CRITICAL EVALUATION OF TEACHING PRACTICEHOW DO WE KNOW THE LEARNERS HAVE LEARNT?EDU130 PGCHE Assignment 7 by Darren Whittington 08/15 The critique environment is a constant part of any creative course and one Ive looked at in-depth through past assignments that model new ways timely formative feedback can be delivered whether from the teacher or from industry engagement.Through my teaching observations of peers Ive seen pastoral approaches to feedback that have been very successful in contextualising problemssolutions following Kolbs experiential learning theory(1) and mentoring approaches that encourage co ownership of formative feedback sessions between student and teacher as evidenced by Barrett(2) and Blair(3), both of which are best practice models for feedback which have already been implemented into my own teaching practice.For the purposes of this assignment however I will be focussing on a specific part of the critique environment as highlighted in an observation of my own teaching by peers who identified an area of the critique that needs to be addressed even if all the other environmental and inclusive elements are considered; recording the critique for reflection.Feedback was clear and you provided specifc areas for improvement and development. Do students receive written feedback regarding this? S.Cosgrove(Appendix 1)This particular observation of myself was based on a critique environment with 8 students all presenting creative work for interim verbal feedback to help develop their thinking and produce new solutions to communication problems. Whilst the critique environment and formative feedback was well received and commentary on my own delivery seen as good practice this particular observation highlights a need to answer a fundamental principle How do we know the learners have learnt?. As teachers we deliver constructive feedback at every point of the learners journey for reflection but what this question asks is multifaceted, did the learners understand the feedback? Do they know how to implement it? Will they remember the feedback? How do they use it to reflect upon it?This is where we as practitioners need to develop the way we construct the feedback to be reflected upon. Most students take notes, ask questions of their own work and reflect in the critique environment but even here these notes can be reinterpreted later in the day and the context could be lost.Nearly all the hard work was done for the critique in this instance but still there was a gaping hole of knowing that the student had understood, I left the individuals with the knowledge to move forward in their thinking, we even developed it as a group within the critique, a nod of acknowledgement and the assumption that all was absorbed was made. When I look back at this scenario there was maybe a paragraph of notes made by the student or a reliance on memory to reflect upon.Not every aspect of the critique process can be controlled but we can suggest a best practice model that allows us to know that the feedback givenparticipated in was actually recorded in some form, in context and easily translatable at a later date. There is clearly too much reliance on the student attention span being intact and that their participation was open-minded.But where in this does the student take ownership, they are already participating in verbal feedback to the group, they are encouraged to come with questions about their work, I as teacher facilitate the environment, curate and mentor as an equal to allow the critique environment to be owned by the students, they even mentor one another. But we dont record the feedback in any structured way, it is left to the individual to interpret, which is inherently cognitive but there does need to be a point of reference that can be expanded upon, contextualised and added too, feedback that can be shared with others to debate, questionimplement. We want students to feel comfortable with experimentation, have a willingness to fail but the guidance notes should always be in place even if to be challenged, at least a foundation to move forward.In this environment we want all to be engaged, contribute to the presentation, trust their own thinking and share feedback to help their peers and develop together. In order to collate this feedback time is needed to write up notes that can to be coherent, in context and personalised.To do this successfully we need to teach students how to give better feedback to their peers, teaching the learners to teach we will help them grow as individuals, they will learn to self critique, ask more informed questions of their working practice and what could be done better or differently, it will galvanise their own thinking, instigate reflection on their own working practice alongside their peers and pre empt future questioning.One of the most efective methods for absorbing knowledge is to teach the knowledge back to another. A. Pinantoan(4)Andrianes Pinantoan is an educational psychologist who has looked in-depth at how students learn and he suggests giving students opportunities to give lectures, presentations, and develop lesson plans of their own in order to instigate absorption of knowledge. Pinantoan focusses on the delivery mechanism as the act of absorption, taking ownership of the communication in order to translate the knowledge in a simplified way, one that can be cut into bite sized pieces that are easily remembered. This act of