I was partnered with Hannah Kemp-Welch to observe each others classes. This has been by far the most valuable part of the PGCert for me so far, and I am particularly grateful to have been partnered with Hannah. Hopefully the comments made in the ROT forms will illustrate why this was such a useful exercise, but I should also add that Hannah’s practice and pedagogy really aligns with my research interests and I found her knowledge and approach to be very inspiring. Beyond the classroom, we have also met multiple times to share ideas, readings and reflections on our learning throughout the Unit. This peer to peer learning, collaboration and support is vital, and has been deeply beneficial to my pedagogical practice. Below is the ROT form we completed for the session that Hannah delivered, and I observed.
Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice
Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: MA Sound Arts
Size of student group: Not sure
Observer: Chuck Blue Lowry
Observee: Hannah Kemp-Welch
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 a one-off workshop introducing MA students to an area of practice called ‘radio art’. Sound Arts is a very broad area, and in this Unit students connect with a range of practitioners in a ‘taster’ format. Following this, students choose a distinct area of practice to focus their research into during an independent project.
How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?
I have not worked with this group before, this is an annual session I deliver to each MA cohort. If any of the students choose to work in this area for their final major project, I will likely be assigned as their supervisor.
What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?
Students will learn about radio art as a discipline and the key words, theories and practitioners associated with this.
Students will gain an understanding of how to apply a distinct theoretical lens (feminist, decolonial) to an area of practice.
Students will learn basic radio physics in an applied and practice-based context.
Students will be introduced to a new web-based technology and will compose a short audio work to put their learning into practice.
What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?
Students will compile a glossary of relevant terms.
Students will compose an audio work as a group.
Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?
Students are from a range of disciplines; some have more experience with sound art than others. I will need to pitch the session in a way that is both accessible to those who have little knowledge of radio art, and for those who are quite familiar with the practice.
Students have a range of English language skills – I will need to be mindful of using language accessibly, particularly as I tend to speak quickly and use a lot of words!
How will students be informed of the observation/review?
I have asked the MA Course Leader to let students know via email in advance.
What would you particularly like feedback on?
Any areas that I could improve!
How will feedback be exchanged?
I’m open to any format.
Part Two
Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:
Hi Hannah,
I came to see you lead a session with MA Sound Art students at LCC, where you were exploring radio art. Overall the session was excellent, and it was a real pleasure to observe your teaching practice. You have requested some feedback, particularly on areas to improve, so I have organised my thoughts below. I look forward to discussing these further with you on our call!
Overall
This was an excellent session with clear theory and practice connecting to one another and aiding the students learning within a field that was new for many of them. You made excellent use of technical resources such as PowerPoint and Padlet as well as physical objects such as radios and a morse code receiver. Your delivery was warm, personable, knowledgeable and allowed students to comfortably question, explore and learn in a way that felt safe, considered and creatively exciting. The material was well researched, intriguing and socially engaged, providing a diverse range of references. There were many moments where you deftly weaved theory and practice together, for example when you found some morse code and music, it was a brilliant way of demonstrating what the students had learnt and felt extremely satisfying to see theory turning merging with practice live.
Setting Up the Space/Session
You set up the learning space using a horseshoe configuration of tables which faced the screen and desk where you were sat. However, there were also tables outside of the horseshoe towards the back. You made students feel comfortable and welcomed on arrival and offered for them to sit wherever they liked. Although a generous offer and warm invitation to the space, I noticed that there was less engagement and group working with the students who weren’t sat within the horseshoe, making them somewhat isolated to the rest of the group. Many of these students were also latecomers, so perhaps inviting them to join the rest of the group may have felt more equitable and encouraged them to engage more deeply with the rest of the group and the material.
You also asked students their names as you took a register. I wonder if there could have been a more equitable approach to this, as you knew some students and not others. It might be useful to ask all of them to introduce their names and pronouns in the same way as a way of creating more equity in the space.
The introduction to the session was excellent, it was clear and exciting. To improve further, you could have put the plan up on the screen behind as well as saying it out loud to aid students understanding of the session structure. I would also encourage you to spend more time introducing yourself and your practice at the start, as your experience is so relevant within this field and some of the students hadn’t worked with you before.
