A3. Assess and give feedback to learners

My teaching experience within the Fashion Journalism and Content creation course at LCF involves not only the analysis and evaluation of all the broadcast submissions, but also the cross-programme modules that the students are required to complete. The course emphasises the need for quality feedback from the very start and is engrained in my practice. 

Students with ‘well-developed feedback literacy’ are those who:

• appreciate their own active role in feedback processes.
• are continuously developing capacities in making sound judgements about academic work
• manage affect in positive ways                                    

[Carless and Boud, 2018: 1318]

We embed the review process throughout, not just at the assessment time. Currently this is a very high priority in our school and something which is done informally in focus groups and formally via the NSS (National Student Survey) ^[1]

The team and I constantly review this feedback and use it to structure our teaching (as referenced in my A1 Designing and planning for learning submission) 

The assessment process starts with a benchmarking meeting. This meeting of the faculty identifies 3 or more pieces of work from various students across the grading spectrums. This benchmarking approach allows the members of staff marking to provide uniformity in their approach to evaluation but also to be objective and specific in terms of learning outcomes.

When recording our assessments, it is broken down according to the learning income with the inclusion of critique and positive feedforwards. Once the assessments are published, the course also offers the opportunity for students to discuss their feedback in a tutorial environment.  When giving feedback, my goal is to be accurate, fair, and precise. I incorporate this into my practice to include feedback as a teaching opportunity, involving the use of questions that arise from the submission for the student in conjunction with my own interpretation of the outcome. 

After reflection, the teaching teams’ latest approach is to break down the evaluation by providing explanatory critique based on the student’s coverage of each learning outcome, this includes highlighting the positives and identifying areas of improvement. The assessment is then surmised with a feedforward and positive recognition of their submission. 

Upon publication of the results, we provide students with a feedback tutorial as a chance to explain their grade for those who need further clarification. As pointed out in both my designing and planning for learning and the teaching and supporting student learning statements, feedback and reflection are at the core of our practice. 

Reflection of my teaching practice is something I engage in regularly; my own personal statement is that if I can be given a more effective way of achieving the task and increasing engagement then why not take full advantage of it. Feedback provides constant motivation to both staff and students. Our team has embedded peer reviews as well as making this part of our appraisals. 

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^[1] https://www.thestudentsurvey.com

A2: Teaching & supporting student learning

I have demonstrated extensive experience teaching and lecturing in both professional and academic areas, constructing lessons and lectures with small and larger groups respectively. This expertise was obtained in several climates as both a business owner and as a university lecturer, not just at UAL^[1].

I have been teaching in education for the last 3 academic years. It is commonplace for me in my capacity as a member of the course faculty to support workshop sessions and provide peer learning where necessary. The action would involve navigating the class and answering any questions the students may have, especially on my specialist topic of broadcast and audio/visual content creation. My action also includes the instruction and underpinning of the video editing portion of the exercise.

My practice also involves supplementing the process with the addition of with online support, for tutorials, or teaching complete lectures via teams in the backdrop of the Pandemic. 

I have increasingly aimed to build my practice based on the core values set out in the UK Professional Standards such as:

Core Knowledge 

1. K1  The subject material 
2. K2  Appropriate methods for teaching, learning and assessing in the subject area and at the level of the academic programme 
3. K3  How students learn, both generally and within their subject/ disciplinary area(s) 
4. K4  The use and value of appropriate learning technologies 
5. K5  Methods for evaluating the effectiveness of teaching 
6. K6  The implications of quality assurance and quality enhancement for academic and professional practice with a particular focus on teaching 

This also aligns with the professional values of:

1. V1  Respect individual learners and diverse learning communities 
2. V2  Promote participation in higher education and equality of opportunity for learners 
3. V3  Use evidence-informed approaches and the outcomes from research, scholarship and continuing professional development 
4. V4  Acknowledge the wider context in which higher education operates recognising the implications for professional practice 

The techniques I use when initially interacting with the students, include getting a sense of their academic situation regarding the class. On reflection, this leads to 2 questions: 

• Are the students embarking on a new process? 
• Are they increasing their knowledge in a familiar yet incremental practise?

This information is informally gathered from colleagues and data/registers. Once in front of the students, I use the transactional approach which involves:

• Explaining who I am
• Some general info as to why I am there 
• How I arrived to be their lecturer
• How I am going to interact with them academically. 

I use this approach to add a sense of transparency to my practise as well as adding context to the sessions and illustrating the circumstances as to why I am in the position to pass on this information.

I break down the course content and state the deliverables expected upfront to prevent any confusion. Using tools such as PowerPoint slides, Actions involving camera equipment and or mobile phones, encouraging and nurturing discussions and student discovery, I then break each element of the module down including what I am going to teach, and the method used. 

I follow this practice using the tools previously outlined, with constant student comments, questions, queries, and feedback throughout. 

As quoted by Predicting students’ cognitive learning activity and intrinsic learning motivation: How powerful are teacher statements, student profiles, and gender? – Verena Jurik, Alexander Gröschner  and Tina Seidel :^[2]

“Feedback influences student learning and achievement (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Positive feedback encourages students to return to or continue with an activity, and they report more interest in the activity (Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 1999). Supportive teacher feedback can lead to deeper thinking (Chin, 2006).”

I use this process to include them as much as possible in the teaching practice as well as the learning.

This operation involves techniques such as empowering and encouraging the more adept students to help other students practically outside of the classroom-based session. This is especially evident in my video editing classes where I ask the students to not only assist each other but to feedback to me the task using informal tutorials before the next lecture for analysis and then review.  

^[i]

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^[1]

^[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S104160801400019)

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^[i] As well as teaching at UAL I also teach the courses Web series Creation and Editing and Postproduction as part of the BA course in Media Production at London South Bank University 

A1: Designing and Planning for Learning 

For the past three academic cycles I’ve been responsible for designing and planning the broadcast element of the Fashion Journalism and content creation course at the London College of Fashion. I was originally hired to implement new and reconstruct long-standing practices as well as developing new sessions based on new and immerging technology and behaviours. 

From the academic teaching standpoint, the term ‘Broadcast’ has morphed from content being delivered by the terrestrial or satellite TV broadcasters, to anything available in the public online domain, and our teaching attitudes and practices need to be amended to facilitate this change and put our students at the forefront.  

I would construct my portion of the course starting with the resulted output expected and the best way to equip my students to achieve this. Our school (SMC) is very focused on feedback from our students, and this is referenced when the schemes of learning are constructed. This method of inclusion is used to give students a say and let them know they are heard and are part of our teaching construct. The next step would involve developing the output and how this output would be constructed and achieved in the commercial world including which parts can lend themselves to the academic aspects. 

Once the elements have formulated and composed, I would design the assets needed. My practice is geared to acknowledge the variety and quality of teaching as well as the learning and assessment practices needed to support and underpin student learning as per the professional Standards framework.

Areas of Activity 

Once the lecture part (including active feedback) is delivered, the students are then tasked with the practical portion.  On completion of the practical portion, the students would then review the created works and provide peer critique.

Through this exercise students explore the value of creating space for critical reflection, and practice communication, teamwork and providing constructive feedback to peers.

When starting PgCert, I quickly realised how non-academic my teaching style and strategy was, mainly due to my industry focused practical experience. I had at times been asked to scale the practicality back and include more academic references. I have managed to achieve the required synergy of academia whilst still constructing a brief that allows the students to produce the expected outcomes.