Form for recording details for a peer observation

Observer’s Name Dr. Simon Lygo-Baker

Date & Time 15 March 12, 9.30-12.30pm (3h)

Location Clifford Whitworth Conference Room

Module & Session title LTHE CoreJan12 – Assessment and Feedback

Number of learners 22

Observed: Chrissi Nerantzi

Learners

This is week 7 out of 10. 22 students in total, very versatile group, some more vocal than others. All students are teaching here at the university and there is a rich mix of individuals: different age groups, cultures, disciplines and professional areas, roles and different levels of experience teaching in HE. Some are very new to teaching. A few very experienced teachers. Generally attendance is good and the majority of students seem to be positive and participate actively in the sessions. A few were more challenging but have now calmed down a bit and a small number of students is less engaged with the module overall which worries me.

I really love this group and I am pleased that most have seen this module as an opportunity to open their eyes and minds to different approaches and have become little experimenters and have also starting forming peer relationships. I have to say, I am really looking forward to my Thursday sessions. I see teaching and learning as a partnership and my approach is based on challenging beliefs and practices, my own and these of my students, through reflection and active experimentation. We are going to experiment with PBL in this session.

Learning outcomes to be achieved during the session

to participate and collaborate in small group PBL with an assessment and feedback theme
to identify and critically analyse issues linked to the given PBL trigger
to present findings to another team and provide feedback

Brief session outline

The session will start with a warm-up activity around assessment and feedback (this will be interesting! Split class into 2 groups). We will then go straight into PBL mode and PBL groups will be formed (must remember to remix existing action learning sets! I need 5-6 groups in total max 4 in each – use identified buddies as leaders, students pick their buddies). PBL was introduced in the previous session but it might be useful to remind students of the PBL process and share the model we are going to use (experienced PBL practitioners in the cohort, so I should use their expertise as well!) All PBL groups will work on the same trigger which consists of part 1 and 2. Extension activities planned but will depend on progress groups are making and time available. There is one activity (which I am not going to reveal here…) that I MUST do while groups are busy discussing the feedback part of the trigger. Will I get their attention? Will they get the message?

Note: I intend not to use Powerpoint at all (I might just put the trigger up, not sure yet). Some resources will be printed and the PBL groups will receive the trigger and a copy of the model. Also, I must remember to explain the use of the “help flag” at the beginning (must create these for all groups).

Rationale for session

Learning about PBL by doing – is the intention. This way, students will get more familiar with PBL (hopefully!) through actually experiencing it, but also have the opportunity to explore and investigate together issues linked to assessment and feedback. Is this too ambitious? The subject is this way introduced through the trigger which presents a completely different way of delivery (and formative peer assessment). We have some PBL practitioners within the group. The majority of students, however, in this cohort is used to a content-driven mode of teaching and I would like them to experience something very different and consider for their teaching. Will this work?

Are there any aspects of the session you would like the observer to focus on?

It would be very useful to comment on the following aspects:

Interaction with students, individuals and PBL groups
Instructions
Facilitation strategies
Time management
Handling a difficult situation (if anything comes up)

What will happen at the end of the session? To check: Could this be recorded? Maybe the observer could do this? I have a tripod and a camcorder. Only record snippets that can be used for further discussion, reflection and learning.Observer discusses the observation with me in front of the whole class, modelling what would happen during a feedback conversation that follows a peer observation.Students are also invited to comment.It would be useful to capture key elements of the discussion and the process. Maybe we could have 2 students keeping different notes?