Appendix 2

The following resources are extracts from the Teaching Practice Supervisors’ Toolkit [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

Recognising a good lesson

As a Teaching Practice Supervisor, one of your key roles is to identify the good and not so good features of a lesson.

The list of questions below will help you to check the main characteristics of what makes a good lesson.

Recognising a good lesson

  1. Does the lesson stimulate and interest the pupils?
  2. Is it appropriate to the age and grade of the pupils?
  3. Does the student teacher have a good knowledge of the subject matter?
  4. Is the lesson plan and presentation flexible?
  5. Are there opportunities for active learning? e.g. questions and answers, debates, role play, discussion, dramatisation, song and dance, experimentation etc.
  6. Is there dialogue between the pupils and the student teacher? (not just closed questions with ‘right’ answers?) Does the student teacher listen to the pupils’ ideas?
  7. Are instructional materials appropriate? If so, are they used well?
  8. Is a range of learning styles used in the lesson? (e.g. visual, kinaesthetic, oral – to engage different pupils)
  9. Does the lesson involve all the pupils? Or are some pupils not encouraged to participate?
  10. Is the class organised effectively? How well is the class managed and controlled?
  11. Does the student teacher have clear strategies for evaluating the achievement of objectives? e.g. practice, demonstrative, tests, questions and answers etc.

Activity: Features of good lessons

This activity gives you ideas about how to support your student teachers in developing their lessons – you may also want to show your student teachers the video clips.

Find the list of questions on ‘Recognising a good lesson’ and keep it next to you and your student teachers. Download one or more of the video clips from TESSA Share.

Watch each video in turn with your student teachers and ask them to note down the features of good lessons in these extracts.

We suggest you do this first and create your own list to compare with the student teachers.

Here is an example from the Video of the Maths lesson with a grade 3 class in a semi-urban school (labelled Maths Lesson Game on TESSA Share). The pupils have just been working on simple sums (additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions) and the teacher wants to reinforce their handling of these sums and at the same time check their mental arithmetic on these sums.

You may have noted the following features of a good lesson:

  • The whole class is listening and taking part.
  • The sums that are practised are appropriate to the children’s age and grade.
  • The resources have been well planned, prepared and they are instrumental in the active involvement of the children.
  • There is a range of learning styles called upon in the activity, visual through the reading of the cards, oral through the listening to the clue, verbal through the answer and next clue given and kinaesthetic through the standing up and showing of card.

Appendix 1: The Effective Secondary Science Teacher

Teaching Practice Supervisor Observation Form