I read chapter three of Rosenburg’s, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, in preparation for observing a peer. In this chapter they distinguish between observation and evaluation. They refer to this as NVC, short for Non-Violent Communication.
They state that “NVC is a process language that discourages static generalizations; instead, evaluations are to be based on observations specific to time and context” (Rosenberg, 2005, p. 26). This means to remove your personal opinions and feelings from the process of observing and base it only on what is taking place within that specific time and context. In a teaching observation context this would mean observing solely what is happening in the classroom e.g. there are 10 students present; half of the students achieved the learning outcomes set at the start of the class.
As Rosenburg writes “For most of us, it is difficult to make observations of people and their behaviour that are free of judgment, criticism, or other forms of analysis” (2005, p. 28). This seems rather obvious but in practice this means making a conscious effort to only observe the time and context.
There is also a focus on the language used, the example given by Rosenburg is “Hank Smith has not scored a goal in 20 games” versus “Hank Smith is a poor soccer player” (Rosenberg, 2005, p. 32). The first statement is based on statistical facts, they do not show any opinion whereas the second is a statement made based on judgement and opinion. If the second statement was given as feedback it would not be constructive and would likely be hurtful to the observee.
References
Rosenberg, M.B. (2005) Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. CA: Puddledancer Press, pp. 25–35.