Which aspects of Stephanie’s teaching practice appear to be the most ripe for development?
- The readings and content being given to the students are not engaging enough – too academic and difficult to understand. She could provide different formats and abilities for the reading
- May not be very accessible by not providing the content beforehand for the students to access
- The assessment process is confusing – finding other ways of making the content understandable for the students
What could Stephanie do to move past her defensive reaction?
- Look at this as a learning process
What, for you, are the most interesting questions this case study raises?
- Perception of teachers and teaching quality – male being charismatic and how gender roles play a part in what we find more engaging
As a group, we discussed how we could give effective constructive criticism:
- Framing the advice as help rather than criticism
- using numbers to come from an objective stance too for example ½ of the students submitted the work on time, deadlines could be clearer
- Giving multiple formats of feedback i.e written and speaking through to avoid miscommunication and have a discussion
- Have the opportunity to respond to the feedback – i.e agree or disagree with it
- Make sure to say positive things as well as ways to improve. Positive points can allow for less defense of the negatives
- Framing the feedback as a positive learning opportunity. Encouraging learning from the feedback and seeing self improvement as a healthy form of progress in teaching.
- Adopting active listening to better understand why the teaching practice is the way its presented, is this tutor overstretched
- Provide active solutions/ steps to take to make improvements – support the observee in taking those steps/ create a follow up plan