Observer: Karen Matthewman Observee: Gem Smith

Review of Teaching Practice

 

Date: 3^rd March 2025

Time: 11 am – 11.30 am

Session/artefact to be reviewed: Workshop – ‘Maintaining Motivation and Independent learning’

Size of student group: MA Design for Data Visualisation (5 students) at LCC

 

Note: This record is solely for exchanging developmental feedback between colleagues. Its reflective aspect informs PgCert and Fellowship assessment, but it is not an official evaluation of teaching and is not intended for other internal or legal applications such as probation or disciplinary action.

Part One
Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review:

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?

This is an embedded workshop delivery from academic support. This two-hour session was a tutor led workshop that was requested by the course team from MA Design for Data Visualisation. I had a meeting with the course lead to discuss the students’ requirements and created a bespoke workshop to support them. I also had access to the final project brief to have a good understanding of what was required of them. The stance for this workshop was to offer motivation and independent learning skills where students can incorporate this knowledge not only on their course but to their practice. This workshop was to support the students as they embark on their final project. The tutor’s aim was to equip students with strategies and support for maintaining motivation as they navigate to work independently for their final project.  Some students were balancing other commitments outside of the university. As a result, motivation on the course can often be challenging.  This workshop was also an opportunity to signpost students to any further support that they would require.

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?

I had been working with the students for 9 months when this workshop was delivered. I am the assigned academic support lecturer for MA Design for Data Visualisation at LCC. I have a good working relationship with the course team and students.  Many of the students often book a one-to-one tutorial on a regular basis to follow up with the workshop topics or to discuss other academic elements to their course.

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?

• To define motivation and to explore what this means to the students. To discover what components are distractions and what are the actions that will nurture their progression.
• To equip students with strategies that will support and help motivate them.
• To highlight that their peers are also a support network on this academic journey.
• To investigate into how to work independently effectively.
• To enhance students time management skills.
• To begin to generate a study plan.
• To embrace their hierarchy of needs to assist them with fulfilling their full potential. This exercise will be timed at 4 mins exactly to close. To demonstrate the notion of time management and thinking of answers that surface instantly.
• To reflect on the skills developed on their course and how they are transferable into their practice and beyond.
• To highlight professional practice.

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?

• (Slide 5) Students reflected on their individual level of motivation and demonstrated this anonymously on Padlet. This also gave me an insight into where the students were concerning their motivation.
• (Slide 9) Students took part in group reflective work by participating in the ‘flying challenge’ exercise.  They wrote individually on a piece of paper one challenge they faced with motivation and their work.  They screwed this up and threw this across the room and one of their peers read it out/ or it was read by the tutor, and students offered advice and support to each other. This was exercising peer feedback.
• (Slide 18) They began to create a vison board representing their intended goals using a few words from a magazine or/an image/s. Students then shared their ideas. Projecting the future encouraged motivation and reminded students of their purpose.
• (Slide 26) They worked independently to create a study plan of their own or they used the template given. This allowed students to make a start or to refine any existing plans and to be proactive.
•  (Slide 46) Students began to complete a hierarchy of needs sheet and continued with this independently. This supported them in knowing what their basics needs were first so they could self-actualise and achieve their full potential.

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?

• One area of concern was regarding student attendance. The session was timetabled, and the students were reminded, however five students attended from a class of about 20/25 students. This session is not compulsory.

• For some students English is not their first language, I had to make sure that instructions were clear and that there were a variety of ways for students to respond to any activities or questions delivered.

How will students be informed of the observation/review?

Not applicable, this is a review of teaching practice.

What would you particularly like feedback on?

General feedback overall would be appreciated.

How will feedback be exchanged?

The use of this form will be the main source of feedback.

Part Two

Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:

We discussed a wide range of pedagogical questions/ challenges and mutual reflections. It was really insightful to discuss how Gem works with her students in her academic support role.

Gem noted that, as with many similar ‘extra-curricular’ sessions at the beginning there are usually lots of students attending workshops and then attendance trails off to around 10 students on a good day. We agreed that it was hard to avoid the idea that these sessions are in some way ‘remedial’ and possible both students and staff perpetuate this idea, feeling that they should go to the sessions if they have a problem, rather than seeing them as an important part of the course.

