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Session 1. What Instructional Rounds Are, and the Problem of Practice
Objective. Explain what instructional rounds are, tell them apart from evaluation and coaching one teacher, and write a problem of practice that is about pupil learning, observable and actionable.
Most teachers have been observed by a person who held a form and a pen, and most remember how that felt. Instructional rounds are built to feel different. A small group visits several classrooms, describes what happens and asks what the school as a whole can learn. In this session you will see why the focus is the task and not the teacher, and how to write the question that makes a round worth the time of your colleagues.
Key ideas
Rounds: learning from many classrooms
- Instructional rounds are modelled on the way doctors learn together on hospital rounds. A small group of educators visits classrooms for a short time, describes what it sees and uses the patterns to improve teaching.
- The aim is to understand the school's teaching and learning, not to judge one teacher. One lesson tells you about a lesson; the same thing seen in six rooms tells you about the school.
- Rounds are different from coaching one teacher (course 11.1): the whole network learns, and the host chooses the problem, not an individual goal.
The instructional core
- Learning happens in the relationship between the teacher, the pupils and the content. Changing one corner alone (for example a new textbook) changes little unless the task pupils actually do changes.
- So rounds look at the core: what is the teacher saying and doing, what are the pupils saying and doing, and what is the task?
- What the school writes in plans and what the pupils do in the room can be quite different. Rounds show the second.
A good problem of practice
- It is about pupil learning, it can be observed, the school can act on it, it is shared by many teachers, and it links to a school priority.
- Often it is a question, such as: 'When we ask pupils to explain, what do they actually do?' A question invites looking; a verdict closes it.
- Avoid problems that name a person ('Mr X is weak'), a feeling ('motivation'), a cause outside school ('parents') or a solution ('more training').
Roles and a safe start
- The host teacher or school brings the problem. The network observes. A facilitator keeps time and rules. No one is the inspector.
- Start small: one problem, three to five colleagues, two or three classrooms, 15 minutes each. Volunteers first.
- Say aloud what rounds are not: not marks, not a report on teachers, not a hunt for faults.
Rounds and evaluation compared
Instructional rounds
Learning together
- Looks at tasks, talk and patterns
- Notes stay with the network
- Host chooses the question
Evaluation
Judging quality
- Looks at one teacher's performance
- Notes go to the file
- Observer chooses the criteria
Why rounds look at tasks and talk
In the instructional core, the work that pupils are given matters more than almost anything else a visitor can see. A teacher may be warm, well prepared and clear, and still set a task that asks pupils only to copy. Another teacher may have a quiet room and a task that makes pupils reason aloud. If visitors look only at the teacher's manner, they miss this.
So a round records what the task asked, who spoke, what was written and for how long. These facts can be set side by side across rooms. They show the school's real curriculum, the one that pupils live every day.
What makes a question worth a round
A good problem of practice sits between two extremes. Too broad ('improve learning') and the network does not know what to write. Too narrow ('Is Dilnoza using the board correctly?') and it becomes inspection. The useful middle is a question about what pupils do in a recognisable kind of task, across many lessons.
Test it with the host: 'If we saw the answer, would you know what to try next?' If the answer is no, the question may be about a feeling or a person. Rewrite it until a visitor with a pen could find evidence for or against it in 15 minutes.
Examples from the classroom
A question about explaining
Scene. In a Tashkent school, Grade 5 to 7 maths teachers feel that pupils 'do not think'. The deputy head helps them rewrite it: 'When a task asks pupils to explain, what do they say and write in the next 10 minutes?' Four colleagues visit three rooms for 15 minutes each. In the debrief everyone has numbers to talk about, and nobody has been named.
Insight. A question pupils can be observed answering lets a vague worry become shared evidence.
When the topic named a person
Scene. In Samarkand, a head proposes 'Mr Jasur's pupils are noisy' as the first round problem. Two teachers say quietly that they would rather not take part. The head rewrites it as 'During individual work in Grades 8 and 9, how much of the time are pupils talking about the task?' Eight teachers volunteer.
Insight. Naming a pupil behaviour across grades invites volunteers, naming a person closes doors.
The textbook that changed nothing
Scene. A Fergana school bought a new Grade 6 science textbook, but results did not move. Teachers chose the problem 'What are pupils asked to do with the textbook questions during lessons?' The round found that questions were mostly copied into notebooks. The school then rewrote three questions to ask for a sentence of the pupils' own.
Insight. The task pupils do, more than the book itself, is where change has to show.
Common pitfalls
- Choosing a problem that is really a complaint about one colleague.
- Writing a problem so broad ('quality of teaching') that nobody knows what to look for.
- Telling the host the topic instead of asking the host what they want to learn.
- Treating rounds as a one-off event instead of a cycle with a follow-up.
Sort and Write Problems of Practice
- Open the Activity Kit: ten statements a school might call its 'problem'. In trios, mark each as a good problem of practice (YES) or not suited (NO), and say why (12 min).
- Whole group (6 min): compare answers. Ask which NO statements hide a good question inside them.
- Pairs (20 min): take a real concern from your own school (no names). Use the five-question test to rewrite it as a problem of practice about pupils, and say in which lesson minutes it could be seen.
- Second short activity (12 min): swap your problem with another pair. They ask only: 'Whose problem is this, and can we see it in 15 minutes?' Improve it.
- Alone (5 min): write your school-based task from the Kit and the colleague you will invite.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which statements looked like problems but were really people, feelings or solutions?
- What changed in your concern when you turned it into a question about pupils?
- What would a colleague in your school fear when you say 'rounds', and what will you say first?
Reflect
- When were you last observed? Who learned from it?
- What is one thing you see in many classrooms in your school that nobody talks about?
- Who should decide the problem: the head, the teachers or both?
Try it tomorrow
- Write three possible problems of practice for your school and run each through the five-question test from the Kit.
- In your next lesson, note the exact wording of the main task you give and what pupils do for the first five minutes.
- Ask one colleague: 'What do you see in many of our classrooms that we never talk about?' and listen without replying.
Further reading and links
Rounds look at pupils' work across many rooms to learn about the school: choose a pupil-focused, observable problem that the school can act on.