Delivery wise, I would encourage you to perhaps move through the space a bit more (especially during the task so you can check in with each group) and be mindful of sight lines (for example when you held up the morse code receiver, you held it quite low so students at the back couldn’t see as well). However, it was an excellent tool for keeping up engagement and helped reinforce the learning from the previous slides.
Teaching and Supporting Learning
You chose an excellent range of readings and resources for the students to engage with. It was clear that the students hadn’t read the initial text that was sent to the course leader to disseminate. This isn’t your fault; however, I guess in future it might be good to check in with the course leader to ensure it was sent. However, the link in session and use of the Padlet was an excellent way of sharing the resources in real time, however this makes it harder for students who may be slower readers to fully engage.
The students were really focused and engaged throughout, and you did an excellent job keeping them interested, making space for personal interjections (such as the student who wanted to go to Norway) whilst also keeping the students on track with the session plan. You also offered nice open questions to the group and gave them space to think before responding. Using both in person discussion and the Padlet allowed quieter and more confident students to engage in a creative and equitable way. My only thought about engagement is that two students on the back row of the horseshoe talked a lot to one another privately whilst group discussions and instructions were happening. This was quite distracting for other students and meant that potentially they were missing key information. I would encourage you to check in with those chatty students directly, to make sure they are ok and to invite them to contribute to the group or to hold the private conversation until after the group discussion/instruction has been given. This is tricky to do but will likely help all the students focus and concentrate whilst listening to one another.
You fielded questions with confidence, clarity and honesty. For example, there was a great question about the physics of AM and FM. You did well to explain whilst making clear your positionality and scope of research, whilst also giving a satisfying response to the student. It could be good to put together a few more suggestions for further reading into the physics aspect for students who are particularly interested, but overall, you managed this brilliantly.
You considered how students could work together on a practical task that was achievable within the session timing. The use of headphone splitters was brilliant and really encouraged collaboration between the group. The students absolutely loved this exercise, and the results were a successful synthesis of their learning from the session. Again, at this point some students spoke over the sharing, Hank in particular chatted over others, and it would have been good to gently pull him up on this so that we could all hear Roman’s piece and explanation more clearly. I loved how you helped the students solve the mystery of the two different devices hearing different sounds on the same frequency, so great!
Final thoughts
This was a wonderful and inspiring session which really engaged the students and supported the development of their practice. You achieved this by creating a class that was engaging and utilised well curated learning materials and skilful delivery. I loved that at the
end of the session you offered the invitation for ‘questions or points of interest’ to open up a reflective discussion. You also ended the class with your website and advice on how to further develop some of this experimentation. The students loved the session, as did I. Thank you for having me to come in and observe, it was a real pleasure.
Part Three
Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged:
Chuck – thank you so much for your thoughtful and detailed feedback! I really appreciate the time you took to observe the whole session and then to provide such constructive insights. It’s great to hear that the class felt engaging and supported learning of both theory and practice. I’m especially pleased that the integration of materials like the morse code receiver and radio experiments worked well to demonstrate the ideas.
Your comments on setting up the space are really helpful – I also noticed that students outside of the horseshoe felt apart-from and that in hindsight it would have been better to ask them to switch seats! I’ll be more intentional about encouraging latecomers to join the main group and will think about how seating arrangements might foster better collaboration next time. I had also not considered sightlines at all – this is really useful!
Your suggestion to introduce myself and my practice more thoroughly at the beginning is also something I’ll try next time – I was nervous to do this as worried about putting focus on myself – but totally see your point that it will help students connect with the session more personally. I also appreciated your comment about encouraging equity by asking everyone to introduce themselves without differentiation as to whether I had met them previously before. I was recently thinking that it might be help me to remember names if I ask students to introduce themselves with a gesture that relates to their name, so I could incorporate this into the mix too.
In terms of classroom management, I will be more mindful of checking in with students who are chatting or disengaged, ensuring that everyone remains focused and included. Moving through the room and perhaps setting it up so that students are around tables that I can walk around would help me with this. I also appreciate your point about additional physics reading—I’ll prepare a short resource list for students interested in that area.
Thank you again for your valuable feedback. I super appreciate the time you took to write this and to follow up with a call!
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