Gem said that the classes are not really embedded and are sometimes scheduled in the ‘graveyard shift’ of late in the afternoon or on days when the students are not in. We agreed that the challenge is for the course team to see that it is an important part of delivery. Interestingly Gem said that attendance at 1-1s was much better, again implying that if a student has a particular issue or problem to discuss they are more likely to attend.

We discussed this session (see above). Gem talked about the group activity of ‘flying challenge’ as described. This sounded like a great idea. It not only encourages students to reflect and share but also gives them a sense of symbolic ‘lightness’ having literally thrown in the air something they are worried about. We talked about how ‘stuckness’ can be an issue, especially if students are on their own at home worrying, and coming together and sharing these worries might help. Gem noted that once a student did not want to share what was written, and Gem noted that going forward she would make sure she told students they did not have to read out what was written if they preferred not to.

We did discuss some possible future actions/ reflection while acknowledging that so much is more in the hands of others- i.e. course teams and timetabling teams.

1. Trying to present the session as part of their core research and independent study skills as they transition to independent study- maybe rebranding it in that way and putting it earlier on in their process as part of the project briefing.

• Possibly think about reducing the number of more generic motivation slides and really tailoring the slides to the group and their project to increase engagement.

• Read around academic literacies approaches (e.g. Lea and Street) to embedding this kind of academic work as part of the curriculum in a more real and effective way, All the research says this is the best approach, so I wondered how we can think of ways to sharing that knowledge gently with course teams as good practice. However, we both realise this is something we as ‘support colleagues’ have been trying to do for many years!

It was great talking to Gem about her session and wider teaching context. She is clearly a really reflective, experienced, well organised and professional teacher. I hope that the reading and reflection we have been doing in the sessions continue to resonate with her practice. 

Part Three

Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged:

Thank you, Karen, for meeting with me to review my teaching practice. The session was helpful and supportive.  It was great to hear your feedback.

Please see my comments, reflections and actions below:

Delivering embedded supportive workshops to different courses can sometimes be a challenge. Demystifying the stigma of academic support being for students that are not performing still prevails to some extent. However, this culture is shifting slightly, and students’ experiences are testimonies to how integral academic support can be in the journey of university learning and discovery.

Introducing academic support as part of the student’s main independent study skills as they transition is an area that we as a department have looked at.  This is an area that a colleague and I specialise in. We have begun a ‘Transition’ initiative where we touch base with students at the beginning, middle and recently towards the end of their studies this has proved to be a good way of connecting with students. We also work collaboratively with other departments such as library services and student engagement to approach students more proactively and to demonstrate a holistic approach.  This is working well.

We also work closely with peer mentors that are allocated to courses to deliver workshops collaboratively to give a more personal and experiential learning experience for students.

As much as trying to be creative in my workshop delivery for subject areas that are not always the most interesting to students, I must as an action be aware of the impact of this on neurodivergent students. Ensuring that in terms of feedback that I provide different ways of responses to be accessible to all.

A suggestion from my feedback to reduce the number of my slides that are more generic to tailor the slides more to the individual course groups to increase engagement.  This is a good suggestion, and I will take this on board, however sometimes we have limited information from some courses in terms of the assignment brief and we will then have to deliver from an academic angle.  A more personable approach is more favourable, and I will aim to design my presentations accordingly.

I will read further into academic literacy approaches by Lee and Street as suggested to help to embed academic support into the curriculum more effectively, as Karen highlighted this is a challenge. Nevertheless, I have already started to implement this with some of my courses that are willing to navigate this nuance way of working. I have made good progress with one of my BA courses and have a adopted a more informal approach, which works well particularly for a large cohort of students.  We have worked on a drop in approach where I meet with students little but often while they are working in their classes with the course team.  It would be great to adopt this for all my courses too.  This is an area that I would like to further develop using a more proactive approach.

Thank you again Karen for all your comments, time and guidance, it is really appreciated.