Into the eye of the beholder: The BALEAP TEAP scheme as a case study of lesson observation from the observer's perspective

The purpose of this practice-focused paper is to explore the contribution of observation in a specific context, that of individual British Association of Lecturers of English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP) Teaching English for Academic Purposes (TEAP) accreditation. The research question was: How do observers identify and interpret the individual BALEAP TEAP criteria during observation? Nine trained BALEAP observers each observed a recorded EAP lesson, completed a standardised BALEAP TEAP observation instrument and then discussed the lesson, taken from a UK pre-sessional course, in a follow-up interview. It was found that observers approach the task with a mindset that appreciates the value of observation, the responsibility of their role and the potential impact on the teacher. However, observers can find themselves challenged by a lack of explicitness in some of the criteria and, above all, by them only having a partial picture of the wider teaching and learning context. Observers also need to be mindful that the criteria used for BALEAP accreditation observations are not of equal importance. Indeed, depending on the specifics of the actual teaching context, some of the suggested criteria may not even be relevant at all. This finding highlights that in certain cases, teachers may be prevented from meeting the stated observation criteria by the boundaries of the courses they teach. This suggests issues with how the criteria are articulated and the training that supports their interpretation. Recommendations are made for enhancing the observation component of the scheme.