Course overview

In the past during my studies I have had a tendency to lose sight of the goals. I'm sticking this up here immediately so that I can review the most important points of this course at any time.

Assessment will involve:

12th March - Formative assessment 1,500 words approx, requiring me to:

1. Identify the main ideas and theories contained within chapter 2 or Fry et Al
2. Provide a brief overview of the chosen session which includes information about the aims and objectives, learners, structure and type of session (e.g. workshop, presentation, lecture, seminar etc)
3. Demonstrate a refelctive and critical analysis of the chosen session which evalusates as objectively as possible the aspects which you consider were particularly successful and/or those that might be developed or improved in the future (e.g. I think my aims may be off to begin with!)
4. Integrate the proposals for change/development with the literature on student learning, demonstrating how the proposals are underpinned by sound educational concepts

Portfolio including:

Paper between 3-4,000 words

Scholarly, critical and reflective analytical commentary of my developing practice, which is underpinned by scholarship in the field of learning, teaching and assessment and which provides evidence of a reflecitve approach to my professional practice. This can either be one overarching piece of writing reflecting on your learning on the LTP course or structured to individually address each of the learning activities.

Plus an appendix with evidence of

1. planning and prep of a minimum of 12 hours or learning activities
2. Preparation and undertaking of formative assessment of students incl provision of feedback
3. Obtain and evaluate the feedback, respond ot students' views, make plans for dev of future practice
4. Undertake one teaching observatoin of a peer/colleague
5. Experience on teaching/observation by a peer/colleague
6. Experience on teaching observation by mentor
7. Reflective evaluation of my learning experience of the LTP course (800-1000 words)
8. Formative assessment 1

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Reflective practice is essentially about turning experience into learning. About thinking back, critically on your experiences and learning from them.

Assessment is less concerned with the content on which we reflect, and more on the way in which do the reflecting. This can be compared to the assessment of critical thinking skills which looks for evidence that the student has asked searching questions of the material with which they have engaged rather than assessing the material itself.

Questions as tools for critical thinking:

• What explicit assumptions are being made? Can they be challenged?
• How logical is the reasoning?
• How sound is the evidence?
• Whose interests and what interests are served by the assertions?
• What values underpin the reasoning?
• What are implications of the conclusions?

Questions as tools for reflective thinking

• What happened that most surprised you
• What patterns can you recognise in your experience
• What was the most fulfulling part of it? And the least fulfilling part of it? What does that suggest to you about your values?
• What happened that contradicted your prior beliefs? What happened that confirmed your prior beliefs?
• How do you feel about that experience now compared with how you felt about it at the time?
• What does the experience suggest to you about your strengths?
• What does the experience suggest to you about your weaknesses and opportunities for development?
• How else could you view that experience?
• What did you learn from that experience about how you react?
• What other options did you have at the time?
• Is there anything about the experience that was familiar to you?
• What might you do differently as a result of that experience and your reflections on it? What actions do your reflections lead you to?

Looking at these questions, I can see the huge value of reflective practice, at the same time I realise I am not naturally a reflective learner. These are not questions I frequently ask myself after teaching and I do not feel exited having to think about them. I think reflective practice will be a challenge for me. I am going to see if I can find other tools, like the questions above, that will help me through the process.