Observation of teaching practice for the purposes of a PgCert assignment.

Observee: Xunnan Li

Observer: Sinead Koehler

Context:

I watched a recording of Xunnan’s 2nd session on the MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise – a course which is largely delivered online via Collaborate. This was a session delivered to the UK cohort of students. As I have previously been a student on this course and am now a tutor on Unit 5, I have a good amount of background knowledge. 

General Thoughts:

The session was interesting and well attended by students who engaged with the content and contributed when they were asked to. I really liked the introduction and how the session was framed. It’s interesting to observe the break-out session and how that worked. I noticed that you mentioned some students left the call when you were setting up the groups. I have also had this experience which can be frustrating. Those who did stay were clearly engaged with the question and gave useful feedback. You were warm and engaging and it felt very genuine when you said you were really looking forward to meeting students in person at the intensive weekend. 

Content of session: 

• I liked how you provided an opportunity for students to ask questions and really encouraged this. It felt very student-centered. 
• I also liked how you linked your points back to academic reports and texts. I feel this helps with authority and builds trust. 
• You made good use of polls and questions and also added a break-out activity which is particularly useful with this particular topic. 
• It was interesting to see how you selected students to contribute at times rather than awaiting volunteers and how this seemed to work well. It has inspired me to do this more in my own teaching! 
• As Bourdieu’s concepts are fairly complex, perhaps you could have spent more time on this. It felt more heavily weighted towards the other theorists. 

Things to think about: 

• When providing an introduction, could you include a slide which sets out what the session will cover. This may help those who are more visual learners rather than relying on the verbal. 
• I wondered whether it’s an option to use automatic subtitles for these sessions. It’s also something that I think could be useful for my own sessions. This may be particularly useful for the Hong Kong students or those who have English as a second language. 
• There was a lack of imagery on your slides and at times, the quotes selected were a little long. In general you could revisit the visual side of your teaching to make it more engaging. I feel this is particularly important when teaching online as the students lack visual cues otherwise. 
• When creating breakout groups, is it possible to give them a name so that students know which group they were in when it comes time to feedback?