Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice         

 

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: MA Publishing Final Major Project feedback

Size of student group: 10

Observer: Claudia Catzeflis

Observee: Sonali Misra

 

Note: This record is solely for exchanging developmental feedback between colleagues. Its reflective aspect informs PgCert and Fellowship assessment, but it is not an official evaluation of teaching and is not intended for other internal or legal applications such as probation or disciplinary action.

Part One
Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review:

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?

This is the Final Major Project – worth the entirety of the degree grade – of the MA Publishing cohort. I have included the students I supervised and first-marked at the top and the students I second-marked at the bottom of the spreadsheet (also mentioned within the feedback). We were asked to limit our feedback as first markers to about 400–450 words and as second markers to about 250–300 words (I tend to go overboard).

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?

I taught this group as a Lecturer in a few different units from when I joined UAL in January 2024 till their in-person classes went on to May 2024. Then I supervised 6 of them for their FMP.

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?

The ones detailed in the Brief.

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?

Their FMPs could be a dissertation, an artefact (created as a result of research), or a business strategy (created as a result of research). Each form had different word limits (mentioned in attached Brief). All students were expected to conduct primary research.

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?

NA

How will students be informed of the observation/review?

As this is not a review of teaching but of materials, they needn’t be informed.

What would you particularly like feedback on?

1. Clarity of meaning and specificity
2. Balance of positives and areas for improvement
3. Overall messaging is to support and encourage students and not sound like ‘they didn’t do XYZ, which is why grade has been lowered’
4. The success in mapping the dot grades against the Learning Objectives in the Brief
5. Ways to have depth in feedback but reduce word length (as I tend to go over the norm)

How will feedback be exchanged?

Via email

Part Two

Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:

Thank you with sharing with me some of your final project assessments and taking time to talk to me through your course units and the final project. This was helpful as it gave me insight into your course and how each unit leads up to the final project.

After we met, I read the learning outcomes and 3 assessments A, B C band in detail and took time to reflect on these and our meeting.  

From my perspective, your assessments are clearly written, read well and are full of detailed constructive feedback. You make many direct references to individual aspects of the work and give both positive and constructive feedback through all the assessments. 

The language is rich giving depth to the feedback, supporting the reader to understand your meanings, as well as being not overly complicated or academic supporting it to be inclusive.

The feedback aligns well with many of the learning outcomes, particularly around methodological choices, research execution, and engagement with secondary sources.

When we met you talked about how as this was the student’s final assessment feedback, and they would not have a chance to improve this project while on the course, you were required to not give direct suggestions on how to improve on this work. I wondered how you felt about this being a requirement and how this creates if any barriers to you giving full and meaningful feedback?

The feedback you give to student is positive and seems thorough. I wondered if starting or ending with an overview summary would give each student an encouraging takeaway to focus on, a way to reflect on their individual strengths and positive development of their own creative practices?

Part Three

Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged:

Claudia and I met virtually on an MS Teams call to discuss our review for each other’s teaching and shared our thoughts on these forms over email. I appreciated this chance to learn more about how different departments run their assessments and feedback. It was interesting to learn that in Claudia’s department, students are just given their final degree (2:1, Distinction, etc) and they don’t receive written feedback and grade.

I thank Claudia for her attention and engagement with my assessment-related queries. We began my ROT with me providing an overview to the MA Publishing degree, where the Final Major Project (FMP) sits within it, what the FMP outputs can look like, and how we approach the assessment. But I asked her to do a ‘blind reading’ [that term seems problematic – but unsure what to use instead!] of the feedback so that she can react the way a student may and doesn’t have added context to refer to. The student only has my feedback words to go on, unless they reach out for further clarification. And I wanted feedback on those words from Claudia.

Her review was mostly positive, as she has indicated here as well, which I appreciate. She felt it is important for us teaching staff to empathise with students’ projects, no matter what our feelings are about the topic, which she felt I accomplished. She had some more detailed feedback for me in some of the phrases I tend to use, such as ‘push it further’. I take this point, as I can aim to be more unambiguous in these instances. I know we – especially when we are marking a big number of papers in a short time – start building a set of phrases we repeatedly use. I can be more self-aware of this and ensure I don’t lose clarity for the sake of convenience.

I also take her point that if I start and close with an overview of the feedback, it will give the students a better grasp of the grade and its rationale as well as any action points they can take. I will keep this in mind in the future. This also relates to the question that Claudia has posed for me above, whether the instruction I received from my superiors posed some barriers in giving meaningful feedback. This is a thought I return to often, especially with FMPs, and falls within the questions I have about ‘compassionate curriculum’. This is a topic I will explore further in Case Study 3.