ENroute Yearbook 2015-16
In at the Deep End: Building Confidence in the Teaching Team
Stephen Robertson, Business School, Senior Fellow
Do you remember teaching your first class, when you moved from one end of the
classroom to the other? I remember mine very clearly. It came a lot quicker than
I expected as I was ‘shadowing’ a colleague, but the partitioned classroom quite
literally intervened and I was faced with a class full of MBA students. I had no time
to prepare or worry, but my mentor’s confidence in me meant that I walked into the
room and delivered an hour and half on International Business. We swapped rooms
and I did it again.
This isn’t the ideal way to take your first class but the freedom I was given was
something that stayed with me. Now that I’m a module leader myself, with a team
of three or four tutors delivering about 10 tutorials each week, I’ve tried to create
a supportive and empowering environment for new colleagues. As module leader, I
have the responsibility for consistency in delivery without being prescriptive. I need
to develop an understanding – quickly – of what support a new tutor requires. The
lectures are recorded so the delivery team, new and experienced, are encouraged
to listen to those as preparation or come along to class to understand the module
ethos more. I use slides as a structure and talk around them, drawing from the
students’ experiences, so the other tutors need to know what examples I’ve used.
At the end of each term, I run an online questionnaire that allows students to
feedback on a range of topics, including the tutorials. By indicating which class they
attended, the students provide direct feedback for each tutor. This detail is passed
on to the tutors to help them develop. This helps create a supportive environment
where the module team learn as much as the students.
Watch Stephen’s video presentation
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