As I’m reflecting on the first unit of the PgCert, I realise that the conversations that I’ve had have throughout these few weeks have been the most revelatory thing. At times they’ve felt utterly profound. I will name a couple of instances.
One came in the discussion that served as my observation with my tutor. Linda observed and recognised something inside of me that had been niggling me for at least 2 years, it sat so very deeply inside of me I had struggled to grasp it. When teaching the discussed workshop I’d used a transmissive form of teaching, but even though I’d always struggled with doing it, I couldn’t not do it. Until the conversation with Linda alongside a feeling that had been growing throughout the unit — I realised that in only this one lesson I was doing exactly opposite to what we were discussing. Learning doesn’t happen by students being told things. A feeling of insecurity led me to feel I needed to overly explain, but it actually does nothing for learning. Shuell (1986) is appropriately quoted in John Biggs 2007 book saying “what the student does is actually more important in determining what is learned than what teacher does” (p. 52)
Observing my peer Mahalia teach was equally enlightening. But it was the conversation afterwards that struck me — the way we were unpacking what had happened in her session lead me to form new understandings about how I might communicate with students in similar settings. She navigated a challenging student without realising quite what she’d done until we discussed it. Her question to the student “what would you do if you had to leave the piece in an exhibition tomorrow?” I felt was so keenly perceptual, that it felt illuminating. In response, the student thought about it for a second and realised themselves how much needed to be done, without being directly criticised. Amazing.
These conversations, and many others have led me to form a reflective opinion that the summative assessment in the PgCert (as is often the case, and widely academically discussed) an admin formality to create markable boundaries. The learning I’ve absorbed has occurred within me through reflection, discussion, and observation, not writing quippy blog posts reflecting that I’ve done so.
Looking at the short text from Mark Russell in 2010, I perceive that this unit structure is a typical example of a high-stake summative assessment, due in a couple of days, and the microteach as a formative assessment 30–40% through the unit. I bring this up as although I was encouraged to distribute the work across the term — and perhaps my learning would be different — doing the majority in a compressed time has meant that I both recall things from across the unit (which Dylan Wiliam (2020) suggests is great for learning, to activate prior knowledge from memory) and I am drawing connections between aspects of the unit and submission I perhaps otherwise would have missed. Summative isn’t all bad then.
References
AITSL (2020) Three principles and five strategies – Dylan Wiliam. May 5. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7ERyN82Q5U (Accessed: March 18, 2024).
Biggs, Biggs, J. B. and Tang, C. S.-K. (2007) Teaching for Quality Learning at university: What the student does. Buckingham, England: Open University Press.
Russell, M. (2010) ‘Assessment Patterns: a review of the possible consequences’, ESCAPE project, University of Hertfordshire. Available at: https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/aflkings/files/2019/08/ESCAPE-AssessmentPatterns-ProgrammeView.pdf (Accessed: 19 March 2024).