Final thoughts

Well, here I am penning my last post of this blog for the class. It’s been an intense and, I hope, educational year for all of us (we learn too, you know!).

Thanks to everyone who took the time to write a reflective essay on their experiences over the last year (not all were posted on the blog – some students handed them in).

You might remember earlier in the year I asked everyone to get up and talk for a minute on an unprepared topic. Once the last student had finished, Beata, quite rightly, set me the task of talking on buffaloes for a minute. We (tutors) should, I believe, be always prepared to do the tasks which we ask students to do. So, in that spirit, I aim, right here and right now, to write my own reflections and evaluation of the year.

For your essay I suggested the following structure:

- Introduction – motivation and expectations
- Positive experiences
- How course could be improved
- Evaluation of your own performance
- Conclusion – what you have learned

It seems fair that I should write my reflection using the same structure …

Jerry’s Reflective Essay

So, to start, what was my motivation and expectations at the beginning of the year? (Ah yes, the old, trusty question to get an essay kick-started) Well, beside my big, fat salary, my motivation was, as always, to create a supportive but challenging learning environment to allow students to develop. That all sounds a bit woolly but I suppose that’s what teaching is for me. Sometimes the word “teach” is too blunt an instrument for my liking.

My expectation was that I would be working with a group of able and interesting students who would be ready for a challenge. I wasn’t wrong. This was my first year teaching on this Access course at Stevenson, so I was, in a sense, new as well. I think we were all up for the challenge and, although, tough at times, I think we all learned a lot along the way.

It’s impossible to predict how a class will gel, but from very early on it was clear that you all worked and, importantly, learned very well together. This intra-class dynamic is crucial to the development of a positive learning environment - it was always a pleasure to walk into your class.

This brings me to my positive experiences. To be honest, and you may accuse me of being some class of Irish charmer, but the positive experiences are really too numerous to mention. One of the most fundamental factors in teaching, I think, is developing positive relationships with learners. I feel that I was lucky in developing such relationships with each and every one of the class. So, my primary positive experience is the sum of all these relationships.

But what about improvements? (By the way, I hope you are all paying attention to my paragraphing and signposting) We always need to be aware of how things could be improved. I would agree wholeheartedly that one of the weaknesses in terms of my class was the accommodation (which is always a safe weakness to admit as it’s out of my control). The rooms we were in on the fourth floor were not appropriate for what we needed to do a lot of the time and the technological delights of room 126 came much too late to be of any great use. It’s not much comfort to you folk, but I will try to get that sorted for next year - you may not believe me but I have been trying to resolve this all year.

So what about improvements in things that I have control of (and this segues into the evaluation of my own performance)? Well, that’s trickier as it requires a degree of self-criticism.

I suppose I’m asking myself "would I do anything different?" Well, I think I might time or pace assessments in a different way next year. I was very conscious of the amount of assessments that you needed to get through this year. A few students, in their reflective essays, mentioned that we (and I think they mean all tutors) could/should have been stricter on assessment deadlines.

That’s a tricky one. I set a deadline for essays in December. And yes, I was still getting some of these essays in the last week of teaching. Should I have failed every student who didn’t make the December deadline? Maybe, but, to be honest, there wouldn’t be many folk left at the end of the course if I did. However, I did go on (and on) about how universities will be stricter on deadlines. Maybe I need to go on about that even more next year (Already I can see the rolling-eyes of students I haven’t yet met).

So, what have I learned? Well, amongst other things I’ve learned how to make an origami flower. I’ve learned how to make a camera obscura out of a Pringles can. I’ve learned about the culture and history of places such as Bulgaria and Riga. I’ve learned about the cultural significance of Bruce Lee, Che Guevara and the Moors in Spain. I’ve learned about the achievements of Rafael Nadal. I’ve learned how to hit someone without getting hit back. I’ve learned about the significance of colours. I’ve learned about disability rights in Ecuador. I’ve learned how comics can help you learn a second language. I’ve learned about movements in modern architecture. I’ve learned about the addictive power of World of Warcraft. And most of that has just been in the last month!

I’ve also learned (or re-learned) that if we’re coasting along then we’re probably not learning a lot. But when we feel we are on the very edges of our comfort zone, then, possibly, we are learning. That’s what learning feels like. It’s not always a pleasant feeling at the time - but it seems worth the discomfort in retrospect. This is an important thing for us, as tutors, to remember. We force students out of their comfort zone a lot. How often do we move out of ours?

Another way of self-evaluating for me as a tutor is asking the simple question "what did my students learn?" One way of getting a measure of that is by asking you to write the reflective essay (which you did) and unless you're all lying, it seem that you all learned something along the way.

So, to finish (and I just love cyclical structures), let's go right back to a question we started with at the very beginning of our time together: what is the purpose of education? No need to reply, but I wonder has anyone changed their mind on that one …

Take care. Jerry.