Job Shadowing to learn good practices with ASD students

The teaching practice observation is a deep and effective educational activity with long lasting effects. It enables and promotes the learning of different teaching practices in classrooms and schools and is a trustworthy way to contribute to teacher education.
The teaching practice observation is one of the experimental practices that we have been doing in the CEFIRE of Valencia and that has had the best feedback and impact on teachers.
One of the main goals is to create times where the teachers can be heard and enable them to share and reflect on different educational aspects. This promotes a dialogue between schools that can share their most successful educational practices.
The teaching practice observation consists in spending time with an exert observing how he or she displays a lesson or an educational activity that is related with the work that is expected to be done. Having a teacher demonstrating a lesson and another observing provides the observer with a good idea of how a teaching practice is done.
The CEFIRE and its counsellors play an essential role in detecting good practices and coordinating trainings.

Step by step description, including actions to be developed for preparation and implementation
The educational action is structured as follows:
1. Induction training providing education regarding pedagogical theories, authors and teaching practices experiences related with the goal of the observation.
2. Visit to the selected school.
3. Meeting between the observed and observer teachers after school hours.
4. Final meeting with all the teachers who have participated in the observations to reach conclusions and share proposals and initiatives to be developed in the school of the observer teachers.

These are the duties of the different professionals involved:

1.- Teaching counsellors: coordinate and design the Teaching Practice Observation
- Detect good practices: visit schools, converse with different teachers who work with ASD students.
- Encourage teachers to share their teaching practice with other schools.
- Coordinate and agree on the contents of the sessions with the teachers who will be observed. Support their work and empower the teachers. Distribute the activities and discussions the observer teachers.
- Organize the group of 8-10 teachers that will participate in the visit.

2.- Teachers of the school where the job shadowing will take place:
- Determine the contents of the session.
- Create a schedule and organize the observer teachers so they can assist to a specific session.
- Reach out to other members of the Educational community and ask them to join in order to bring their voice and experience to the discussions (Families of ASD and non ASD students, cafeteria staff, Parent and Teacher Association, other educational administrators.)
- Present their school and educational practices to the visiting teachers.

3.-Visiting teachers who will observe the good practices:
- Preferably an administrator, the school education coordinator and a teacher who works with ASD students.
- Half day visit (4 hours) and observation in the classrooms.
- Reflect after the observation about their own teaching practices and inform the CEFIRE about some aspects observed during their visit that they are planning to introduce in their own school.

Resources to be used, including human resources, materials and spaces:
- Teacher counselor to coordinate the educational activities.
- Teachers from the visiting schools and teachers who visit.
- School facilities

Difficulties found while implementing it and suggestion
- Selecting the small group of teachers that would participate in the pedagogical visit
- Working during class hours and organizing the students in the school
- Organizing and distributing the visiting teachers to observe in the classrooms.