Learning Walks: A guide for school leaders

What is a Learning Walk?

A Learning Walk is a brief visit to the classroom using a researched-based tool that allows the principals and teachers to reflect on what pupils are learning, current learning strategies, student engagement and interaction with the content.

Learning walks are used by the teachers to give constructive feedback and collaborate to share ideas about best-fit practices of teaching and classroom environments. In this article, we will explore this popular topic and present a new perspective on this school improvement activity. At Structural Learning, we are interested in how to develop a school culture of thinking and learning. This is not just about facilitating appraisals in schools, this is about the DNA of the classroom.

As opposed to a traditional inspector who has a clear focus on school improvement, we are interested in the development of the learning behaviours of the child. This is not about accountability measures, but making sure we can see education in action. The traditional classroom observation protocol can fill an early career teacher with dread. Often, the class teacher can end up performing for the senior team which skews the goal of lesson observations. These performance management observations can sometimes cause disruption to teachers and cause a great deal of anxiety.

During a learning walk, one of the key benefits is the opportunity for individual feedback. Teachers can receive constructive criticism on their teaching methods and classroom environment, and collaborate with their colleagues to share ideas and best practices. This type of feedback is essential for professional growth and development, as it allows teachers to reflect on their teaching practices and make improvements where necessary.

At Structural Learning, we believe that individual feedback is crucial for creating a culture of continuous learning and improvement, both for teachers and students. By focusing on the learning behaviors of the child, rather than just the performance of the teacher, we can create a more meaningful and impactful learning experience for everyone involved.

If we pivot the purpose of these visits onto the act of learning and what the child is doing (as opposed to just the teacher) then we might have a more significant impact on the quality of the learners school experience, they are learning walks and not teaching walks...

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What is the main purpose of Learning Walks?

There is no better data source than watching the learning process in the classroom. District Leadership may perform tours of classrooms or learning walks, to know what is happening in the classrooms. Performing an initial learning walk furnishes baseline data that helps to understand specific requirements and assess education strategies and successful learning over time.

The primary purpose of Learning Walks for the observing teachers is to compare their teaching approach in school with the teachers they observe. The dialogue after the Learning Walks and the successive self-reflection performed by the observing teachers are the most significant benefits of this collaboration. Below is the list of main advantages of engaging in the process of Learning Walks.

Creating a culture of research and inquiry, characterised by reflective practice and collaboration for teachers;
More emphasis on instruction, classroom practices, and students learning support;
Identification of opportunities for professional development and class coaching;
Promote useful conversations with teachers about different circumstances through classroom observations.
Observation of individual teachers classroom practices leads to informed discussions with teachers about curriculum delivery and everyday experiences.

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Key Areas of Focus in a Learning Walk

A learning walk is an informal, focused classroom observation, where senior leaders observe specific aspects of teaching and learning, providing direct feedback to educators. This practice offers valuable insights into both teaching strategies and pupil engagement, supporting ongoing reflective practice among teachers. Here are the main focus areas of an effective learning walk:

1. Lesson Content and Curriculum Alignment

In this focus area, leaders assess the quality and alignment of lesson content with curriculum standards. Observers may ask questions such as:

What is the central topic being covered?
Does the lesson content align with curriculum objectives?
Is the content presented in a way that’s accessible and engaging to all students?

These questions help to evaluate whether students are receiving content-rich, standards-aligned instruction that supports their understanding and knowledge-building.

2. Pupil Engagement and Behaviour

This area focuses on gauging pupil engagement and understanding individual student behavior patterns. Effective learning walks identify students’ active participation and assess whether teaching strategies effectively engage all students. Observers might consider:

Are students actively participating in tasks and discussions?
Are students demonstrating focused and positive engagement?
Is any particular student displaying notable behavioral patterns, either positively or negatively?

Focusing on engagement helps educators adjust their strategies, promoting a learning environment that motivates students and fosters a deeper learning process.

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3. Classroom Environment and Setup

Here, the emphasis is on how the physical layout and environment of the classroom support learning. Observers look at seating arrangements, visual displays, and resource accessibility to ensure an environment conducive to learning. Observational questions include:

Is the seating arrangement conducive to collaboration and learning?
Are examples of student work prominently displayed?
Are educational resources accessible and supporting the day’s objectives?

A well-organized classroom environment fosters comfort, engagement, and encourages students to feel ownership of their learning space.

4. Alignment with Measurable Learning Objectives

This focus ensures that lessons have clear and measurable objectives that align with curriculum goals. Observers often look for visible learning objectives to ensure that both the teacher and students understand the purpose of the lesson. Key questions include:

Are the day’s learning objectives clearly posted?
Is lesson content effectively connected to these objectives?
Are the goals both challenging and achievable, encouraging student growth?

