Analysing teaching situations: extending reflection into action

Think about a lecture or seminar you recently taught, and the techniques you used (interactive, didactic, student-centred, problem-based ...). To what extent was your choice of techniques influenced, either positively or negatively, by any of the following?

• Student factors e.g. size of group, pattern of study, student level of expertise, students’ expectations of what you will do, yours of them

• Environmental factors : size and layout of room, time/place of session, the weather ...

• Institutional or subject discipline factors , e.g. ‘how we do things in this University’; conventions of teaching in your discipline; how degree programmes are organised and assessed; colleagues' and departmental attitudes to teaching; the University Learning and Teaching Strategy…

• Other factors e.g. courses about teaching you have attended; theoretical literature you have read, subject or thematic resource websites you have consulted

Did any of the above factors encourage you to try something new? Did any of the above factors STOP you from implementing a strategy you would have liked to try? (e.g. ‘I can’t do interactive work in a lecture theatre of 100+ students’; ‘students refuse to do any preparation for classes’…)

If you have identified constraints, you might like to look at the FAQs section of the ProDAIT website for suggestions on overcoming some of the often-articulated difficulties encountered by teachers. Alternatively, use a search engine to trawl higher education websites for hints, tips and solutions.

In the light of these searches, think again about how far you have to be constrained, even though we all acknowledge that constraints exist. Sometimes we have more room for manoeuvre than we realize.