Learning from Watching Others Teach

Video transcript

If you’re on a CELTA course you spend quite a bit of time in teaching practice sitting at the back of the room or being on Zoom with your camera and mic off watching your peers teach. And you might well be thinking “This is a bit boring” or “I’m so busy and stressed and I could be using this time to plan my own lesson”.

Is that you? If it is, I get it. But- and this is important- peer observation is a CELTA superpower.

Hi, I’m Jo Gakonga from ELT-Training.com. I’ve been watching trainees in CELTA teaching practice for over 25 years and today I want to share why watching your peers can be one of the most powerful learning opportunities you’ll have on the course.

I know the feeling. You’re sitting there, your own lesson is coming up, your head’s buzzing with ideas and worries, and I know… it can be really tempting to zone out.

But here’s why you don’t want to waste this time.

When you’re not in the hot seat yourself, the pressure’s off. You’re not worried about your plan or the timing or whether the learners are going to look blank when you ask them something.

That frees you up to notice so much more:

• What works well when one of your peers gives instructions or asks concept check questions?
• What doesn’t land so clearly? And Why?
• How do the learners react to different activities?
• How does the pacing feel when you’re sitting in the learners’ shoes?

These are things that you often miss when you’re teaching, because your attention is divided a dozen different ways.

Another big advantage: you get to watch the learners. When you’re teaching, you’re so focused on what you’re doing that you don’t always notice their reactions. But when you’re observing, you can really tune in:

• Who’s engaged?
• Who looks puzzled?
• How do learners interact with each other when tasks are set up clearly… or not so clearly?

Understanding these dynamics is one of the fastest ways to improve your own classroom awareness.

Sometimes you’ll be inspired by what you see and want to borrow a technique. That’s great. Sometimes you’ll look at something one of your peers is doing and think that it’s not very helpful. That’s valuable information, too.

But the MOST helpful thing is when you see a peer doing something that isn’t working so well and you realise that you did exactly the same thing in your last lesson. It’s a great tool for self-reflection and probably one of the biggest accelerators of progress.

Now, during the CELTA course you won’t just be told to “sit there and watch.” Your tutor will usually give you an observation task to focus on, to keep you active and help you notice things you can use in your own lessons. But what I’m trying to emphasise here is that the more you can engage with this, the more you’ll learn.

So next time you’re sitting at the back of the classroom or watching online with your camera off, don’t think of it as wasted time. Think of it as a superpower.

If you found this helpful, don’t forget to like, subscribe and check out my website, ELT-Training.com, where I’ve got loads more resources to help you on your CELTA journey.