ownership also breaks down the abstract concept of learning and empowers students to participate.This point of absorption is one raised in a study by Bernadette Blair(3) which looks at the crit environment and how verbal feedback can fall on deaf ears because of the students perception of self, a disengagement manifested from lack of understanding encouragement dictatorial process.The critique environment Im trying to foster is one that encourages students to learn from one anothers feedback and share the knowledge and understanding with their peers, creating a level playing field that encourages multiple interpretations which as Barrett(2) suggests creates an environment of mutual respect that students see the benefit of learning from each other not just the teacher. In this model all involved become mentors.The diversification of opinion on creative work in a critique is highly important in order to develop good quality reflection from multiple cultural and socio-economic contexts, here Terry Finnigans practitioners guide on embedding equality and diversity(5) highlights the need for higher education to move towards inclusive practices to develop transformative approaches in all its actions: that is, to develop flexible and anticipatory approaches, he outlines an important point about the role of higher education after students have left further education and how we should recognise what role they as a student have been used to in their previous education in order to create the right environment to encourage a students voice.From my own recent visit to a local FE College it was clear that FE doesnt prepare students for HE in the way we might assume, for example; groups sizes average 10, there are no lecture based learning environments, long report writing is not explored(as such literary skills are limited) and deadlines are at most one week long, what these students do expect are large amounts of contact time, regular feedback, support sessions and constant access to all teachers. In this FE environment they are learners in a tight framework that holds them close, in HE we need to help these learners use their voice to share their opinions and take ownership of their own education with our role as teacher becoming mentor, curator, facilitator and decoder of perceived cultural capital which could otherwise enforce inequality(6 Bourdieu 1991) and in turn the disengagement witnessed by Blair(3).It is therefore important for the student to be able to contextualise what a critique is actually for within the HE environment and demystify it as a one way conversation that is telling in its nature rather than a listening environment that is there for the student to use as a test bed to gain formative feedback and a space that encourages experimentation, allows mistakes and the ability to move forward with greater knowledge.To achieve this there are 3 questions that should be posed to students to make a crit it more effective as a group activity and for individual engagement: 1. What is feedback? 2. Why do I need an opinion? 3. What is reflection? Once students can place an importance on these and see the relevance they can then start to take ownership of the environment absorb the feedback in context and in turn teach what they are learning.1. What is feedback? Show the students what effective feedback is by encouraging constructive conversations that help put their work in context, analysing what works and what doesnt, e.g. is it on brand? Does it talk to the right audience at the right time and place? Is it culturally acceptable? Making feedback an enjoyable and participatory act by all.2. Why do I need an opinion? Encourage student opinion and allow them to find their voice. We are all from very different walks of life, all our opinions and thoughts are valid and in a world of communication we need to understand others points of view in order to put the work in context, this enriches the learning experience and accelerates thinking in lateral ways.3. What is reflection? There needs to be a greater understanding of what reflection actually means in the realms of HE beyond the world of FE and its minimalised marking strategies and put it back in the context of the learners journey with an ability to be open to the ideas of others, paralleled with the confidence of their own thinking and understanding. Trusting the commonality of feedback received and being able to take onboard questioning and debate.These three questions can form the basis of a framework that can be taught to help students understand what a crit does for them, to allow them to take ownership and instigate good quality feedback for each other that is contextualised by all without prejudice to produce a creative environment that is engaging, proactive and respectful.By taking the time to contextualise the crit we will know the learners have an understanding of what feedback is and how to use it when it has been recorded and in turn improve the quality of the feedback given with the knowing it will be used by the individual for reflection. This recording needs to be by all for all if the student is to be able to have a diversification of commentary to reflect upon, the feedback also needs to be concise and relevant in order to be digestible.In EDU110 Assignment 2(Appendix 2) I explored a framework that worked with industry to improve the quality of feedback to students and to help alleviate flippant commentary