Reflection on Micro-teaching session…
…Yesterday I delivered a 15 minute “micro-teaching” session
to 5 of my peers, all of whom are studying for the PgCert in HE, as well as
completing an MA in their chosen discipline; Fine Art, Design or Creative
Writing.
I spent a great deal of time (over 10 hours!) preparing for
this short session, which took place in a small seminar style room, i.e, a
round table with chairs, a whiteboard; what I would describe as an informal,
friendly-feeling and intimate space.
I chose the topic of Portraiture, a subject which I have
studied in some depth during my foundation, and as a consequence I felt
confident that I had good subject knowledge in which to answer questions and
encourage an interesting debate. The
problem that arose during the planning stages was to pinpoint exactly the
thrust of the micro-teaching session; i.e what were my aims and learning
outcomes for the session. Because the
subject was so broad, and could develop in any number of ways, what I found
most challenging was narrowing the scope of the topic in order for it to remain
interesting, informative and pitched at the right level (I decided undergrad
level was appropriate given who I was teaching in this session and also whom I
would teach in the future) but also condensing it into just a 15 minute
session.
After spending a great deal of time planning, and feeling
confident with my draft plan, I practiced the session on my willing
husband. This ‘practice run’ proved to
be invaluable; I knew I had a lot to
‘cram in’ and a great deal of information to get across, but I did not realise
how much I had underestimated the scope of the topic I had chosen. After over an hour of discussion on the
topic, I realise I needed to narrow my aims and be much less ambitious with my
learning outcomes. Perhaps this
particular lesson would be more suited to an hours session, or even the idea’s
could be rolled out and expanded into several session where student could go
away and do their own self-lead research, to feed back into a discussion and
debate. The handout of my first lesson plan is filed under Lesson Plans.
I re-drafted my lesson plan, focusing the broad topic of
Portraiture into answering a question and looking at three paintings to help
generate discussion.
In the event I was pleased with the way the lesson played
out, however the following highlight several points that I feel could have been
improve on.
I felt I was clear in my introduction of the topic, and
clearly stated my aims and learning outcomes for the session. I had given the students handouts that stated
the question posed, the Aims and L.O’s.
I started the session by a quick definition task, in pairs, which I
hoped would get the students thinking about the topic. This did seem to work quite well, although I
would have liked to give them five minutes instead of 1 1/2 to really get them
to grasp the ideas being introduced.
Also, as there were only two pairs, the tone of the exercise was hushed
and subdued; I think it would have worked better with three or four students in
a group, and one or two more groups to help encourage different opinions and
therefore a more lively discussion.
I then asked students to feedback their definitions to the
whole group, which I then wrote key ideas on a whiteboard. This quick-fire visual aid aimed to again
generate interesting discussion, which it did to a point. I felt I had to get some key ideas down in
order to move on to the next section of the session, and so I felt I had to
talk more than I had anticipated in order to get the content covered. All of these points perhaps suggest the topic
was still too broad to cover in just 15 minutes and with a small intimate group. Indeed, feedback from my tutor advised to be
less ambitious with a) the learning outcomes and b) the quantity of content
intended to be covered in such a short session.
The next part of the session was to look at three paintings
(we only had time for two, which I had anticipated already, so perhaps I should
have left the last one off the handout altogether). This part of the session was opened up for
discussion, which I felt went well, most students had something to contribute,
however, again I felt pressured for time, and when I asked the questions I
would have liked to have given students more time to think, ponder, ruminate
before they answered. This again meant
that I did more talking than I had anticipated in order to get the content
across.
One student asked a question that took the direction of the
lesson off in a way that would have been very interesting for further debate,
but not appropriate for that session. I
felt I was able to answer the question well, having good knowledge of the subject,
direct her to the handout where there was more information, and steer the
discussion back on point. Although I
hadn’t noticed at the time, this was flagged up in my feedback from the tutor,
and so I felt pleased with this outcome.
I felt the conclusion of the session, was rather weak. I realise I hadn’t planned a clear enough
conclusion; although I had summarised the session in bullet point on the
handout, I could not articulate it well, as so the final minute trailed off
rather than finishing on a positive concluding point.
To summarise the whole session, I would say I was pleased
and felt that my overall delivery was confident, conversational and
relaxed. However I realise that my aims
for the session were too broad and therefore it was difficult to achieve the
L.O’s. Although we ‘got through’ the
content, I was acutely aware of the time racing by,and so I needed to be more
focused and less ambitious about what could be achieved in 15 minutes. I would, however, like to return to this
topic in the future, as it has potential to generate a very interesting debate.
No comments:
Post a Comment