A focus on measurable objectives allows students to understand the purpose of their learning, while giving teachers clear benchmarks to track progress and adjust instruction accordingly.

5. Collecting Evidence of Student Progress

During learning walks, observers gather evidence on how well students are progressing, which often includes noting teaching methods, instructional resources, and student responses. Observers might ask:

What activities were students engaged in during the lesson?
What types of questions did students ask, and how did the teacher respond?
Which instructional strategies were most effective in engaging students?
What learning materials and resources were used?

This evidence provides concrete insights into the learning process, helping educators refine their approach and meet student needs effectively.

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6. Collaborative Debrief and Reflective Practice

Following the learning walk, observers engage in a debrief session to discuss observations and insights. This phase is crucial for constructive reflection, where educators analyze teaching practices and provide feedback aimed at growth, not evaluation. During this debrief, it’s beneficial to set discussion norms focused on mutual respect and constructive input. Observers can share:

Positive aspects of observed teaching practices
Areas for potential improvement
Suggestions for enhancing specific strategies

Reflective debriefs foster a culture of continuous improvement, allowing educators to refine their approaches based on peer insights.

7. Self-Reflection and Professional Development

The final step encourages educators to reflect on their practices and consider ways to implement new insights gained from the learning walk. They might reflect on questions like:

What aspects of my teaching were reinforced during the observation?
What questions or concerns did the observation raise about my teaching strategies?
What new techniques or ideas do I plan to incorporate into my practice?

Engaging in regular self-reflection strengthens a teacher’s commitment to personal growth and helps maintain alignment with school-wide teaching goals. This reflective practice is crucial to developing a responsive, adaptive approach to teaching and learning check-ins.

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Making learning walks purposeful by focusing on the child

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What Are Student-Centered Learning Walks?

A student-centered learning walk focuses on placing the learner’s experience at the core of classroom observation. Rather than observing from the sidelines, observers engage directly with students, promoting meaningful conversations to understand their perspectives and experiences over time. This approach emphasizes active listening, helping observers capture the student experience in real time and understand how learning impacts each individual.

In practice, members of a student-centered learning walk join students at their tables, engaging directly with them about their learning journey rather than standing at the back of the classroom. This shift allows observers to gather firsthand insights on students’ understanding, engagement, and connection with the subject matter. Observers can also use this opportunity to identify any gaps in comprehension or areas where students may need additional support, ensuring that feedback is rooted in authentic student experience.

Some useful, open-ended questions that observers might ask students during a student-centered learning walk include:

What is the topic of today’s lesson?
This question helps determine if students have clarity on the learning objectives and subject matter, indicating the effectiveness of lesson introductions.
Do you have any prior knowledge about this topic?
Understanding students’ background knowledge allows observers to see if the lesson builds on prior learning and whether the instruction adapts to varying levels of prior understanding.
Why do you think you are learning about this topic?
This question fosters a deeper level of engagement, allowing students to articulate the purpose and relevance of their learning, enhancing their sense of connection to the material.
What did you learn in the last class related to this topic?
Asking this provides insight into students' retention and helps assess the continuity of learning, checking if concepts are building progressively from one lesson to the next.

This student-centered approach promotes a learning environment where the voices of students are heard, valued, and used to inform teaching practices. Observers gain a better understanding of how students perceive their lessons, which, in turn, helps teachers shape a more responsive and effective learning experience. The process not only strengthens reflective practice but also empowers students to take an active role in their own learning journey.

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Using the learning skills framework for learning walks

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What are the benefits of Learning Walks?

Learning walks are advantageous for each party involved. The main purpose of a learning walk is to make formal observations of learning practices rather than evaluation or appreciation of teachers performance. Evaluation leads to pressure, due to learning walks teachers can make a collaborative community without any pressure of evaluation.

As part of the school improvement plan, the Learning walk is considered as a welcome visit rather than a stressor. Due to learning walks, teachers can observe best practices in action and learn the best practices through dialogue with teachers. Also, a learning walk can occur at any time, that's why teachers continue to show their best practices in case a learning walk happens.

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Research evidence about teaching approaches in schools suggests that before creating a learning objective, a classroom teacher must identify the levels of initial learning and current learning of the target group of students. There are several examples from schools to find out about students' current level of learning.

An effective method is to participate in learning walks with the relevant staff. Attending professional development for the education programme of learning walks, allows teachers and school leaders to carry out a brief classroom visit utilizing a researched-based tool that provides principals and teachers with the opportunities to reflect on what students are learning, what learning strategies have been used, what is student interaction with the content, and student engagement?

