This is a personal reflection on a student webinar using Gibbs Reflective Cycle (Gibbs, G. 1988).

Description

The learning session was a group discussion wherein I, as an alumnus of a Masters Degree, facilitated a discussion between a group of students who are in Week 5 of their MA in Photography.

Five students booked onto the session but one did not attend.

The session was an hour and a half long from 7pm to 8:30pm.

Having been a participant in similar sessions during my MA I felt that the aim of the session, was to facilitate discussion amongst the students as peers, as much as it was to share my own experience.

Prior to the session I had been briefed by the module leader as to the current stage of the students, the current LO’s and the scope of the current module they are studying.

Although I was aware of the LO’s for the student’s current module, for this session I did not put in place a minute-by-minute plan for the session to target specific learning outcomes. The aim of the session was to make a general assessment of the level of work that the students were currently producing, to assist them in framing their ideas and bringing them into focus for the delivery of their first assessment, and to share concepts to help them articulate the reasoning behind their work.

The students already have a tutor who will be advising them and assessing their work. My session was a ‘bonus’ extra to support both them and my PGcHE. I will not be responsible for assessing their work and I made them aware of this at the beginning of the session.

Feelings

Overall I feel the session went well. The group was sized such that each member had sufficient time to talk through their work and explain the rationale behind it.

My sense is that they felt the session was valuable and all went away with some new thinking and ideas, partly from me but also from their peers who brought their experiences and thinking to one another’s projects.

With more time and less rigid structure than the micro-teach I delivered last week I felt more relaxed about the session.

It was really uplifting to talk to people about their work and the rationale behind it.

Evaluation

In hindsight I think, as each student talked through their work, I expressed my opinion about it prior to opening the discussion up to their peers. I don’t think I did this in a formulaic way, discussion flowed quite naturally, but I am aware of at least one instance where I did this.

I felt an overwhelming urge to make recommendations for further reading, often the students projects reminded me of work I’d seen before but couldn’t remember the exact details.

I kept a close eye on the time, and made sure that the session was divided up relatively equally between each of the students and that there would be a little time left for any additional ‘over flow’ discussion.

One student had to leave early, I hadn’t checked for this but we had time to discuss his work. This was more by luck than judgement though.

Analysis

All in all I felt it was a positive session. It flowed well, it ran to time, and discussion was spread evenly between myself and the participants.

I felt comfortable leading the session.

Two of the students didn’t bring work to show, although they had been asked to do that before hand.

Conclusion

I learned that my experience in running meetings in the corporate sector, and chairing group counselling sessions for a charity has given me sufficient experience to manage this type of session. That said there is always room for improvement.

I wish I had a broader knowledge of photographic subjects to direct students to, and a better memory for the ones that I have seen.

Action Plan

I have a similar session to run tomorrow so I will be able to make some refinements to my process for that session.

At the beginning of the session I’ll set out clearly how it will work, and clarify that it won’t go over time.

I will check if anyone needs to leave early so I know what order

I will let them know that I may follow up with recommendations of further reading or artistic references, and check they are ok with that.

I will pre-empt the non-sharing of current work and encourage those who think they don’t have anything yet to share anyway. I shall acknowledge the fear of doing so but also explain the benefits.

I will make sure I open up discussion about student’s work to their peers before expressing my own opinion.

Long term I’ll spend more time reading the photography journals I subscribe to and view that not as an indulgence to be had when time is available, but as a key part of my own learning to support students.