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Introduction to Protocols
Protocols – structured ways of listening, conversing, and conducting activities such as classroom visits – help practitioners get the most out of looking closely at each other's work. A protocol provides guidelines that all participants understand and agree to before the conversation or activity takes place.
Protocols benefit peer observation because they:
- save time;
- allow observations to be focused;
- encourage people to actively listen to each other;
- provide an opportunity for meaningful reflection.
Protocols that provide guidelines for listening and speaking are an especially important part of any structured process. These protocols keep the dialogue – often on topics that people are not in the habit of discussing – respectful, collegial, and productive. People will be more likely to participate in classroom visits if they feel that they can share their work in an environment of respect and receive helpful feedback. (See Basics of Structured Conversations.)
This page contains links to a variety of sample protocols that some schools have found useful for different types of peer observations. You may want to adapt one of the protocols for your own use, rather than using it exactly as is.
Classroom Observations Protocol
In this protocol, pairs of observers spend time in classrooms examining the curriculum "as enacted" – that is, as it is experienced by students in their classrooms, not simply as it is intended in state standards. The purpose of the observations is to raise questions about current practice and the conditions under which it occurs and to check classroom instruction for quality, coherence, and alignment with standards. The protocol can be used at all levels of the system, from primary grades through late high school.
Download PDF file [10 pp., 495 KB]
Basics of Structured Conversations
Discussions, feedback sessions, and debriefings occur in all types of peer observation practice. This page outlines the basic steps and rationale for these kinds of structured conversations.
Go to Basics
The Consultancy: A Structured Conversation
A consultancy is a structured process for helping an individual or small group of people think more expansively about a particular, concrete issue. Outside perspective is critical to this protocol working effectively, so some of the participants in the group should be people who do not share the specific issue of the person observed at that time.
Go to Protocol
Classroom Visit Protocol
A classroom visit provides opportunities for colleagues to develop and to share their understanding and knowledge about professional practices, student achievement, and their school community. They can be held either after school, without students present, or during a class with the students present.
Go to Protocol
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