Unfortunately, I couldn’t join this session in real time due to teaching, but watched the recording. A very interesting session presented by Lindsay Jordan. The session started with input from everyone inputting (onto the collaborate whiteboard) stating how they felt about observations. I thought the whiteboard responses were quite illuminating. There was were some anxious (negative?) comments and I’m not sure I share this sentiment. I’ve already arranged my observation with Catherine. I view observations as a great opportunity to grow as an educator and I welcome constructive criticism because it really is the only way for me to look objectively at what I’m doing, (which is something I’ve been doing for quite some time now) and I use the feedback to think about how I can improve my practice and that can only be beneficial for students, colleagues and myself. There was a really interesting comment. “What happens if I am awful?”– such a candid comment and rings true! I guess we all have bad days and things don’t always go to plan even with the most watertight of lesson plans, a session can have hiccups and include unforeseen incidents, so its about learning to respond in a in a positive way to any unplanned issues and we can use our experience as rational educators (I live in hope! ha ha) in our understanding of the learning outcomes to reassure students that can can learn as was originally planned.
There was an interesting case study for us to look at (which obviously I’ve done after the event, so I wasn’t active in comments that were coming from the PGCert’ers), and there was quite a lot of debate that was put up on the whiteboard.
I felt the case study tutor ‘Stephanie’ was more interested in her research job and felt more inspired by that. She seemed reluctant in her teaching role. She had been given some negative feedback from her students which made her question her teaching methods. I wondered whether there were some processes that she uses in her research job that she can bring into the classroom to invigorate the content and how she is communicating it, so that she can re-build confidence.
The case study talks about how she observes a colleague who is perceived as ‘charismatic’. I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing or that its gender thing (based solely on the information in the case study), although this was a male tutor. He comes across as opinionated, with the tendency to plant his strong opinion on the students. I don’t think that’s justifiable in a teaching environment and I believe, although she is hesitant, she should give him some constructive criticism, which could improve his teaching methods. She could suggest, using evidence or examples from her own practice, that he aims to less subjective when discussing the content of his lectures and offers a more balanced approach so students can make form their own opinion through research.
This made me think more about my own practice and how I support present briefs and information to students – I had to ask myself the question “am I too opinionated when presenting certain information to students?” it’s not a great realisation that – on occasion – I might tend to do that. Lessons to be learned from reading this case study and I must consider this when planning my sessions, given that I will be observed on 9th Feb – this is crucial.
ACTION PLAN
- Review lesson plans (for studio based activities on FAD – ensure plans include relevant information & evidence to support.
- BLOG!!!!!!! Must resolve ….