Teacher's classroom observation: A study of attitudes and best practices

Classroom observation, perceived as a best practice by different accreditation agencies, has begun to gain momentum in the Saudi higher education sector. This paper investigates the attitudes of English language faculty members in Saudi Arabia toward classroom observation. A survey was distributed to English language faculty members working with the preparatory year in one of the Saudi universities. The study adopted a quantitative approach and collected data through 33 Likert-scaled questions divided into two sections: one on teachers' perceptions for classroom observation and the other on their experience with regard to classroom observation The first part examined Teachers' views about classroom observation as best practice; and the second part investigated their actual experience from classroom observation. Results suggest that English language faculties have positive views about class observation in general, but it was consistently stated that Classroom observation processes need to be planned carefully at all the stages in order to gain the utmost benefit for the stakeholders. The Faculty must be assured that Classroom observation will be used for improvement rather than evaluation purposes.