Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice         

 

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: Project Management MA Global Collaborative Design Practise

Size of student group: 12

Observer:Adam Cole

Observee:Liz Hayden

 

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?

The MA GCDP students are preparing for their final major project and preparing for their grad show. This session has been devised to remind and refresh basic principles of project management. Deliver an overview of current project management methodology’s  and look at some real examples of different creative projects and the successes and challenges they encountered through a project management lense.

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

Over year 1 and year 2 I have guided about 5 sessions as an AL

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?

This session has been devised for student to gain knowledge of the current methodologies of project management. They will gain insight into the process of embedding project management into their projects and how project management is an effective tool in communicating their project to peers and stakeholders. The session will conclude with opportunity to realise project management techniques intosee their projects, working with myself and peers to overcome any blocks they may be facing.

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

The students will participate in an action plan workshop and make a cup of tea as a team

The students will be given a cup of tea to reflect on the workshop

The students will plant a seed to take away with them

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?

MA GCDP is taught in 2 locations and a proportion of the cohort are in Japan. As English is a second language I must be aware of the speed at which I speak. I find the relay on the screen at times difficult to hear and sometimes it is confusing. 

I have really benefited from the workshops examples we have done on the PGCert and wanted to bring some of this into my preparation. With the Action plan I believe this will be possible. With the seed planting I plan to do this with the help of an assistant but am quite excited to have Adam observe as I think he may be able to feedback some potential AI solutions having really enjoyed his lecture.

How will students be informed of the observation/review?

Peter, the course leader will inform the cohort.

What would you particularly like feedback on?

I would appreciate any feedback on improving delivering a session on multiple channels

Overall thoughts on content and delivery would be great

But…

Adam shared a drawing AI experience which I observed a really high engagement with, which I think could work really well on multiple channels but I am not familiar enough with it to take that further at the moment but would value his thoughts on that.

How will feedback be exchanged?

Via the observation document

Part Two

Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:

Due to time zone and scheduling issues, Liz and I did a debrief after the session where she walked me through the lesson plan and reflected on what worked and what was challenging.

The word that came up while describing the lesson plan was enchanting and I would have to agree!

Liz opened the class with students “planting a tea seed”. When I first read that in the preparation document, I thought that might be purely abstract exercise, but I was delighted to find out her students were actually given a seed and soil to plant in the class. Liz used this hands on object-oriented construct to motivate the idea of project management: the need to structure, cultivate and adapt your plans to have your creative ideas grow and flourish. This sounds like such a delightful way to engage and reinforce the material, and it sounds like it was incredibly well received by the students as well. This exercise was followed by the engaging “make a cup of tea” exercise which I experienced firsthand in the microteaching session.

I find two interesting facets of this teaching strategy:
1. Finding useful metaphors to encourage learning: I have found this to be such an important tool in my own practice and am inspired by how creatively you were able to engage with this technique. With coding, it can often be challenging to map dry technical knowledge to more relatable metaphors, but it’s always so useful when we can make those connections. Your use of both “planting a seed” and “making a cup of tea” are incredible structures to motivate learning around project management and breaking down complex tasks. 

2. Object oriented teaching: I’m impressed by your incorporation of physical objects in your lesson plan. Something I particularly appreciate is that not only did you bring an object into the class to focus their attention, but students will be taking something home from class which will help them continue to reflect and meditate on the underlying lesson of this course. It’s something that I’d like to consider for my own teaching practice. 

During our discussion, the largest challenge you seemed to be dealing with is the hybrid learning structure across vastly different countries. The physical layout of the space, the relay delay of the video stream and lack of access to the same in class materials are all very real concerns that are tricky to navigate. I can tell you are aware of all these considerations and are doing your best to mitigate them. I’d make sure to keep that in mind when making lesson plans, for example, if it was possible for remote folks to purchase tea seeds in advance to follow along at home. 

Lastly, I appreciate the degree to which you seem responsive and adaptive to the needs of your students always seeking evidence that learning outcomes are being achieved and engagement is high. 

Overall, this seems like a lovely, well planned and executed learning session!

Part Three

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

I have been thinking a lot about how to engage an audience when delivering a lecture online and in the classroom… I have made myself a list of experiments to try on different platforms, I would also like to produce a simple kit and report back on these trials.

The technology has greatly improved however is still challenging without training, I know that this is being researched and will find out what the current thinking is and look to other external organisations to see what and how they achieve a similar experience.