Peer Observation (Part II)

‘Evaluating teaching, Teaching knowledge & values, Education for sustainability: Lecturer-Learner / Student-Practitioner‘

To be observed –

The documentary feature film ‘Hale County This Morning, This Evening’ (2018), directed by RaMell Ross is described as ‘ A kaleidoscopic and humanistic view of the Black community in Hale County, Alabama.’. I saw this film for the first time in the cinema last week. The film is all ‘A roll’, there is no ‘B roll’ and there are no ‘cutaways’, no considerations for scene structure, simply pure observational footage edited together to make us feel something, connect with someone and for just over an hour have a window into another’s world. The lack of construction within the filming process allows for interpretive viewing and for our minds to wander within the world we have been placed in. The documentary is both observational and participatory, in that every now and again the contributors acknowledge the filmmaker by conversing with him and interact with the camera by looking directly down the lens at us, the audience. Is this “eye contact”? It relates to the first time I was observed whilst teaching; I was both aware and at sometimes lost in what I was doing. I think being observed by my tutor Sergio through microsoft Teams online was potentially easier than having him in person in the seminar session. Normally with documentary filmmaking it takes several days for the contributor to feel comfortable in front of the camera, and maybe more days for the contributor to ignore the camera and to be as ‘natural’ as possible whilst being observed. We had no such luxury of time, Sergio logged into Teams at 3pm and we began. I felt myself wanting to be better, wanting to convey the relationship/dynamic I have with my students and wanting to improve my teaching and try new things; I found observation forced me into having a new perspective on teaching as a lecturer-learner or student-practitioner (Fry, Ketteridge, Marshall, 2020) and it’s clear ‘that there can be no curriculum development without teacher development’ (Wyse, Hayward and Pandya, 2016). I could have been having an off day, I could have been performing better than normal (Macfarlane, 2004), in a similar manner to documentary filmmaking where you observe the whole character/contributors life over a specific time period and then edit it into one hour – this highlights the performance aspect of teaching. 

Reading ‘Pedagogy and Curriculum – Teachers as Learners’ by Kay Livingston (Wyse, Hayward and Pandya, 2016), made me reflect on my own experiences as a student and all the teachers who had taught me. I am now part of all my students’ stories. I remember a lot of my lecturers and some of my students will go on to remember me and the way in which I taught them. I remember the breakthroughs; the lecturers who had a good impact on me and also those who were not ‘good’ teachers.

Reference list

Hale County This Morning, This Evening. (2018). The Cinema Guild.

Macfarlane, B. (2004). Teaching with Integrity : the Ethics of Higher Education practice. London | New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Marshall, S., Fry, H. and Ketteridge, S. (2020). A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education ; Enhancing Academic Practice. New York: Routledge.

Wyse, D., Hayward, L. and Pandya, J. (2016). The SAGE Handbook of curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment. Los Angeles: Sage Reference.