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(Griffin, 2014 ). There is also a checklist of classroom activities that can be com-
pleted, and the movement of the teacher in the classroom can be shown using a
proximity chart. Classroom dialogue can also be recorded using a verbal flow dia-
gram in which the observer graphically represents the flow of oral language interac-
tions. The Teaching Tracker Tool is designed as an enabled PDF to be used
electronically on an iPad, tablet, laptop or phone. Images from the lesson (e.g. stu-
dent work samples), audio and film of the lesson can be recorded and embedded in
the electronic tool, establishing a comprehensive record of a teaching and learning
episode. The T3 can also be printed and completed in paper form, although the rich-
ness of the data is best captured electronically. The charts and diagrams in the tool
are adapted from those published by Pitton ( 2006 ) who, like us, advocates that these
tools are used within a dialogic approach to mentoring.
Using the tool, the observer can apply a descriptive approach, richly capturing
important aspects of the lesson without judging. For example, rather than recording
that ‘positive classroom dynamics were established and maintained during this les-
son’, a descriptive observation using the tool might be “as students enter room, they
respond to informal conversation by the teacher who asks ‘How was the band at
lunchtime?’”. Through merely recording what, when and how the classroom prac-
tice plays out, the observers suspend judgement (apart from the choice they make to
focus on different aspects of the classroom practice).
Users are guided in their post-lesson conversation through the inclusion of a
discussion section embedded in the tool that comprises six post-observation ques-
tions. This section is designed to support participants to examine the evidence col-
lected during the lesson and to posit judgements based on their interpretations of
this evidence (Cochran-Smith & the Boston College Evidence Team, 2009 ). The
tool encourages and guides the collection of rich and descriptive lesson artefacts so
that they can be examined in post-lesson conversations to ground the discussion in
evidence that can be seen, listened to and analysed in concrete ways. What the
teacher is saying, doing, making and writing (Griffin, 2014 ) are captured and can be
discussed as authentic experience.
However, the actors in the dialogue (the preservice teachers and their mentors,
clinical specialists and teaching fellows) are positioned differently. Caughlan and
Jiang ( 2014 ) remind us that observation instruments differ in the extent to which
they grant agency to participants. This caution was important during the implemen-
tation of the Teaching Tracker Tool, as it was our intention that it would be a way to
provide agency for both the preservice teacher and the observers during the post-
lesson conversation.
Methodology
In order to investigate the value of the Teaching Tracker Tool in fostering evidence-
based professional dialogue, a 2-year research project was undertaken by a
metropolitan university in Victoria, Australia, in partnership with eight schools.
J. Kriewaldt et al.