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West Nottinghamshire College - Case study – Using digital technology in the observation process

 

 

About West Nottinghamshire College

 

West Nottinghamshire College is a medium-sized college in north-west Nottinghamshire, serving mainly the Mansfield and Ashfield areas. The college has approximately 20,000 learners and 1,000 staff in total. It runs full-time and part-time courses in most curriculum areas (such as construction, health and social care, beauty, motor vehicle) and also provides A level and access courses. More information about the college can be found on the college website at www.wnc.ac.uk.

 

Motivation for participation in the pilot

 

The college was keen to participate in this pilot for one main reason:

 

• to investigate additional ways of managing and enhancing the observation process.

 

The college currently has approximately 200 learners on teacher training programmes, from the 7407 City and Guilds Stage 1 to the PGCE/CertEd. The current practice of visiting each trainee on a number of occasions can be a very expensive process and, with the number of observations potentially set to rise, it is increasingly important that we work together with awarding bodies and relevant agencies to explore alternative ways of assessing the teaching capability of our trainees. We therefore decided to look at asking trainees to record their own session using digital technology. 

 

The college does not intend videoed observations to replace face-to-face observations, which are, and always will be, valuable, relevant and necessary. Videoed observations should enhance and supplement the current process and add value for the trainee. We feel that by asking a learner to video themselves and reflect on that footage, they are able see a different dimension to their teaching. Tutors can provide useful and relevant feedback on observed teaching sessions but it is only when a student watches themselves and their learners that they can appreciate their own performance and their management of the learners in the classroom. Self-reflection is a constant theme running through the teaching training programmes and remains a necessary part of teachers’ personal and professional continuing development (CPD) once the programme has finished.  

 

Key idea

"The essential aim of the proposal was to trial some digital technology to see whether it would be appropriate to use in the observation process; it was not specifically to evaluate the learners’ performance on the video (an analysis of this would be done as a secondary activity). Because we would be asking learners to see what the technology was like to carry about, set up and use in their teaching environment, we needed to select the most appropriate technology for our needs. "

 

We identified the following issues as being important:  

 

• The technology had to allow us to gather meaningful evidence to use in the observation or assessment process
• The technology had to be uncomplicated - easy for the majority of learners* to set up and use
• The technology had to be small, portable and relatively unobtrusive
• The learners needed to be able to play back the footage easily so they could complete the self-evaluation 
• The tutors also needed to be able to access, view and store the footage easily.

 

* We appreciate that there are some sectors of education (i.e. the prison sector or police authority) where tutors may not be able to use camcorders