Notions of “invisibility” in the ELT Teachers’ Classroom Observation Practices

Abstract

The classroom observation has been immersed in the teaching, training and research processes in education. Few ones have rarely talked about the observer subject position during this practice, neither the importance of the social practices carried out during the time of observing. I pretend to show the classroom observation as a natural experience in ELT field activities, where the observer, rather than an "expert" with great knowledge is also a teacher, an educator and a student. It is the moment to write about the invisible practices during a classroom observation, it is also time to shine it as an activity that requires reflection and criticism.

This reflection article seeks to view what the common eye sees in classroom observations, what most people want to see, but also, it wants to pop up the discontinuities in this practice, what is not observed, what many teachers and observers have silenced for long time.