The Future of Education

               Since the beginning of the last century, language teachers have tried hard to find ways that could lead to more promising result in their classes where language teaching occurs. Beginning with the “Grammar Translation Method” different approaches and methods were made use of mostly in the first half of 20th century. Then some language teachers moved beyond methods with the hope of gaining greater results. In one case, some language teachers moved towards what is now called reflective teaching. Reflective teaching is an analytical process of self-observation and self-evaluation. Self-reflection can help teachers find their strengths and weaknesses in doing their jobs. Teacher training is directly or indirectly connected to the reflective teaching practice. In order to find the actual picture of language teaching it is necessary to look at what the teachers do in the classroom. A teacher can reach data about her teaching and then bring necessary changes to his/her teaching by reflecting upon his/her own practices. Reflective teaching has its own processes that should be carried out systematically and cyclically to ensure teacher’s understanding of his/her own classroom actions so that refinements can be introduced where necessary. Some of the important ways are peer observation, recording lessons, student feedback. After collecting authentic information the self-reflecting teacher can think, talk, read and ask while going through some structured steps.

            This paper aims to describe peer observation and to evaluate cyclical processes of peer observation. In this study, it is tried to define peer observation and its relationship with concepts such as peer coaching, peer consultation, peer supervision. Mentoring of peer observation, implementation processes, benefits, and restrictions of peer observation are also among the topics to be dealt with. According the results of this study, peer observation is a voluntary process which can be graded as pre-observation interview, observation, and post observation interview. It is argued that the peer observation makes contribution to teachers’ professional development, self-esteem, self-awareness, and cooperation between teachers. Although it’s having some restrictions, peer observation should be implemented in the education system as a new teacher development model.