Useful lesson observation feedback starts before the lesson: the teacher knows what you’re looking at and what the feedback is for. Afterwards, describe what you saw instead of passing judgment, ask questions that leave the teacher doing the thinking, and agree one or two small next steps they can control. Get those right and your exact words matter much less.
The same comment can feel like a challenge to one teacher and a threat to another. The wording is rarely the difference. It’s what the teacher thinks the feedback means.
Why does the same feedback land so differently?
Teachers read feedback through its purpose. If they suspect it’s heading for an appraisal file, every sentence gets weighed for risk. If observation is something the school does together, to learn from, they can hear a criticism and use it.
So before you observe anyone, check they know what you’ll be looking at, what the feedback is for and what happens to anything written down. Where you can, let them choose the focus. A teacher who asked you to watch how they question a lower-attaining group will value what you tell them about it far more.
Start from the assumption that the teacher knows their class better than you do. You saw twenty minutes. They’ve seen the whole term.
That cuts both ways, mind. It’s unfair to write “learners made no progress” after a short visit. It’s also fair to expect the teacher to show you the progress a learner has made over time.
What does unhelpful feedback look like?
Here’s the kind of comment that ends up in observation notes: the teacher didn’t check on one pupil during the lesson, so didn’t notice their laptop wasn’t working, so the pupil made little progress.
It may be accurate, but it isn’t much use yet. Was this a one-off? Were other pupils supported in other ways? And possibly the better question: why didn’t the pupil ask for help? What is it about the classroom that stopped them asking the teacher, or the person sitting next to them?
Feedback that opens those questions can change something. Feedback that just records the lapse usually can’t.
How should feedback differ from one teacher to another?
Much as you’d differentiate for pupils. Teachers have different amounts of experience and different strengths, and the feedback should fit.
A new teacher at the start of a new course may need clear, fairly prescriptive advice, because a poor start delays their pupils’ learning. With a more experienced colleague you can be more open. Ask what worked, what’s worth sharing and what they’d change.
A lot of teaching is shared, too. Lessons are planned together and departments build the curriculum, so some feedback belongs with the team, linked to a department improvement plan or to earlier observations, rather than with one person.
And you’ll nearly always see more than you should feed back. Pick the small, concrete steps you’re confident the teacher can take. Marginal gains add up, for the teacher and for the pupils.
What is descriptive feedback?
It means saying what happened and letting the teacher explain why. You’re not handing down a verdict. You’re showing them parts of the lesson they couldn’t see while they were teaching it.
It helps most when the observer doesn’t know the subject or the year group well, as in a lot of peer observation, because an evaluative judgment from someone outside the subject is easy to doubt.
One simple tool is a sociogram. On a sheet of paper, sketch where the teacher and pupils are sitting (or just a few pupils, or a group you’ve agreed on), then draw a line each time someone speaks to someone else. By the end you have a picture of the lesson’s talk. Did pupils ask each other questions? Was it all teacher asks, pupil answers? Did one table get most of the attention?
In the feedback, put the sheet on the table and say: here’s what I saw, talk me through it.
The same idea works with a video lesson observation, where a teacher films their own lesson and watches it back, alone or with a colleague, to spot what they missed. Agree it first, and follow your school’s policy on filming pupils.
What questions should you ask after a lesson observation?
Questions are where the teacher does the thinking. A useful run goes roughly from what, to how, to who, to tell me:
- What was the aim of the lesson? What went well? What would be worth sharing?
- How effective do you think that activity was? How do you know who had understood?
- Who do you think mastered the content? Who struggled, and what did you do to support them?
- Tell me about this part of the lesson. Tell me about the choice you made here.
Then finish with the big one: what do you think is the best way forward from here?
If it turns into a two-way conversation, you’ll both learn something, and the school picks up practice it can pass on. (Our course on effective feedback after lesson observation has more of these questions, with when to use each.)
How do you give feedback on a lesson that went badly?
This is the hard one. The lesson went poorly and there’s evidence from elsewhere, perhaps a book look, that the teacher needs support.
Don’t put it off. The longer it waits, the more the teacher may assume all is well, especially with something clear-cut like registers not being taken or the behaviour policy not being followed.
Then think before you speak. Will they hear anything but the criticism? Is this someone you want to keep, and who you think can improve? Are they new and unsure of the school’s systems? Have they taught well before? If so, ask what’s changed, and whether your judgment or an earlier one is the one that’s off.
A few things help in the conversation itself:
- Avoid loaded words like “inadequate”. Name the specific thing you saw, so the comment is about the lesson, not the person.
- Say plainly that you saw a snapshot.
- Swap “you need to differentiate more” for something concrete, like a seating plan or a sharper starter.
- Ask what they’d change if you came back next week, and what they need to do it.
- Work out whether they’ve forgotten to do something they know, or never learned how. The first needs a reminder; the second needs teaching.
Pick out what went well too. Teachers spot the old feedback sandwich a mile off, so don’t rely on it, but the positives are real and worth naming.
And if the conversation isn’t working, stop. Give them a few days to think about what you’ve said, then meet again.
What are Ofsted’s criteria for lesson observations?
Ofsted doesn’t give grades to individual lessons, and has said it doesn’t expect schools to grade them either. Inspectors visit lessons as one source of evidence about the quality of education across a school, alongside pupils’ work and conversations with pupils and staff. For what inspectors look at, check Ofsted’s current school inspection framework and handbook.
For your own observations, the better question is what you and the teacher agreed to look at. That’s what makes the feedback worth having.
Lesson observation training for observers
Our three-part course on improving teaching and learning through lesson observation is for heads, senior and middle leaders, and anyone who observes colleagues, including in peer observation. You’ll find more for school leaders on our leadership topic page.
Part 3, Effective Feedback, is about the conversation after the lesson: how to differentiate feedback, how to give descriptive feedback with a sociogram, which questions to ask, and how to handle the hard talk with a colleague who’s struggling. It’s short, practical and written for anyone in school who gives feedback on teaching.