Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: Level 6
Size of student group: 10
Observer: Tim Stephens
Observee: Corey Ford
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
What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?
The session is for second-year computer science students, for the software engineering module. They will have just been introduced to the Agile software development process, which is followed by companies to organize their work, and very quickly introduced to the assignment (not formally released until 4 weeks time). The assignment is to visualize data from a model “smart home”: this is a cardboard house with lots of sensors connected for temperature, dust, air quality, and lights which switch on and off.
How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?
I had only taught them once before on Tuesday and delivered a lecture for a different module, focused on future technology. This module is more focused on skills they will use if they want to work as a software developer.
What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?
The intended outcome is for students to get a flavour of the different things that might happen in an Agile process, and to start to think about what they could do for their assignment.
What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?
I’m trying an approach that my lectures in music composition used to do, where they would only give 1 side of A4 handout, and guide activities and discussion from this. Students will have to google ideas for the assignment in teams, following the steps of the agile process. This includes goal setting, presenting this in a quick “stand up” meeting, then collecting their ideas, and presenting their ideas. The sheet is attached for reference.
Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?
Other lecturers have told me they are a quiet group, and from the previous session, this seems to match my experience. Any feedback on ways to provoke them to start to bring forth ideas is welcome.
How will students be informed of the observation/review?
I will let the class know when I start my session.
What would you particularly like feedback on?
Ways to engage the class in more discussion.
How will feedback be exchanged?
E-mail? If this works for you?
Part Two
Introduced me to the group.
“This is the topic theme….introduction – First Slide.
Daily Stand up – Slide 2
“Any ideas, what this is…
St. responds…
[Decoding the word…
[Moving away from desk….explained in context. Sat at front.
“What you did…
“What did you do
“What is blocking you…
“Everyone OK…? Yeah, yeah yeah? {Encouraging…slightly ambiguous…
St. no response..
[You encouraging…
[Explaining the activity…[layout of the room and groups distance from you]
“Here’s what we are going to do….the steps in the next hour…
“First thing getting into groups, 4 or 5
“Happy to join…[light-hearted…do you like these people…happy to make friends…]
“Do planning phase, have a discussion, set some goals. (Back to first slide)
“Go quickly, with enthusiasm…[Energising the room…]
[You move round the room and approach pairs and connect up small groups]
[You re-explain, ideas for assignment…
“How to do it…discuss! [Open instruction]
[You move over to the group at the back, and chat with them…
[Active in the room…positive technique, working with their choice of seats]
[This is a type of hovering, helicoptering, supervising or monitoring, etc…can be light touch; listening or intervening and active engaging in q+a and discussing.
[Listening to student groups around me, there is a combination of project and social talk, which is common in this scenario….sharing project thoughts and ideas..
You chat with Wengshu for a while to check-in as she leaves
[You return to group at the back
[Engage in Q+A with them…
“Is that OK…so now if you were all to ‘Stand up’ just to say what you were going to do, would you be able to do it?…yeah…ok?…
[You move to last group, and then back to the front, sitting on desk.
“Ok, people with me…
“I’m commanding the room, got it…
“Do you feel sufficiently planned…
“Can I make you do it with me, just to demo what the others…
“Stand up
You approach the first group on yr left
“Yeah, yeah…ask someone to do the thumbs..
St lots of thumbs up..
St. sharing, but in quiet volume, no one can here…
[You feedback to them…
“Ok so you’re going to research and ..
“Can you guys hear in the corner?
[they do/do not respond…]
St.Present {Goldfish bowl}
[You initiate clapping.
[Others join in.
“You got it to a place each 2 tasks and a potential barrier…[doing good teaching, timely, relevant on-task feedback]
“You ready, whose excited..
St hurray..
“I’ll put a timer up, the idea it’s a super short meeting, for 15 minutes
“Stand up, up…
People stay in groups and stand and feedback…
[learning opportunity for Goldfish bowl..?
[Listening to groups around me they are in mode of presentation, but the group behind ( at the back) have split in two, and only the 3 boys seem to be ‘active’ in the task…2 girls not yet speaking…
[You move between the groups.
[Girls took turns to say something, but was largely responded to by males; may need to consider the air time and gender arguments/evidence…
[You join and stand next to the females at the back but the boy in the middle, hoody, is the one who explains the (most confident?)
“If you had to split up and each person had a goal…[you structure a way of involvement…excellent practice]
“If you look at games…
“Different ways you censor [?..]
[You move to next group.
“If I said you had to do the project can you tell me what each one would be doing…
St. talking..
[You listen
“No, that’s good [encouraging and responsive
[You stood to listen to this group…
“If you had to….could you split into and would you each…?
[You move to the front check time..
“OK, you can sit down….
“Just super quickly…
“Who found that a useful thing…who thinks that standing up helped…?
