Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice
Session to be observed/reviewed:
Seminar: Brand analysis and Design Alignment
Size of student group: 24 students
Observer: Kwame Baah, Julia Redman
Observee: Eva Feld
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 within the curriculum?
Course: Innovative Fashion Production, London College of Fashion, Unit: Connecting Production to the Consumer. The seminar is held after a morning lecture on the topic. We will be in the second week of teaching on this unit, just after the introduction week.
How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?
Since the start of the academic year 24/25 as a lecturer and tutor on a previous unit (Business Models & Fashion Production)
What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?
Within their set groups of 4-5 people, the students will start negotiating a collection for a brand they have chosen. This will include the range of garments, materials and the parameters of visual alignment to the brand. The collection must embody a suggested brand innovation of their choice within the limits of the industry brief.
LO: The groups should discuss these topics, negotiate their strategy and divide tasks amongst them during the seminar.
What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?
To capture the decision-making process on a shared document (e.g. Miro) to be able to track progress and identify areas of improvement.
Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?
In the previous year, students and groups would need time to get used to one another and thus come to address the tasks with different speed. In other words, some tasks will need one group little time, another will need the same group significantly longer, which across the groups turns out to be very heterogeneous, depending on their individual strengths, weaknesses and expertise and that of the group as a whole.
How will students be informed of the observation/review?
They have been informed verbally in the previous week and will be reminded in the morning lecture on the observation day.
What would you particularly like feedback on?
Am I communicating the tasks effectively?
How will feedback be exchanged?
According to the observer’s preference.
Part Two
Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:
Observer: Julia Redman
23 students, all on time.
Considered set up for working effectively in groups. Introduced the brand task and asked questions of the group to understand their progress to date, and their understanding of the task at hand. Asked students to use their knowledge from the previous unit.
Clear and specific instructions for feeding back to the class on the screen for students to refer back to.
Would suggest asking the question directly to each group in turn, to encourage and understand level of participation/engagement for each group.
Followed up by giving attention to each group individually, explaining and asking more detailed questions to encourage explanation of their chosen brand, its strategies, products, supply chain, sustainability, consumer etc. All groups appeared engaged, and were discussing/assessing/researching the task.
Very calm, conversational style of teaching, clear explanations/questions.
Encouraged students to share vocally with the rest of the group – would suggest advising students to stand up when speaking to the class, to enable everyone to hear, whilst practising their presentation skills.
Re-explained the ethos of Rey-House, and that this is a necessary integration into the brand project (collaboration or brand extension).
Good use of Miro boards to record progress.
Spent time with each group towards the end of the seminar, to ensure that the students knew what they needed to be working on outside of class.
Part Three
Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged:
I agree with Julia that the separation of the tables worked well to have group members closer to each other to better communicate. Similarly, the engagement of the groups is high, which was already prevalent in the previous unit.
I’m pleased to hear that the instructions given to the students were “clear and specific”, as Julia wrote. Communicating effectively with my students, who have different levels of English language capabilities, is on the forefront of my mind when preparing seminars. I will also continue to check understanding with my students. The Miro board use, as Julia observed, improves communication as well, as I can write down to reiterate what I have previously said verbally.
Presentation skills is a good topic to have been raised by Julia. Admittedly, I didn’t want to push the student quite yet too far out of their comfort zone, prioritising participation by letting them use their preferred method of response, even if it is a very quiet whisper. However, I agree that as a consequence, the student’s voice could not be heard by everyone and, if I remember correctly, I had to repeat it out loud to the rest of the class.
On the other hand, in my opinion, Julia is correct. I should use the upcoming seminars to give the students the opportunity to practice their presentation skills in a familiar environment with me, before they will present with all tutors present for formative assessment.
For the purpose of not catching the students unaware which may trigger anxiety, I should let them know during the seminar, whilst explaining the next activity. I will instruct them in order to practice their presentation skills to respond to the whole class standing up and as an option, they can use their notes as guidance or read out from.