One of the first elements of the PGCert was writing our educational philosophies which took me far longer than I imagined. I immediately became aware that my teaching up to this point was based purely on intuition and passion. I didn't have the language or terminology to describe the teaching pedagogy I was naturally adopting and I hadn't been introduced to the necessary reflective tools to help me improve my practise from a wider perspective other than my own. It's been a truly fascinating experience.
Fashion buying and brand management is likely to move to hybrid teaching post pandemic. With this in mind, I focused my own learning outcomes around delivering hybrid teaching, fostering a community to support students in this new environment and making myself more aware of neurodiversity within our cohorts. I have focused both of my reflective commentaries around these issues with a particular focus on creating community and inclusivity on Aula blending the online and face to face content. I have spent a lot of time researching how to improve my teaching practise to be more inclusive and sympathetic to different students’ needs and look forward to continuing this investigation and experimenting with my teaching practice accordingly.
With my learning outcomes in mind; the most interesting topic I have researched has been universal design for learning (UDL). In particular I have enjoyed listening to various episodes of the Think UDL podcast with one quote standing out in particular; “If [you] can facilitate a learner to see themselves as an expert learner then you are empowering them to go out and to take control and agency over their lives. That's what a great educator should be trying to do” (Nave, 2019). This quote really resonated with me helping make sense of my reflections and confirm my educational philosophy.
I have found journaling a real pleasure and a vital tool supporting my reflective commentaries and educational philosophy. I would like to continue to complete a couple of journal entries per month reflecting on my own teaching and experiences and hope to build and evolve my e-portfolio alongside it in the future too.
In the past I have found lesson observations to be quite intimidating, finding it difficult to make sense of the limited feedback I received. With so many observations happening the past couple of months and being an observer myself, I have grown to see the value in feedback from others and have enjoyed observing teaching pedagogy in other subjects. Meeting my triad buddies weekly for coffee break catch ups has been a real highlight of the whole PGCert journey thus far with plenty of discussion around observations and topical subjects. Mio and Liz have helped build my confidence in teaching vastly over the past few months offering support and feedback continuously.
My mentor has also been really supportive offering really in-depth feedback on my learning activity in particular. Kevin really helped me become aware of issues in activity and group based work particularly when teaching a larger cohort. Kevin brought a number of potential issues to my attention and directed me to useful sources to help support my reflective commentaries. One of the most valuable pieces of feedback I received from Kevin was being aware of assessing the understanding of each individual student in larger groups. He brought to my attention the risk of some students not fully understanding something and getting lost (especially in group work scenarios) and falling behind.
The most challenging aspect of learning on PGCert has been finding time. Unfortunately, in the first half of the unit I was trying to work two jobs, study and homeschool my two children. Lots of my study time had to be moved to the evenings and weekends which wasn't ideal. However, I have read more than I ever imagined and have really enjoyed the whole experience, in particular being a student again and having a focus during these ‘lock down’ times has been so valuable.
As the first unit draws to a close, I now have far more confidence in my teaching style and practice and have enjoyed the support of my triad, wider PGCert group and mentor. Being part of a community learning together has been really enjoyable and helped me discover so much while feeling truly supported and encouraged to experiment and progress. I would like to continue to catch up with my group on a regular basis to discuss teaching practise and experience - it's so great to get broader perspectives and opinions on teaching outside of the colleagues you work with immediately within your course too.
I really enjoyed listening to the e-portfolio presentations and listening to the different journeys my peers have been on during the course. I particularly enjoyed listening to Steve Lloyd’s example of creating a careers event. I thought this created a really authentic experience for students and is something that would be great to open to the whole university - especially during these tricky times for graduates navigating their ways into their careers.
I’ve really enjoyed the format of the PGCert course and will be adopting lots of this within my own teaching such as the weekly flipped learning, checklists and e-portfolios.
I am now going back to review my educational philosophy with all this new information and understanding. If I had to choose one quote that has helped me realise my true philosophy and understand why I teach - this would be it...
“We are all teachers in one way or another. The world is changing all the time. It's up to us as teachers to help nudge things in the way we hope things will go”
(KPU Teaching & learning Common, 2020).
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Bibliography:
KPU Teaching & learning Common, 2020. Accessible, Flexible, Blended & Online Learning with Ed Tech. [podcast] Beyond the Chalkboard. Available at: <https://anchor.fm/kpu-tlcommons> [Accessed 10 March 2021].
Nave, L., 2019. Creating Inclusive Space for All with Zach Smith. [podcast] https://thinkudl.org/. Available at: <https://thinkudl.org/> [Accessed 3 March 2021].