St: Yes!! {biggest response of the session so far}
“You’ve got Miro Board….
[You explain task
[Group in the corner…getting attention…
[You continue to set task (short, about 10-15 seconds! – is this indication of your pace of speech, pace of energy, a control mediation or a natural thing…what does this pace do to focus…what does it do to energy in the room….) [Vary your pace]
[Pause in the session, as groups sit down and you re-orientate.
[You now start to move again anti-clockwise round the room to interact with students in groups.
Listening to group chat the social/work chat is about 60/40…until you approach, then its 100 work, then you move away, then it sounds about 50/50 and moving to 80/20 [These are very approximate impressions!]
[You sitting at front on desk, again allowing yourself to regroup and the student groups to get on with task…this is your observation post, nice technique.
[Degrees of convergence/divergence
[You allowed about 5 minutes for independent work, this is an interesting threshold to find in terms of independence; often its evident in the sound and type of sound of chat in the room…social (higher and faster paced?) work related more even and level (lower tones?) – in VERY general simplistic terms….(be good to empirically test this out of course!)
[Groups focussed again on work as you walk round…
[You allow another 5 ….
[and then you project group Miro Boards on the projector at the front [excellent! [This becomes a step up, in terms of student and group, and individual ‘presentation’ because each cursor has a trace, so in theory everyone is visible…]
“OK, it feels like people are nearly ready…[as you watch the on screen projections….
Pause for another 1 minute
“OK I think you’re good…in your projects you might have…you use some technical descriptions.
“Who wants to go first?
[You throw mic cube over….
[Group 1 present (of two, male speaks) and you /they move Miro board visuals to match presentation
[Group to yr right talking, you quieten them…
‘Don’t worry too much about that……tell me about those pictures…
St. from UAL website..
[You clap.
“OK, nominate a group!
[You play with the students and maintain a friendly empowering tone
[Quiet chat from group at back you move closer to them to quieten and add focus….
Group 2 they take turns to speak! And explain interesting ideas on lights/fridge/sensors
Group 3 they take turns, 2 guys from the front edge….(Group of 5 3/2 M/F)
“I want to hear about this picture…? I think this would be useful to look into more alright..
[Clap, etc.
Group 4 E. Asian student (female) explains for group…interesting variation
[So, you return to first slide.
“Plan
Build
Review. Now what? You had a weekend it was nice…
‘You act out the return to planning…pointing, moving from r-l across the from of the room to demo.
“Yes/no, remember with your thumbs…
St responds
“This time, stand up, review goals this time what would you do..[ interesting 2nd time round…not full buy-in
St Silence….! Do they understand? Do I?
[Listening to the groups, they are talking work and projects for sure, group to my back left, boys still mainly ‘owning’ the work.
[You enlarge the three questions on the PPT to add focus, for sure….
[Half the room is standing half seating…interesting…
]They got the idea first time!
[I come up to the hour of OBs.
(16.40)
[You sit on desk again for plenary sum up and ‘fun’ -discussion…type of summing up..
You do an interesting short summary and make some key points and insights…a kind of acculturation exercise…interesting how we can use these spaces…
[Most full attention perhaps gathered in the room….students very attentive]
Explaining the week’s timeline.
How do people, feel….
Quickly wave at me…did you get a sense of the process…some sense of direction with projects…?
I’m here for next ….but you can leave
Look forwards to seeing you Tuesday
Summary & key points
You’re a great teacher! Very active, very observant, very good at ‘managing a room’ and classroom management as it’s sometimes trad. called.
You plan well, and able to be ‘light touch’ which suggests you have confidence, in yourself, in them as learners, and in keeping a basic structure and keeping things simple. This frees you up to interact and them to work independently.
Issues to explore, lots of data on this, but proved in this case, males tend to get or take more air time then females, more activity time, feedback time and are more interacted with than females by their tutors. Why is this the case, in general, and how can we mitigate against this being the norm. The spokesperson on the RH side group [facing you] was the exception of the confident female voice, why is this the case, how did she manage to escape the paradigm? What can you do to address this issue?
You do, as anticipated, sometimes overuse the single open catch all question!
How’s things? All good? Any questions? Etc etc. How can you utilise the incredibly dynamic and investigative, curious and creative power of questions and questioning? Your one good variation on this was the thumbs up feedback…but I know (from microteach) you also use feedback tools for live feedback; and cleverly, used the live miro board visuals to see cursors moving – all great ways of getting the feedback we need as tutors from questions to the class. Step one, what is it we really want or need to know in that specific moment and how can a more complex worded question or questions help us find that out?!
The students were engaged and increasingly responsive as a group. The session “worked”. So well done for that. They learnt a couple of good takeaways for their creative and planning and communication process. Excellent.
Group tasks. Techniques.
