Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice        

 

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: 2 hours Seminar for BA Fashion Marketing Year 1

Size of student group: Around 20 students

Observer: Paul Bench

Observee: Misha Xu

Note: This record is solely for exchanging developmental feedback between colleagues. Its reflective aspect informs PgCert and Fellowship assessment, but it is not an official evaluation of teaching and is not intended for other internal or legal applications such as probation or disciplinary action.

Part One
Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review:

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?

• Understanding and discussions on how to structure the summative assessment which is an individual report
• Discuss and make all marketing decisions in the simulation game including Q3,Q4.

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?

• Since they joined LCF in Sep 2024, I have been doing lectures (cross 3 courses), seminars, and tutorials

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?

• Understanding the Principles of Fashion Marketing, and reflecting their understanding in the Simulation Game.

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?

• A marketing report 1500 words
• Students are required to produce a marketing report for a fashion company/brand/retailer/designer of their choice. The report outlines a marketing plan to meet the requirements of an identified target market within a local or global context. The marketing plan should outline clear aims and objectives, implementation activities and KPIs to measure performance and progress towards the achievement of the marketing plan outcomes.

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?

• No

How will students be informed of the observation/review?

• I will introduce it to students before the seminar starts

What would you particularly like feedback on?

• Student engagement and group participants

How will feedback be exchanged?

• This record form, and email communications

Part Two

Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:

The observed session was towards the end of a unit. Through this unit, students engaged in an online team game in which students apply theory in active decision making framed as a competition. This was explained to me ahead of time. The session also served to recap on briefing notes before a summative report submission.

Students were congratulated at the start of the session for attendance across the unit. Encouraging students to log on to the relevant game/application and get into their groups, took some time. While students did this and latecomers continued to arrive, key aspects of the session and imminent deadline were repeated, while students were encouraged to excel in the remaining time.

Unless students had been forewarned of the observer presence, it would have been good to alert them to the observation. Organising late students and group working on laptops, while summarising submission requirements was potentially challenging to manage, but done with ease. The break seemed to come a little early, but this may relate to the flow of the session, the impending game deadline and established protocols.

The session was orderly, with distinct shifts from the login and stress on the game, to more formal submission slides. A combination of clear information about deadlines and what to submit with good explanations about how to format the report and why, was supplemented with more active use of the shared screen. This sharing briefly included the outlook app, but ensuring this is closed ahead of sharing to class might be good in future. Sharing citethemright and Academic Support booking areas on screen might have been good, but this had likely been covered previously.

The presentation of information was thorough and enthusiastic, allowing space for questions. Formal elements at the beginning and in the summative briefing were presented at the lectern and at appropriate volume for the class, while individuals and groups were attended to in a modified tone. The pace of some information delivery could be slowed down. However, by this stage students are presumably well versed on the expectations.

There were a number of behavioural/individual student challenges. This contributed to a challenging situation in which some students had to be introduced to the task while the majority focused on summative activities. Misha demonstrated extremely high levels of patience and empathy, sought the assistance of technical staff and managed everything with ease and an even tone.

Some groups/students were more engaged in the task than others. This is inherent in all group work. Perhaps some attention could be paid to each group more systematically. However, I was only able to observe the first part of an extended session, so all students likely received attention across the span of the full session.

Overall, the session was handled with skill, confidence, technical ability and excellent attention to diverse student needs.