- Coping with the lack of feedback
Videos studied:
“Performing to an invisible audience” Video by Hattie Walker & Helen King (UWE/2020)
Very interesting and helpful video which gives tips, dos & don’t and ideas to teachers operating in an online environment. Contributors to the video come from different background from teachers, to performers and signers and to academic such as Dr Helen King (UWE).
The first idea shared in the video is the concept of connecting to an audience through the flow of energy that goes back and forth from teacher to audience and vice versa.
Energy out = from teacher to audience
Energy in = from audience to teacher
The second idea is the concept of looking at teaching as an engaging performance for an audience.
Tips include:
- Awareness of breathing, pacing and smiling
- Embrace the awkwardness and silence.
- Don’t overthink.
- Look at the camera and not the screen
- Focus, engage, be passionate and enjoy!
- Know really well your subject matter
- Talk to the audience that you imagine behind the screen
- Give the same attention to your audience as if in a face to face situation
- Lecture note: in bullet point for a quick and easy read. If possible at eye level.
- Watch your lecture’s video and see what can be improved. Do not judge.
- be kind to yourself. Do not look for perfection and remember the humanity of teachers and students
My thoughts & Experience:
I would add few tips to the list:
- Have fun and use humour as a tool to connect and interact
- Un-share your screen and return to main screen when a discussion sparks to encourage engagement and interaction
- Be energetic. Stand up if necessary
There are some really useful tips in the video that I have incorporated in my lectures and tutorials ever since watching it:
- Looking at the camera, not the screen.
- Re-visiting a video of my lecture. It was indeed very useful to look at my teaching with the aim to improve it.
- The notion of performing and doing a show to increase audience engagement and increase the memorability and interest of the learning experience not just the learning
- The importance of soft skills such as smile, energy and passion
- Silence & awkwardness: create authorised and planned silence – My PG Cert blog 8th January
Reflexion on knowing well your subject matter:
I teach film production which requires a wide panel of knowledge and skills. As a producer, it is impossible to know everything as each situation requires a specific knowledge either local (specific region or country), technical (filming with plane, boat, animals etc) or topical (needing to know the speed of the human body’s decomposition as it was relevant to unravelled the mystery of murders for a thriller! (true story!)). So, I often say to my students that the greatness of a producer doesn’t reside in knowing everything (which is impossible) but reside in the capacity to find the needed information either by contacting somebody who would know or knowing where to look.
Reflexion on bullet point:
I am a great believer of bullet points for lecture notes but also as a way of working. It helps with clarity, organisation and allow for a quick and easy read that can be very useful when teaching or needing to have a global view. I created this lecture report using bullet points to illustrate how beneficial bullet points are!
Responding to Feedback
Document studied:
Macfarlane B. Teaching with Integrity: The ethics of higher education practice. Routledge. 2004.
Case study: Pr Stephanie Rae, teaches Research Methods to postgraduate students together with research in Health Sciences. We see her reaction when evaluating the students’ feedback on her teaching. Indeed, some feedbacks raise concerns about a new way of assessing (peers 2 peers assessment) that she had implemented recently. She becomes defensive and dismissive when reflecting on the feedbacks and her attitude as a teacher. She then observes a colleague’s lecture who has a very different style of teaching (engaged & political) and realised that students’ engagement is higher in this lecture than in hers.
Which aspects of Stephanie’s teaching practice appear to be the most fertile for development?
Stephanie is open to change and some of her teaching practice are fertile for development such as:
- Reading list: reassess and update to less theoretical reading. Case studies seems appropriate to answer to students’ needs.
- Mindset & attitude: Stephany would need to be more interested and passionate about teaching (and not just focusing on research), and direct her energy in being more engaging and loving towards her students. She could also be more student- centric, empathic and attentive to their needs and interest.
- Assessment process: introducing a session specifically to explain the assessment process and not just rely on the course handbook would help greatly in students’ understanding. Similarly, explaining the aims and benefit of peers 2 peers’ assessment and brainstorming with students to adapt the assessment process would help with students’ frustration.
- Research: Integrate her research into her teaching by maybe involving students. Inviting students’ contribution could be a great way to develop students engagement.
What could Stephanie do to move past her defensive response?
It is clear when reading the case study that Stephanie has a good knowledge of a subject but a poor mindset and attitude toward teaching and students which have an important impact on her teaching practice. In order to improve her mindset and move past her defensive response, she needs to analyse her attitude towards teaching and her students. Indeed, she sees her research as her “real work” and teaching as something compulsory that she doesn’t seems to enjoy. Similarly, she is only too happy to see “the back of the postgraduate” and is at time dismissive of her students. It is interesting to notice that she is surprised to realise that her students don’t engage with her teaching when she doesn’t engage with them as a teacher. This tend to demonstrates the importance of the energy flow going from teacher to students and vice versa. It also reinforces the importance of developing her soft skills such as passion, empathy, caring and open communication.
Are there any interesting questions or problems that this case study raises for you?
One of the questions that this case study raised for me was the question of spoon-feeding. We discussed spoon-feeding during the session and I will talk about this specific topic when relating my observation on the session.