Layout of each group in the room – rearrange spatially so they can hear/see each other
Goldfish bowl.
Cards for roles
Feedback options for each person
Signals and shortcuts : was this productive/active/useful/enjoyable
One sentence summaries, two sentence summaries
Bullet point feedback
Group exchanges
Etc.
You have a great playful and engaging manner which works really well with the learners, I am unsure how you might hear individual stories, unless people can tell you. And how idioms might go down with those less familiar with English language idioms, maybe. Although, your observations and use of teacher presence, proximity, is a great form of classroom control and management and {shows your experience and insight and understanding] also engages with those shyer to share to a whole group.
Part Three
Thanks for the insightful and constructive feedback, which showed me many aspects of my teaching practice which I hadn’t previously observed. I am responding to your feedback below. Your comments are prefixed with TS, my reflections are prefixed with CF.
–
TS: “Listening to student groups around me, there is a combination of project and social talk,”
TS: “Listening to group chat the social/work chat is about 60/40…until you approach, then its 100 work, then you move away, then it sounds about 50/50 and moving to 80/20 [These are very approximate impressions!]”
CF: As we discussed in our follow-up meeting, I’m not too worried about social chat creeping in. Our students tend to come to High Holborn and only chat during class time, then travel home, so including some time for social chat and bonding is welcomed to help build a tighter cohort. This said, having ways to ensure that the necessary learning is still occurring will be helpful to ensure that I get this balance right and I will be exploring different ways to collect feedback we discussed (e.g. sentence summaries) to make sure that I get the balance right.
–
TS: “St. sharing, but in quiet volume, no one can here…”
TS: “learning opportunity for Goldfish bowl..?”
CF: I followed up on the Goldfish bowl technique with some reading (link), and I think that this will be very helpful in classes to engage people in listening to each other’s feedback. I reflect back on a previous class where we brought students all to one table for discussion, and I found that this was far more constructive and balanced than when the students were each at their own tables and groups, feeding back with the microphone. The goldfish bowl might help to emulate this effect without the need to set up one table or focal point each time. I will certainly be using the goldfish bowl in future classes.
–
TS: “males tend to get or take more air time then females, more activity time, feedback time and are more interacted with than females by their tutors[…] what can you do to address this issue?”
TS: “only the 3 boys seem to be ‘active’ in the task…2 girls not yet speaking…”
TS: “Girls took turns to say something, but was largely responded to by males”
TS: “[You join and stand next to the females at the back but the boy in the middle, hoody, is the one who explains the (most confident?)”
CF: This was a fascinating insight and one that I hadn’t noticed before! Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I think this likely has grounding unfortunately in Computer Science as a discipline and I know that there is a wealth of literature on women in Computer Science, which I plan to engage with going forward. So far, I have spent time observing this in the following classes and had two instances where students were asked to move around the room, and quite literally split into girls on the left and boys on the right! I have also spoken to some female colleagues (and recent PGCert graduates) about methods and techniques for ensuring more equal contributions, such as allocating girl and boy pairs to tasks (whilst being mindful of inclusivity and alienation effects) – I will be implementing these techniques into my teaching for next semester.
–
TS: “Who found that a useful thing…who thinks that standing up helped…? St: Yes!! {biggest response of the session so far}”
CF: I was similarly surprised by the enthusiasm of the response here, which indicates that the technique works. In the upcoming classes, we return to this technique (which they document for their assignments), so I’m glad this was received well by the students.
–
TS: [You continue to set task (short, about 10-15 seconds! – is this indication of your pace of speech, pace of energy, a control mediation or a natural thing…what does this pace do to focus…what does it do to energy in the room….) [Vary your pace]
CF: Varying pace is something I will observe more closely in my teaching. At points, I feel that my strengths are in encouraging fun, but notice that this can disadvantage students who prefer to work in quieter atmospheres. On focus, I observe that towards the end of the session, this can reduce students’ brain power (perhaps why the second check-in of whether the stand-up was helpful was less enthusiastic). From the workshops, I found that the meditation exercise you guided us through helped to re-center the room and bring focus, adding a nice variation of pace, and I want to try this in my teaching soon. I also plan to read more widely for other techniques to see if this focus can be sustained and to better differentiate my teaching practice.
–
TS: “catch all question![…] what is it we really want or need to know in that specific moment and how can a more complex worded question or questions help us find that out?!”
CF: From our discussion, I look forward to using techniques such as giving different feedback options for students, testing one/two sentence summaries, or closing opportunities for bullet point feedback. I have often used Menti-meter exclusively throughout the course to gauge understanding, but have found that students tend to dislike Menti (particularly if I’ve overused it across sessions), mumbling and groaning. The techniques we discussed I hope will mean I can bring more variety to these check-ins and gather more targeted feedback from students more regularly.