I have expressed in another post some of my frustrations with this unit.
The peer observation however is a stark counterpoint for me. I loved being exposed to a colleague’s work and working and found getting feedback really useful.
More so, I found it very useful to be given time to actively reflect on my own teaching practice, habits, strengths and weaknesses.
I got a chance to externalise explicitly many of the things that have become very second nature to me.
A very close friend of mine said something very kind when we talked about “what its like going to uni” and he talked about his most influential professor at uni where:
This professor just just walked in,
gave a thrilling lecture
and left.
Prof. Memorable has achieved transformative lecture, whilst being fully unscripted and all remaining fully natural whilst staying engaging.
We all know these professors, right? (Do we?)
Anyhow – my friend then (quite casually) said- (quote):
“you know, just like you are doing it, I’m sure “
I was positively shocked.
I must say… that feels nice to hear. He never heard me give a lecture, but he knows me and I’d like to think he is right? I never saw the “dead poets society” but – if I trust what I heard about the film – I think the professor there is the type of scholar who I would like to be one day.
And whilst (for accessibility reasons and others) a purely Platonian way of teaching is probably no longer acceptable in contemporary HE, it is nice to have an abstract idea to what I am looking to work towards. To produce a best of both worlds.
Sorry for the dérivé.
I profoundly appreciate having been given time and space to reflect on my practice, and have an external feedback on it with with to engage constructively. Many thanks Rachel. This activity was probably my highlight of/for the unit.
In the future, I think I would like to focus more on this type of hands-on advice and more guidance on what makes good and poor advice. And give the observees a chance to change their style and experiment with the input from their observers.
Aside of the lessons from the observation (which I address in a different blog post) I think this was extremely valuable, and an enjoyable part of this course.