In response to my tutor review, (see full document in Appendix B) I will reflect on comments below:
It was noted that my teaching room was well set out & an inviting space for students to come into. Careful curation and development of this space has been of great importance to me, since working in a warm & engaging space is positive for myself & my team, therefore also beneficial for students.
I often remind everyone of my (and my colleague’s) name(s) if I see students I am unfamiliar with, but it is good practice to adjust my sessions, so I always give a reminder at the start to make them more comfortable.
I always use music during sessions to make students feel comfortable, but the use of it during the OBL activity at the start was a new addition thanks to my reflections from microteaching. I will be implementing more aspects of dedicated time for OBL as an icebreaker during my sessions as I found it extremely successful with engaging students in the process.
A personal priority for myself is to always make students feel welcomed and listened to, no matter their background or skill level, so the fact this was picked up on as a positive aspect is rewarding. I will continue to treat my students with consideration & kindness, as this fosters better relationships & encourages their learning.
I often try to link processes to other more familiar methods/materials to ease explanation. I think it is a useful tool as mentioned “meeting students where they are” (Biggs & Tang)
The mixture of digital slides and in person examples was picked up on as helpful and clarifying. I usually remind students these slides are all available on SharePoint after the session, but it would be useful structure this into my notes at the start to ensure students are clear.
Use of artist examples with various backgrounds is important to me to ensure students are given diverse inspiration. I would like to develop the artist examples I choose by giving additional artists/books/websites in the references slide, with not only a range of ethnic backgrounds, but including artists/writers with other visible AND nonvisible diverse characteristics.
Going forward, I will implement a slide to leave up during image production with clear instructions about expectations on what we are producing e.g. the 2 layer image, so students can reference this whilst making without needing to ask for reminders.
If I were to scale up this session, I would need to consider a larger room, and careful timetabling to ensure smooth running. I could likely run this session for a MAX. of 32 students across a 2-week period. DG21 (bookable seminar room) is suitable, but less inviting & inspiring to teach/students to work in. Additionally, this would require staff time to set-up the multi-purpose space.
I would not be able to induct all 32 students in 1 afternoon in the Riso room, as it is very small and only has 2 machines. I would need to offer short time slots, which may not account machine failure or issues with image preparation.
By increasing group size and taking away from teaching in an inviting fit-for-purpose space, the session no longer feels to be a safe environment, rather formal & daunting. Resulting in students being less comfortable asking for help & speaking out, and therefore, less comprehension. Ultimately, I believe group size is best left capped at 10. However, if I were forced to run this session for a larger group, I would probably develop Option B further (see Appendix A).
My options would be to either split this session into a short lecture & separate printing day or reduce image production through larger collaboration on a single print. Waning student attention span means it’s preferable to complete an induction/session within one day, however, larger groups would result in not all students using the Riso machine at every step, thus not successfully reaching the learning outcomes.
Conversely, more collaboration is a positive learning experience for the students to develop real-world skills. Giving students frameworks to plan and prepare within their own time also gives autonomy for future practice.
(Appendix A)
Option A
- Offer initial part of the session as larger group lecture (30-45 mins), then have students begin to plan images in pairs, giving a framework of info e.g.
- Rough drawing/description of image
- Description of layer separation choice
- Colour choices and order
- Give 30 mins-1 hr for this section, so whole session is 1-1.5 hrs, allowing time for face-to-face questions & troubleshooting.
- At end of session, I would approve plans made in class.
- Students would then be expected to go away for 1 week & complete their image separations in own time. They could drop in for support via email or dedicated drop-in hour e.g. Tuesday afternoon.
- We would meet directly in the print room the following week in slot bookings assigned to them e.g.:
- 10.00-11.20, 8 students (4 pairs)
- 11.20-12.40, 8 students (4 pairs)
- 13.40-15.00, 8 students (4 pairs)
- 15.00-16.20, 8 students (4 pairs)
- 32 students total printing across 7 hrs. vs max 10 students printing across 5 hrs. aka. an increase in x2.3 capacity.
Option B
- An alternative option to expand this session, is to only offer the session as a collaborative zine workshop, with 4+ people working together at once to make a single 8-page zine. Aka. each person would produce either 2, 2-layer A6 images or 1 A5, then in their group these would be compiled together into 1 A3 sheet & printed into a single zine.
- I could offer this to a group of 24 students (6 groups) in the time frame of the original session but require a larger room to teach.
- I would again, need to assign slots after the intro & image production in the morning e.g.
- 14.00-14.45, Group 1 & 2 (8 students total)
- 14.45-15.30, Group 3 & 4 (8 students total)
- 15.30-16.15, Group 3 & 4 (8 students total)
- 24 students total printing across 5 hrs. vs max 10 students printing across 5 hrs. aka. an increase in x2.4 capacity.
- This capacity increase just beats the previous offer, although on paper seems to cover less students, (24 vs. 32), the time spent to teach the students works out as more time effective for Option B.
(Appendix B)
Review of Teaching Practice Form – Chelsie Coates – 27th Feb 2026