On discovering I would be taking part in microteaching, I didn’t feel any anxiety or fear of failure. Crafting a 20min teaching session is a walk in the park compared to 3 hours of seminars for dis-interested students….
Object based teaching is a fascinating pedagogy and it has been argued that ‘Interaction with artefacts deepens students’ learning.’ (Schultz 2012, p.185) – something I am keen to explore more in my classroom. OBL is also something i have utilised before so I was fairly confident in the process. I therefore decided to approach the session as an opportunity to invite the participants into my world and my practice of PR. An industry with much stigma and little understanding. My approach was to use fashion item objects – flip flops – and bring the audience into a ‘content brainstorming ‘ session – challenging them to think fast of stories we can create with our product.
I felt confident in my topic and I used my usual teaching style. It was a performance – designed to entertain and engage. I wanted to keep people awake and alert and involved in the ‘game’. Ahead of my session, I sketched a mind map to ensure I covered all areas that I wanted to discuss. I followed the map clockwise, ensuring that I spent around 5 minutes on each section. I followed the brief and guidance and decided not to use any laptops, presentations or slides. Opting to delivery in a much more organic way where the conversations literally came from the objects. My teaching was interactive and participants were asked to write down words that came to mind when seeing/touching the flip flops. I was clear that there were no limitations – anything from tangible to non tangible elements that they felt when exploring the objects.
As we began, I felt slightly disorientated by my approach. I began to wonder if I had enough content and if I could rely on my participants to engage how I needed them to to make it work. On reflection, I could have encouraged my participation via creativity or art or making. I relied on discussion, debate, ideas, brainstorming! My feedback was encouraging – good energy and a real whistle stop tour of PR. Although one student felt pressured and did not enjoy the fast paced activity. My interpretation of the feedback was that as a teacher, I was entertaining and created energy. But I also created an environment that was maybe intense and pressured as I challenged others to think on their feet! This is has given me much food for thought in terms of my approach with students new to the subject.
Watching others as a participant was a challenge a chore and also fascinating at the same time. I found myself switching off during some sessions where I simply didn’t enjoy the topic. But that is more the fault of me then the teachers. I also felt some of the teaching was too exclusive. I didn’t feel included in the game as I didn’t understand it which bought back memories of my own disappointing time at university where I didn’t feel smart enough to take part. Or culturally aware enough to enjoy the class. I also found some participants relied on us to write/create in silence which became strangely uncomfortable for me. Do I prefer the chaos of a hectic busy classroom? Maybe. I became motivated and excited when one participant challenged us to come up with ideas on the spot. This felt similar to my session plan and I was comfortable with that challenge.
To evaluate my mircoteaching more effectively, I have applied a SWOT analysis of my session, interpreting my feedback and also my own personal reflections:
My main aim of this course is to improve my plans to always have an inclusive classroom where everyone has something to say. I also was able to witness a variety of OBL methods which has been inspiring and has providing me with ideas around further OBL in my delivery. In conclusion, I think this session opened my eyes more to how that can and can’t be done It has also opened up questions on teaching to broad learners. We can’t please everyone. The challenge is how to hit the middle ground and to use our knowledge to provide content that is accessible to everyone.