LEAD — The Weekly School Leadership Brief
Does Your Observation Feedback Change What Happens Next?
Leadership • Excellence • Action • Development
L — Leadership Insight
In LEAD #02, the focus was evidence of student learning. This week asks what leaders should do with that evidence when they sit down with the teacher.
A classroom observation has little developmental value if the feedback conversation ends with a list of comments and nothing changes in the next lesson.
Teachers do not improve because leaders have noticed more things. They improve when observation evidence is converted into a clear professional decision: what should continue, what should change, what support is needed and what evidence will show improvement?
This is where many observation systems weaken. The visit may be thoughtful, the form may be detailed, but the post-observation conversation becomes either praise, correction or a catalogue of everything the observer noticed.
Begin by making the purpose clear: this is a conversation about learning and a next step. Invite the teacher to correct your interpretation; a short visit cannot reveal the whole lesson sequence. If the meeting is part of formal appraisal, say so openly and explain the criteria. Trust depends on clarity, not on disguising an evaluation as coaching.
The purpose of feedback is not to finish the observation. It is to improve the next learning experience.
E — Excellence Practice
The CLEAR Feedback Conversation
Use five moves to turn observation evidence into professional learning:
- C — Clarify the teacher’s reading: Begin with the teacher. “What did you notice about student learning in that lesson?”
- L — Look at evidence together: Return to what students said, wrote, solved, questioned or misunderstood rather than relying on labels such as “good engagement” or “weak questioning.”
- E — Explain the learning impact: Connect the evidence to what it meant for student understanding, participation, independence or challenge.
- A — Agree one focused action: Choose one practical change that can be attempted in the next few lessons. Avoid a long improvement list.
- R — Return to review: Decide when and how the change will be revisited. Improvement needs a feedback loop.
Specific evidence + one actionable change + follow-up is more developmental than ten well-worded comments.
A — Action for the Week
Replace One Judgement with One Professional Question
In your next post-observation conversation, identify one statement you would normally make and convert it into an evidence-based question.
Instead of “You need to improve student engagement,” try:
“Most responses came from the same five students. What routine could help us hear the thinking of every learner before you decide whether to move on?”
Illustrative response: The teacher explains that several students needed more thinking time. Together, you choose a brief written response from every student before taking answers aloud. The leader offers to help plan the prompt. At a ten-minute check-in the following week, you will examine a small sample of responses and discuss whose understanding is now visible.
Ask, “What support would make this manageable?” Record the agreed action, support and review date in a few lines. A professional learning conversation gives both teacher and leader something to do.
This week, test the CLEAR sequence in just one feedback conversation. Notice whether the teacher leaves with greater clarity about what to try next.
D — Development Question
After our observation feedback, could the teacher clearly explain the one change they will make, why it matters for learning and how we will know whether it worked?
If the answer is unclear, the feedback may have produced information without producing development.
60-Second Leadership Challenge
Before ending your next post-observation meeting, ask three questions:
- What will you keep doing because the evidence suggests it supported learning?
- What one thing will you try differently?
- When will we look again at the evidence?
If there is no agreed next action and no return point, the feedback cycle is incomplete.
Leadership Line
“The quality of observation is revealed not by the notes the leader writes, but by the instructional decision the teacher makes next.”
— Dr Anup Sharma
Question Worth Sharing
What makes teachers experience feedback as professional learning rather than professional judgement?
Continue the Classroom Observation Pathway
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LEAD — Learn. Reflect. Act. Improve.