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Transcript for Interactive Lectures and
Working with Course Reps with Tom Brock
Interactive Lectures
“My name is Tom Brock, I'm a lecturer in Sociology here at MMU and I teach on a course around
sociological theory, which is very much interested in teaching students around the analytical
frameworks of social life to make sense of social behaviours.
I am interested in trying to find ways of getting students to engage with me but through the process
of taking seriously them as individuals, them as people, people with values and projects and
interests. So, how that plays out in terms of my practice, I spend a lot of my time introducing forms
of interactivity and dialogue into my teaching. So, for example, in lectures I often break up the
lectures and I will introduce activities that get students to talk to one another but also to talk to me.
So, there is a sense then that when students are engaging around one theory or a number of
different theories, that there is this process of 'well, this is how they try to make sense of it' and then
I step in and ask them questions around it, and then they reflect on those questions, and they try to
make sense of the theory through their own experiences. But then they come back to me and say
'well, this is how I'm thinking about it' and I respond then. So, there is this process of dialogue which
I think is very important in the context of sociological theory because it is quite abstract. So, this
reciprocity and reflexivity responding to my students is an important part of grounding the theory in
something that they can relate to.
It is informal assessment, actually. Like I say, the two components of reflexivity and reciprocity are
about encouraging dialogue, but the reason that that is important in the lectures and the seminars is
that it is a mechanism of informal assessment. Because when I speak to my students, I ask them
questions about how they are understanding the material, if they are stuck around a particular
concept then it gives me the opportunity to reflect back on them 'well, right we need to spend
longer on here before I even begin to move further on', and, I mean, that is an important part of
confidence building because you don't want to run too far away with students and that is quite easy
with sociological concepts, so you have to keep… you encourage dialogue and interaction with them
as a way of trying to make sure that they are following along this journey.
One of the best ways that I find to help confidence building is facilitating peer networks and peer
dialogue. One of the things I use particularly in the seminars, I encourage them to spend most of
that time talking to one another because they are at the same level, and that is an important process
that students need to understand where other students are in relation to themselves. I mean the
main mechanism that I use to build confidence is in students is through either through one-to-one
sessions of discussion around the material they that are struggling with, or through feedback.
Working with Course Reps
Quick and effective responses to student feedback is pivotal, I think, to my teaching practice because
(to feedback) they get a sense of 'Tom's taking the issues that we have seriously', whether they are
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small issues such as 'we don't like the colours that you use in the presentation slides' all the way to
'Oh right well, we need to revisit a whole topic because students simply didn't understand this issue’.
So, the course reps for that reason play a pivotal role in good teaching practice, I feel, because they
are the linchpin between the students and the lecturer. The course reps often highlight things that if
left untouched could become much more serious issues later on. Whereas, in my experience,
because I spent time building up a rapport with the course reps it helped the whole module flow a
lot smoother.”
Interview with Amarpreet Kaur, 2nd year Sociology course rep
What do you like about Tom’s style of teaching?
“He just loves what he teaches and his passion just flows through in how he speaks about it.”
What was it like working with Tom as a course rep?
“I was a first year course rep last year and now 2nd year course rep. Working with him last year, we
both took feedback from the students but then we also delivered it to the staff and heard from the
staff. Everything we had to say to him, both positive and negative, he took it with a smile, I mean all
of it with a smile and that is rare to see from staff. And he took it all on board, listened to all of it
very constructively, told it how he had improved it, and the main thing was that he did it with a
smile. Because it is not always easy telling someone where they have to improve. “
How did that effect your experience of being a course rep and your course in general?
“It made it much easier, and it made it much more pleasant as well because then it gave you the
confidence, especially as a first year course rep, it gave them the confidence to them go and do the
same with other staff. He made us feel at ease being able to approach him. We then just spent the
rest of the year talking to staff directly which meant to we could resolve issues much quicker that
waiting for these set meetings throughout the year and that was potentially because he had him first
and he took it so well. It set the path for the rest of them really which was nice!”