Evidencing Area of Activity 2 - Teach and/or Support Learning

I teach in small groups, where I use various teaching approaches to foster student engagement, cooperative and collaborative learning (Fry, Ketteridge and Marshall, 2009). Depending on my set learning objectives, these teaching methods may include the use of tutorial sessions to provide additional learning support to students and feedback on assignments, the use of tutor-less groups where I allow the groups to appoint a leader and an assistant to coordinate and ensure completion of problem-based tasks with minimal guidance (V1, K2).

A current example of my teaching and supporting learning practice is my lesson on the control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) on a construction site for my 15 HNC civil engineering students. One of the learning objectives was to ensure the students were able to produce a COSHH assessment for a typical construction site. To assess their prior understanding, I presented a picture of a construction site and asked the students to brainstorm to identify any five hazardous substances (K1, K2, K3). After this, I explained the regulations and steps to making a COSHH assessment using the electronic handouts I provided on the unit Moodle page; the virtual learning environment. The students had access to the institution’s laptops and were able to view the embedded websites and YouTube videos in the lesson materials (K4). Afterwards, I divided them into groups of 3 and provided them with a standard COSHH assessment form and a safety data sheet of hazardous construction material and instructed them to produce a COSHH assessment for the product. I used indirect questions to ensure they understood why they were making certain decisions. Afterwards, I asked each group to peer review and appraise each other’s activities (K1, K2). I observed during the review that each group easily identified what they did right and wrong without direct input from me. This activity enabled students to think and engage in their learning by sharing ideas, thus enriching their educational experience (K3). This aligns with the core practices of quality individual and collective student engagement stated in the revised UK Quality Code for Higher Education (UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment, 2018) (V4, K6).

I used Kahoot, an interactive lecture tool, to ask for anonymous informal feedback at the end of the lesson (V1, K5). It revealed the need to better pace my presentation, as it was too fast for some. As a solution, I now incorporate a timer facility for the learning activities to give a structured lesson and also improve the time management skills of the students (Goldsmith, 2009). One of the feedbacks from my mentor during his observation revealed the need to use probing questions more often to assess understanding and learning (Naz et al., 2013) (K5). As a resolve, I now use the open question technique more often during presentations to develop the critical thinking skills of the students, assess learning, and encourage student-teacher rapport. Also, I now actively use differentiated instruction or timely sequencing of varied learning tasks to accommodate different learning needs, thereby helping with knowledge retention and application (V1, V2).

Furthermore, I set and agreed with the students on the ground rules for behaviour in the first week of the academic session and reiterated this at various times to allow for retention. These rules include showing respect for the views and contributions of other students, putting their phones on vibration, and quietly leaving the classroom to avoid disruption. These rules create a safe and inclusive learning environment, prevent class disturbances, and ensure the students understand my expectations of them as well as their fellow students (Kisfalvi and Oliver, 2015) (V1, V2, V3).

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References

Fry, H., Ketteridge, S. and Marshall, S. (2009) A handbook for teaching and learning in higher education – enhancing academic practice. 3rd edn. New York: Routledge.

Goldsmith, J. (2009) ‘Pacing and time allocation at the micro- and meso-level within the class hour: Why pacing is important, how to study it, and what it implies for individual lesson planning’, Bellaterra: Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature, 1(1), pp. 30-48.

Higher Education Academy (2011) The UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education. Available at: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/downloads/uk_professional_standards_framework.pdf (Accessed: 4 January 2020)

Kisfalvi, V. and Oliver, D. (2015) ‘Creating and maintaining a safe space in experiential learning’, Journal of Management Education, 39(6), pp. 713-740.