The main approach to learning walks is through paying a brief visit in a single classroom alongside senior leaders using a researched-based tool, offering teachers individual feedback and the opportunity to reflect on students' learning, learning strategies, student engagement and their current level of interaction with the content. Through learning walks, the senior leadership team may assess the capacity of the school and collect evidence about learning, school development, teaching, students' progress and areas for development.

The gathered evidence during learning walks are mostly constructive and developmental, rather than judgemental, and offer an improvement activity for a primary and secondary school. Regular learning walks must not be used as part of capability protocols or for appraisal purposes.

Another benefit of learning walks is the opportunity to conduct Teaching and Learning Check-Ins. These check-ins provide a chance for teachers to discuss their teaching practices and receive feedback from colleagues and senior leaders. By observing teaching in action, leaders can offer targeted support and identify areas for improvement.

The check-ins can also help to build a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement within the school. Additionally, teachers can use the feedback they receive to reflect on their own practice and make adjustments to better meet the needs of their students. Overall, incorporating Teaching and Learning Check-Ins into learning walks can lead to a more effective and supportive learning environment for both teachers and students.

Further Reading on Learning Walks

Lemons, R. W., & Helsing, D. (2009). Learning to Walk, Walking to Learn. Phi Delta Kappan Magazine, 90, 478-484.

This study indicates that while many teachers and administrators in Alexander Public Schools report that learning walks have been successful, few can pinpoint tangible improvements in teaching and learning due to these walks.

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Purposeful approaches to regular learning walks

The benefits of learning walks are perceived to be for one of three purposes:

For Ethos and Behaviour Support

Here, leaders visit multiple lessons for a short period of time with a clear focus on building a picture of behaviours and work ethic. They check to see how things are going and try and build the idea that teachers are being supported rather than scrutinised, and that leaders have an interest in what is going on in class. These in many schools take place daily and routinely. Teachers expect support not feedback

For Teaching and Learning Check-Ins

These are typically longer and leaders possibly visit ¾ lessons within an hour. They take place to build a picture of how teaching and learning plans are being implemented, and the extent to which learners are effectively learning what is expected. They look to identify successes and barriers, often so that these can be followed up by coaches, and in more formal performance management. Ideally the information generated from such visits leads to and informs feedback into wider CPD processes.

For Accountability/compliance-focused

In these, lessons are visited specifically to check that things are happening as they are expected to be as a result of established policy and practice, and with a view to giving direct feedback about the degree of compliance. This is an approach that often reinforces a judgemental ethos, and a top-down approach. They are often regarded as unfair by the observed, because they are so short and relatively infrequent.

The second purpose, Teaching and Learning Check-Ins, supports a coaching model of observation and feedback. It is based upon a problem-solving approach, where listening, learning and problem-solving is the focus. Thus, this type of Learning Walk does not automatically lead to individual feedback, and is more likely to be part of, and used to inform, a wider process of observations undertaken by the leaders who act as coaches.

This form of Learning walk is explicitly unannounced, although any observation undertaken by a coach is more broadly planned with and anticipated by the teacher. They should not be confused with those observations and drop-ins associated with accountability or compliance, and any follow-up dialogue that refers to them must not result in the teacher feeling judged on the basis of a snapshot visit.

As Tom Sherrington in particular advocates:

THE TEST OF A HEALTHY LEARNING WALK CULTURE IS THAT TEACHERS WANT MORE OF THEM NOT FEWER!

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Developing your approach to learning walks

Ten minutes in the classroom is probably enough and gives a leader plenty of information so that it is simple to visit up to four lessons within an hour. It is important that no teacher feels over scrutinised, and that a programme of leader-planned visits, spread over time, is acceptable.

Regular learning walks are a useful strategy for information gathering, should be perceived as part of a learning process the school as an organisation, and as such, can be used to inform wider decision-making, based upon effective self-evaluation and understanding of the issues that may exist.

There is no need for there to be direct actions following such a drop-in. No feedback should be expected or given to individuals, but rather there should be a planned opportunity for dialogue with teachers through feedback discussions at a subsequent staff meeting. There should be precise praise as well as questions that probe and challenge practice and problems to be solved, as illustrated so well in Tom Sherrington’s Walk Thru Guides.

Some teachers may well have specific problems and need specific support, but it is important that learning walks are viewed separately from any ad hoc, critical, individual feedback to a few, and certainly no feedback from such an activity should ever be given by e-mail rather than be part of a professional conversation!