The importance of analysing one’s own work in the view to develop one’s teaching pedagogy and content without judgement or bias. I remember being very nervous when being observed by a PG Cert peer while teaching. Through this case study I have realised that the fear of being judged was the determinant factor for being nervous. Having a kind attitude towards your own or somebody’s work while critically exploring all aspects of teaching with the sole aim to improve and develop different pedagogies is the best way to avoid being defensive and to embrace improvement.
I was quite shock by the way Stephanie was dismissive of students, making assumption on their motivation. Not only this attitude shows a clear lack of empathy it also highlights the importance of understanding students’ needs as well as taking students’ environment and background into consideration. It also begs the question: if your students are not motivated what can you do to increase their motivation and therefor their engagement and learning experience? Communication, student centric teaching, soft skills and a critical analysis of all feedback would possibly be the best tools to increase motivation.
Finally, I was also interested in charisma and to explore further this notion I read “The Impact Of Charismatic (Inspirational) Teachers in Building Positive Relationship with Their Students” by Gurra Qardaku N. European Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies. 2019.
Charismatic teachers’ qualities: empathetic, emotionally intelligent, authentic, understand their students, respond to their needs, promote respect and mutual sympathy, and adapt lessons to the needs of individual students. They also have positive relationship with all students that they cultivate and nurture for a good understanding of each other’s. They display care and concern for students (Archer 2004). They create safe spaces for students to contribute and to make mistakes. They use humor to create a positive climate, support classroom management, and promote student engagement and enthusiasm. They show awareness of the lives and interests of students in the classroom and beyond and support their goals and ambitions.
The importance of charismatic teachers:
- Lack of feelings of caring of teachers against to students paralyzes learning.
- The path to the student’s mind is through the gain of his heart.
- Four essential qualities are primary in defining the ability to learn: an innate curiosity, an integrated mind, an ability to benefit from correction, and a good relationship with teacher.
- Students perceive a number of factors in their charismatic teachers, principally, Personal Empathy, Personal Intensity and Intellectual Challenge. (Archer 2004, f.30)
How much of our students’ experience is about us, anyway?
Case study: Kimmy
Kimmy is an independent and motivated student who feels that her needs are not met by her teachers. She questions the notion of quantity of teaching as oppose to quality of teaching that correspond to her needs. She is eager for the teacher to adapt the teaching experience to her capability. What she really wanted Lyndsay to hear is “let me learn the way I want in the pace that I want”
Case study: Dilesh
Dilesh didn’t managed to get a place at Slade and he is studying at Central St Martins instead. It seems that this has an impact on how he perceives his learning experience. He is motivated and eager to communicate with other fellow students that are not in his cohort in the view to collaborate on a project. He relates his frustration at not being able to communicate with other students due to the fact that the University doesn’t facilitate such flexibility on campus. He feels that his needs are not met by the university and lack a sense of integration and belonging.
1st March: Session notes
Performativity (J L Austin): Doing something rather than simply reporting or describing
- locution (the words spoken)
- illocutionary force ( attempting to do)
- perlocutionary effect (the effect/impact the speaker has on the listener)
Getting them to think:
- Set out some questions and ask students to brainstorm and contribute (possibly on Padlet)
- Questions to consider in small breakout groups
- Ask them to share things they are not sure about
- Encourage critical analysis
- Research and case studies
- Link teaching content to the real world and their industry
- Consider silence as a learning place
Spoon- feeding as a way to build curiosity and interest?
During the session we separated in small group to choose and discuss a specific topic. As mentioned earlier on my group decided to brainstorm about spoon-feeding.
Below is our Padlet brainstorm:
We agreed that there was pros and cons about spoon-feeding lectures ahead of lectures. Indeed, spoon-feeding can be beneficial for international students who will have more time to prepare. It is also beneficial to share documents or ask specific questions ahead of the lecture that will make the students think about the theme of the session. The danger of spoon-feeding is that it can potentially disengaged students. Spoon-feeding can therefore be positive depending a which document is posted at which stage of the lecture.
Scaffolding: define specific tasks with specific deadlines.
“When you incorporate scaffolding in the classroom you become more of a mentor and facilitator of knowledge rather than the dominant content expert. This teaching style provide the incentive for students to take a more active role in their own learning”.
Tip grabbed during group brainstorming:
Robert Toniolo Wood: starts the class with written questions relating to the coming lecture on the Collaborate Blackboard so that they start thinking about it while waiting for everybody to log in.
Other topics research by other groups:
- Student feedback: Do you have to like to be a good teacher
- How best to enable teaching development? Methods to engage which bring an opportunity to take responsibility for their own learning. Allowing time to think about ideas. Know students’ aspirations and needs. Get feedback. Have fun. Relevance of course content for assessment and real world.
- Why are we teachers? Attitude towards teaching i.e. Stephanie. Embracing pedagogy in phase with students’ need.
- Format & space for feedback: feedbacks need to be more holistic and not necessarily on paper and anonymous. Bias of Stephanie reviewing her own feedback. Feedback empower students and bring a constructive feeling of investment.
- Feedback is a gift, an opportunity to understand each other
Further reading:
“Moody Bitches” by Dr Julie Holland
“Tanks For The Feedback” by Douglas Stone
“Empathy” by Roman Krznaric
“Difficult conversation” by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton & Sheila Heen