The first two scenarios in our ‘Picture This’ series are linked to some of the themes often experienced in January.
January can often be a time of change, of new inspirations, but also a time where people may have to deal with new challenges and where intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are often reflected on.
At the University, new units are often being taught, Teach Block 1 assessment results and feedback are a feature of this time, and there are often new ‘resolutions’ to be considered.
Scenario A
Ashley is in the second year of their undergraduate degree (studying a humanities subject). In their first year they achieved a range of different marks on different types of assessments. Towards the end of the year one they felt a particular assignment had gone extremely well; the grade was the highest they had achieved on the course, and the comments were very positive, however they felt they had no idea as to how to improve to ‘move to the next level’ in Year 2.
At the start of year 2 Ashley experiences a lot more group assessments, and despite looking back at their comments from Year 1, actually feels less sure of what ‘good looks like’ than at times during the first year of the course. When Ashley completes the assessments as part of TB1 assessments, they feel equally uncertain, even between what ‘good’ looks like across different units.
In reflection Ashley considered that: ‘It is now January and I’m really uncertain about the outcomes and worry that this will affect my engagement with upcoming TB2 units. I’ve looked at the feedback across all my assessments and although I’ve aimed to apply some of the feedback comments to my other assessments, it always seems that I ‘nearly’ have made the improvements.’
Scenario B, part one
Ali is a student in the first year of their undergraduate studies (studying in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences). They started their course with enthusiasm and committed to fairly extensive pre-reading. A number of their lecturers spark their interest and they feel engaged by this.
When they attend seminars there are a few students who are often leading the discussion and there doesn’t seem to be many opportunities for them to share their ideas. Ali spends a lot of time considering whether a feeling of being passive in these situations is affecting their willingness to engage with the course material.
With a new series of units in January, Ali reflects that:
“I feel a bit like I have a choice about whether to direct my effort and energy to my independent study interests and take a bit of a back seat in my in-person lectures and seminars. I think taking a bit of a low-key approach would be okay for the first year and I’ll have more interest in my second year units.”
Scenario B, part two
Jan is a lecturer teaching on a unit for first year undergraduates (teaching the unit that Ali studies in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences). They plan their seminars to cover a range of topics and give students the opportunity to discuss some of the questions and issues in pairs or small groups.
On a number of occasions a couple of students make a range of contributions and where the group often goes quiet or there is an uncertainty about a particular concept, Jan ends up inviting the students who have previously spoken a lot to share their ideas. As the unit goes on, week-by-week, Jan notices that the group
Jan’s reflection of the sessions is that: ‘I really just want to avoid those silences in the sessions. I feel like I’ve planned them in a way to give everyone an opportunity to verbally contribute, so I felt that it was okay to allow a few voices to come to the fore to help move the discussion on further. There’s a new group of students in the next teaching block, so I am anticipating it will be a similar set up to before the winter break.’
We’ll follow up on these scenarios with a reflection blog in a few weeks’ time from different people with different backgrounds from across the university.
If you would like to share any of your reflections on these scenarios to this blog, you can contact us to share your thoughts, or post any comments below. Further details about different ways to contribute are outlined in our ‘call for contributions’.
We’d also welcome any suggestions of scenarios to our February edition, which has the theme of ‘personal connections in education’.
Maybe something like a comment box would work to get every voice included in group discussions. This might look like students writing an individual response on a piece of paper in class, then placing in a box. The teacher shuffles the responses and picks some at random. Students can choose whether or not to identify themselves, or to speak more about what they wrote. Each person is then active and has a choice in how much they do or don’t speak up.
I love Ash’s suggestion. I’d also suggest that Jan could move around the classroom during small group discussions, noting down interesting ideas that students have contributed. In plenary discussions, Jan can then ask specific groups to share more about each idea and acknowledge students’ contributions. It’s also important to mix up the different groups and pairs, if Jan doesn’t do this already – this might encourage quieter students like Ali to contribute.
I think the group assessment question is more challenging. Is Ashley being given group feedback or feedback on their own performance within the group? Is the feedback on the process of working in a group or on a final output? How are students grouped? Do they engage in peer assessment and feedback? Whatever the specific approach, it’s crucial for teachers to provide support with group work – students may not be comfortable with being assessed in groups – and engage students in making sense of the marking criteria to develop understanding of what ‘good’ looks like.