The Directive
Approach
• The role of the
supervisor is to
direct teachers to
better ways of
teaching and to
model good
teaching
behaviours.
The Alternative
Approach
• The role of the
supervisor is to
provide a variety
of alternatives for
teachers to try out
as effective
solutions to their
problems.
The Reflective
Approach
• The role of the
supervisor is to
give teachers the
chance to
evaluate their
behaviours and
help them analyse
their practices
and reflect on
their performance.

9. Post-lesson discussion:Some approaches…
Acheson& Gall (1992) placed these three approaches on a
continuum of behaviours that supervisors may produce in different
PLDs.
•Criticise
•Give
directions
•Lecture
•Askquestions
•Useteachers’
ideas
•Give
encouragemen
tsandpraise
•Acceptand
usefeelings
Direct Indirect
A continuum of supervisors’ behaviours in PLDs

10. Post-lesson discussion: Influential Factors
There are three major factor areas that affect
the quality* of PLDs
Logistic
factors
Affective
factors
Professional
factors
*A successful PLD=
Teachers are responsive to supervisory feedback.
Teaches reflect on the supervisor’s remarks and suggestions.
Teachers show aspects of positive change in subsequent observation sessio

11. Post-lesson discussion: Logistic Factors
 Some of the logistic factors that tend to have an
impact on PLDs are:
o Length of time to allow for the conference;
o The place where the conference takes place;
o The seating arrangements that are possible
to make;
o Protection against distractions;
o Available equipment.

12. Post-lesson discussion: Affective Factors
Supervisor
o The conference is in itself an
observable example of the
supervisor’s performance.
o It provides teachers with
concrete data about how
well the supervisor is
capable of analysing the
lesson and providing real
help.
Teacher
o The conference is led by a
more powerful person:
o The supervisor has a higher
rank
o The supervisor has better
training.
o The supervisor has
administrative power over the
teachers being supervised.
The PLD is one of the most difficult interactional moments between the
supervisor and teacher.
It “carries the potential of being an agonizing experience for both”. (Shrigley
and Walker,1981: 560)
It can be face threatening.

13. Post-lesson discussion: Affective Factors
Teachers react to these unequal power relations in three
major forms (Waite: 1993)
Passive teachers
• Accept the
supervisor’s
suggestions
and authority.
• Try to align
their views
and teachers
with the
supervisor’s
beliefs.
Collaborative teachers
• Select which suggestions to
respond to and how to apply
those suggestions.
• Show signs of reflection and
negotiation.
• Ask questions and seek
further resources to check
how sound the suggestions
are.
Adversarial teachers
• Show reluctance to sit for
the conference.
• Talk about their
achievements in other areas
or in the past or with other
classes.
• Anxious about providing
justification for every remark
made by the supervisor.

14. Post-lesson discussion: Affective Factors
Supervisor’s
Personality
Supervisor’s
professional
skills
How to maintain a non-threatening atmosphere during a PLD?

15. Post-lesson discussion: Affective Factors
Supervisor’s Personal Qualities
 The supervisor gains teachers’ respect by his/her
 Consistency
 Integrity
 Fairness
 Flexibility
 The supervisor loses teachers’ respect by:
 Lying
 Gossiping
 Going back on promises
 Being duplicitous
 Failing to provide help

16. Post-lesson discussion: Affective Factors
Supervisor’s professional skills
 Supervisor and teacher accept their respective role:
 Contractual relationship;
 Setting a shared goal;
 Regular provision of feedback;
 Building up on previous conferences.
 Supervisor’s management of the conference
 Acting spontaneously;
 Checking on teachers;
 Taking advantage of incidental occurrences;
 Being reassuring and encouraging;
 Avoiding overt evaluation;
 Controlling one’s words and facial expressions.
Successful application of these
procedures can lead toward:
*Building Rapport
*Establishing trust
*Developing relationships
*Creating threat-free
atmosphere

17. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
Professional
factors:  Ability to produce sound didactic and
pedagogic judgments
+
 Ability to conduct the different stages of
the session effectively.
+
 Ability to make quick decisions and
change plans during the session.

18. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
 Planning the session:
 Analysing the performed lesson
 Devising a strategy for the PLD session
 Conducting the session:
 Opening the session
 Making transitions
 Closing the session
 Evaluating one’s performance:
 Analysing the results
 Reflecting on areas to be improved
A successful PLD session needs to be effectively planned, conducted
and evaluated.

19. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Collecting data during the observation:
 descriptions of behaviours
 Numbers of occurrences
 Verbatim quotations
 Descriptions of teaching/learning sequences
 Anecdotal recordings

20. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Identifying patterns of teaching/ learning
behaviours in the raw data:
 Patterns= repeated behaviours that belong to the same
category.
 Detecting patterns that have an impact on learning.
 Making connection between the emerging hypothesis and
theory.
 Arranging patterns in some hierarchical arrangements.
 Making selection of patterns on the basis of the needs of the
observed teacher.
 generating a core interpretive category.

21. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Devising a strategy to adopt in the PLD session:
 Setting a goal to be achieved by the end of the session.
 Imagining a scenario: a series of questions/ presentation of
data and evidence/ checking the teacher’s understanding of a
concept, etc.
 Making decisions about what to start with: strengths or
weaknesses?
 Making decisions about additional feedback to be left to the
teacher.
 Highlighting evidences in case of resistant reactions.

22. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Opening the session
 Having some deliberate plan to follow and
possible alternatives in case it should fail.
 Starting with the good news: it helps get the
session off on a positive note (though it does not
always work).
 Possible questions: …………………………
 Asking for further details needed to confirm
emergent hypotheses.
 Presenting data and sharing diagrams and
numbers of occurrences to prompt teachers’
reactions.

23. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Making transitions: Making signals for
topic shift:
 I am glad there were many strong points we
could discuss, now…. I’m afraid, we need to
talk about some other stuff..
 In the area of…………, did you realise
that….?
 Ok, so much for the warm fuzzies. Now how
do you feel about……..?
 Do you mind if we look at a tough problem?
 I’m afraid not all of the news I have for you is
that good….

24. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Closing the session
 Securing a comfortable closure.
 summing up and flagging areas that need
improvement.
 Setting an agenda for next observation
session.
 Praising again about areas that have been
improved.
 Eliciting resolutions from teachers.

25. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Analysing the results:
 Was the goal achieved?
 Did the teacher get the message?
 Did the teacher show signs of collaboration?
 Were the arguments clear and pertinent?
 Were the evidences convincing?
 Did I manage to make the teacher reflect on
his/her questions?
 Did I manage to create a non-threatening
atmosphere?

26. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation
 Reflecting on areas that need
improvement
 Devise a checklist to help detect problem
areas.
 Make a list of alternatives that need to be
tried out in future sessions.
 Elaborate on successful practices so as to
consolidate and fine-tune to different
situations

27. Post-lesson discussion: Professional Factors
• Planning
• Conduction
• Evaluation Final Task:
 In groups of three, try to design a checklist for Moroccan EFL
supervisors to use for self-evaluation with regard to their
performance in PLD sessions. Make use of the stages discussed
as criterion areas:
 Planning the session:
 Analysing the performed lesson
 Devising a strategy for the PLD session
 Conducting the session:
 Opening the session
 Making transitions
 Closing the session
 Evaluating one’s performance:
 Analysing the results
 Reflecting on areas to be improved