Educators' Guide to Collecting and Using Data: Conducting Classroom Observations

This guide is designed for use by individuals who will be involved in the observation of classrooms, including administrators, teachers, and evaluators. This booklet provides an overview of general strategies and approaches that may be used to observe instruction. This document is organized as a series of steps that guide you through the classroom observation process. These steps include: determining your purpose, selecting a method, selecting a protocol, planning an logistics, and conducting observations, analyzing the results, and reporting the findings. It will provide practical advice to help you understand classroom practice.

The Educator’s Guide to Collecting and Using Data series of publications was developed to provide educators with easy to use and understand materials that provide research, insights, and increased understanding of various data gathering processes and their interpretation to improve student performance. These booklets help to “demystify” the data gathering and interpretation process and make it more useful for educators.