Where a teacher already has a coach or a mentor, it would be unhelpful for them to receive feedback from multiple sources. It would be better for a leader to give feedback on information from any learning walk to the coach, who can then address the issue as part of their ongoing, agreed professional development process. If no coach is engaged, then a simple chat about the lesson might feel less burdensome for a leader less involved with daily teaching.

Ideally, frequent, routine, learning walks, undertaken by people close to those they are observing, that feedback into coaching loops, are most productive. If we deviate from that model too much, the tensions between the support v. scrutiny cultures become much more apparent.

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Collecting evidence during lesson observations

Collect information on your travels informally and ask the following questions about what you see, as these are part of a wider picture of key concerns of leadership. These key questions can be used as part of your program of learning walks.

1. Is what the pupils are doing relevant and meaningful to them and do they know why they are being asked to do it? Are they able to make links with previous experience and are they given opportunities to do so explicitly?

……..or is an aspect of this a problem to be solved?

2. Is the environment organized in a way that really supports and enables the learning that is going on or is there more that could be done to improve this?

……..or is an aspect of this a problem to be solved?

3. Are the pupils able to demonstrate that they know how to operate as independent and effective learners or are they over dependent on the adults in the environment?

What are the problems in this context that exist in this classroom?

4. Is there anything here that is really supporting and enhancing the learning that needs to be shared more widely? Is there anything I have heard or seen that is not helpful to learners and learning and needs to be minimized or discussed with SLT as a concern?

5. Are the adults in the room teaching in ways that please an observer or in ways that really meet the needs of the learner? Is there evidence that within the learning sequences, they are specifically planning and providing opportunities for pupils to regularly RECAP, for them to PROVIDE NEW INPUT, for pupils to APPLY NEW LEARNING, for FEEDBACK to be exchanged?

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Facilitating a programme of learning walks

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9 Tips for Conducting Learning Walks

In the pursuit of enhancing educational environments, learning walks embody a strategic approach, serving as a cornerstone for school improvement plans.

These observational voyages, when conducted with a keen eye for detail and a strategic mindset, can yield insights pivotal for appraisals in schools, fostering a culture of continuous growth and development.

Strategize with Purpose: Begin by aligning the learning walk with the school's overarching improvement plan. Each observation should be a thread in the larger tapestry of school enhancement, seeking out specific examples from schools that exemplify excellence or areas ripe for development.
Cultivate a Constructive Model: Develop a model of observation that transcends mere scrutiny, focusing instead on evidence during lesson observations that can inform and inspire pedagogical evolution. This model should be rooted in a positive approach in school settings, aiming to uplift rather than criticize.
Policy as a Guiding Light: Establish a classroom observation policy that is transparent and supportive, ensuring that the process is seen as an opportunity for education in action, rather than a punitive measure. This policy should be well-communicated to all staff, emphasizing its role in education strategies and resource enhancement.
Engage the Senior Team: Involve the senior team in the learning walks to underscore the importance of shared leadership in school improvement. Their presence signifies a united front in the commitment to elevating educational standards.
Foster Healthy Dialogue: Use learning walks as a platform for open dialogue with teachers, encouraging an exchange of ideas and strategies that can be implemented across the school. This healthy learning environment promotes a sense of community and collective responsibility.
Embrace a Holistic View: Observe not just the teaching, but the learning environment as a whole. Look for how education resources are utilized, the dynamics of the staff team, and the overall atmosphere to gauge the health of the learning culture.
Document and Reflect: Keep meticulous records of observations, ensuring that they contribute to a living document that informs the school improvement plan. This reflection should be shared with the inspection team and used as a basis for appraisals in schools.
Institutionalize the Learning Walk Culture: Normalize learning walks within the school culture, making them a regular and anticipated part of the school calendar. This regularity helps to diminish anxiety and fosters an environment where feedback is routinely sought and given.
Actionable Follow-Up: Ensure that each learning walk is followed by actionable steps that are realistic and time-bound. Whether it's sharing best practices observed or addressing areas needing support, the follow-up is crucial in translating observations into tangible school improvements.

Align walks with the school improvement plan
Develop a supportive model of observation
Policy transparency for education in action
Senior team involvement for shared leadership
Dialogue with teachers for healthy learning
Holistic view of the learning environment
Reflective documentation for continuous improvement
Regularize the learning walk culture
Actionable follow-up for tangible improvements

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Jenny Short coaches leadership teams in schools around the UK and sections of this article were extracted from her Inspir.ed Leader handbook.

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Learning Walks: A guide for school leaders

Jenny Short

What is a Learning Walk?