Reflections on Learning and Teaching Fest 2017 – John Pearson – Lecturer in Technical Theatre, Performing Arts
This is the second time I’ve presented at the event; in 2015 I presented jointly with colleagues from LiSS and the BIC on an enterprise day we ran for my Technical Theatre students. This time, my presentation was rooted in research undertaken for the PG Cert in Learning and Teaching in HE, which I completed last year.
I find the Festival to be a good place to pick up (mostly practical) techniques which colleagues are using with their students, or methods by which colleagues are using the systems and tools at our disposal in interesting ways; Tina Harvey’s presentation on Peer Feedback at level four was interesting to me for this reason, as I seek to find more effective and efficient ways to help students develop and become reflective and self-critical.
One of the highlights of most years I have attended are the Lecturer of the Year/ Most Creative Teaching Keynotes, and Grace Hurford & Nicola Kitchen’s was no different; however, I suspect it might take quite a lot for me to contemplate dressing up as someone in a scene from Alien in order to engage my students.
My presentation this year focussed on the delivery of feedback to students as audio recording; and the possible benefits that can bring. The presentation was focussed primarily as a guide to the benefits, practicalities and pitfalls of pursuing such methods for other staff, and I hope some attendees found it helpful in that way. I certainly was grateful to have some interesting follow-up questions and observations from attendees; albeit slightly tangential in places! You can read more about the basic premise of my talk in my previously published iLEAD post here [link to post].
Regrettably, the modules upon which I had primarily implemented audio feedback have been discontinued. As my teaching subsequently alters focus towards students on other modules, I am in a position to reflect upon how those modules could be delivered and supported, and I intend to implement lessons learnt from this work and the sessions I attend at LTFest within their delivery.
John Pearson
