Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice  

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: Offsite Crits

Size of student group: 4-10

Observer: Kwame Baah

Observee: Michael McShane

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
Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review:

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?

The culmination of the first half of their Unit 7. Whereupon they organise  an Off-Site Project, exhibition, presentation or event  as part of a self-selecting group of fellow students. As a group they will have also produced a collective publication to accompany your project. This can take the form of a pamphlet, catalogue or  other distributable media. 

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?

I have worked with their year group during exhibition periods: Providing tutorials as an HPL in how to present, install and curate their work. I have also run workshops with them in performing sculpture.

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?

• Provide constructive feedback to students about their exhibition.
• Facilitate discussion and sharing of ideas relating to 
  • the students work as individuals
  • the students work as a group
  • the students work in creating an exhibition
  • the students work in creating a publication
  • All processes relating to the creation of an exhibition
  • The students plans for the second half of Unit 7

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?

• Discussion about student work in exhibition
• Discussion about the process of exhibiting as a group
• Discussion about the publication accompanying the project
• Discussion about how this process will affect what they are thinking of producing for the end of Unit 7 when they will be exhibiting as individuals on site

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?

Students may be hung over from their private view the previous night.

Student numbers are unknown.

How will students be informed of the observation/review?

Students have already been emailed

What would you particularly like feedback on?

Pacing of discussion and the use of space in dialogue with students

How I explain ideas to students and make them accessible

Do I have any information bias 

How will feedback be exchanged?

Part Two

Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:

Kwame Baah

This was a very interesting art exhibition crit in which there were two students, one could not attend but their work was hung up and supported by their peers. I had the opportunity to chat with the students about their artwork and the directions they are looking to take. Your suggestion of work collation in digital format was a very supportive one that would mean they could use that format as a catalogue that preserves the original works. Additionally, it would offer the chance of engaging in digital exhibitions. Either way they had made a useful step outside of the university to experience a space of difference.

You critiqued quite extensively and at times overlapped your conversations between the students specifically, which then helped me understand that the three student artists, whose work was on show, have been working together for some time. Some of the other interesting suggestions you presented were 3D rendering of the collective artwork, and improvisation of the collaborative art as a performance with instruction. In addition, a lot of supported referencing was offered to the students for them to use as points for their writing about the themes of their work.

Encouraging them to write a proposal for a show was a very good way of getting them to step outside of their comfort zone and engage with wider audiences to enhance their practice. This will also support their continuous development and as their tutor I commend you for supporting them through encouragement. Your approach to critiques was different but has exciting newness of being multidirectional. There was considerable scaffolding in your critiques and questioning, and I could see them thinking deeply. It was a good example of scaffolded crits in an art space that I experienced for the first time and I commend you for the amount of detailed thinking you used to empower the students to consider.

Part Three

Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged:

Thank you Kwame for such useful feedback and for being so accommodating and making it out to the gallery to see the students.

I am really flattered with your comments on the provision of scaffolding for students to develop ideas with support as this is something I really try to create in sessions. Lev Vygotsk’s writing’s on scaffolding in education is a big influence retrospectively – I was not aware of it’s academic description as a process. I am now ready some of his texts and those that reference him a lot – such as Critiquing the Crit, (Margo Blythman, Susan Orr Bernadette and Blair 2007) which are now enriching and developing my understanding and approach to teaching using scaffolding.

The way that I have always tried to approach students learning has been to use structuralist interpretations of their ideas Barthes, R. (1977) to provide three points of view simultaneously on their work:

Their idea as an image or symbol,

Their idea as a physical material object #

Their idea as text – contextually relational

These gradually develop in complexity during a session as they think and discuss ideas with me and the group. In this way students can have a framework with which to explore their own and each other’s ideas within a defined structure, and I can add prompts when necessary to lead them into discussing ideas with each other, which I believe, as I now know, was Lev Vygotsk’s aims.

References

Barthes, R. (1977) Image, Music, Text. Translated by S. Heath. London: Fontana Press.

Margo Blythman, Susan Orr Bernadette and Blair called Critiquing the Crit, (Final report, August 2007)