taking into account the time constraints related to giving feedback with larger cohorts of students. Using this pro forma sets out clear questions to focus feedback so we can teach the students a way of gathering information and thinking which is directed, concise and usable:1. IS IT ON BRIEF?To help the student understand they are on the right train of thought2. IS IT WELL TARGETED?To help the student focus on the right audience3. IS THE CAMPAIGN EFFECTIVE?To help the student focus on the desired outcome of the campaign4. IS THERE EVIDENCE OF APPROPRIATE RESEARCH?To help the student identify new routes to explore where required5. IS THE ART DIRECTION AND WRITTEN WORD CONSIDERED?Pointers to help the student develop their craft skills and enhance the campaign message6. IS THE CAMPAIGN WELL PRESENTED?To help the student consider their presentation technique and communication of the ideaIt also makes the process less personal and can become a universal framework to help the student better understand the feedback from industry and see commonality and themes that appear in their feedback to reflect upon and to help students to make sense of what they have done(7 Race, 2005).This information can be collated electronically and anonymously and everyone in the crit should participate equally, e.g. In a typical crit of 8 students all 7 give feedback on the 1 student presenting. It should be written feedback as a way of adding additional reflection for the writer but also encourages greater participation. This act of writing should be encouraged to be in bite sized pieces as directed in the pro forma by restricted space for commentary to encourage simplification and the person giving feedback time to reflect on their own thoughts prior to delivery.To balance the written feedback we also need to record the audio of the session so the student can hear their own delivery and how they communicated the premise of their thinking together with verbal feedback within the crit session. This audio file can be sent directly to the student to review and put the written feedback in context making it more usable at a later date. This in turn will help alleviate a reliance on memory and a single written paragraph to reflect upon.Through this process we can start to know the students understand the feedback, how to reflect on it and how to implement it, we also have a point of reference that is functional at a later date for discussion when considering the learners journey and in turn know the learners have learnt.REFERENCES1. Kolb, David A. 1984. Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall2. Barrett, Terry. 2000. Studio Critiques of Student Art: As they are, as they could be with mentoring.Theory into practice 39, No.1 pp. 28-35. Wint3. Blair, Bernadette. 2006. Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education Volume 5 Number 2.Kingston University4. A. Pinantoan. 20 things educators need to know about how students learn. Available at: http:www.opencolleges.edu.auinformedfeatureseducational-psychology-20-things-educa-tors-need-to-know-about-how-students-learn5. Finnigan, T. (2009) Tell us about it: Diverse student voices in crretive practice in Art, Dsign & Commu-nication in HE, Vol. 8, No. 26. Bourdieu, P. and Darbel, A. 1991 The Love of Art, Cambridge: Polity.7. Race, Phil. 2014. Making Learning Happen: 3rd edition. London: SageAPPENDIXAppendix 1. S.Cosgrove Seminar Feedback CritiqueLots of questioning and directed questioning. You consistently checked for student understanding, and related the session throughout to students past and future assessed work, the future curriculum and future learning opportunities. This provided a lot of context to the session to encourage students reflective learning and action planning. The pitch activity mirrored professional practices that would help develop students employability skills. It was clearly introduced and all students seemed clear on what was expected of them.The room was well laid out with a very encouraging atmosphere where all students were interested and engaged. Would a round table discussion have worked? The Oreo eclipse campaign was a good current example and was related to students own practice. The rationale for the brief was made very clear, with lots of practical advice for students in terms of their approach to the brief.Feedback was clear and you provided specif ic areas for improvement and development. Do students receive written feedback regarding this? Perhaps the peer group could also give written feedback depending on the aims of the session. Are you interested in how the observing students begin to use and apply constructive feedback (which would also help them in terms of reflecting on their own practice). Interesting links between product design and advertising and also encouraging links with other students (e.g. Graphics), which encourages multi-disciplinarily and mirrors the professional world.Feedback was really clear re the Lidl campaign showing good reflection in action. Students took responsibility for their own learning brought up additional campaigns (Co-operative Bank). A really encouraging approach when discussing students ideas and current practice and giving useful and practical feedback, as well as offering advice on progression of students work. The students seemed very at ease and confident in discussing their ideasasking questions. S.CosgroveAppendix 2. EDU110 Assignment 2 Pro-forma