School of teaching, Health and Care
PCET – Subject Specialist Mentor Observation Form
Teacher Observed: Dale Cotton
PCET course and year: PG Dip Pre-Service Full
Time
Observer: Leanne Clark
Observed course/ level: 3
Date: 4/4/14
No. of students: 6
Session Focus (context):
The lesson will be for my second year Extended Diploma class. If the class is full it should consist
of 10 students. The topic being covered is focusing on developing technologies in the television
and film industries.
Only 4 of the class was present last week for the beginning of the topic on television and so the
beginning part of the lesson will be focused on re-capping but not in too much detail, while
checking on prior knowledge the other students may have. This is so they can use the information
and the themes and ideas discussed for the second part of the topic which will be about film.
I will look to make sure the basic facts are learned and the understanding for all the students is of
the right level, but will focus more on their personal ideas towards this, which will be used for their
assignment. I will look to add more activities to the lesson and be less teacher led in my approach
than in my last observation.
Summary of any outstanding features and particular strengths:
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Good use of differentiation with some of the direct questioning that took place.
Improved use of Q&A in general; didn’t answer questions for them, thought about
rewording questions to draw answers out of the students.
Managed behaviour well in areas.
Summary of areas for development:
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
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Need to think of ways to engage all students in recap activity.
Lesson really suffered from lack of activities or visual stimulation.
Lesson needs to have more direction which could possibly be achieved through
clearer learning outcomes.
Need to think about using praise more.
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Issue 2.0
School of teaching, Health and Care
PCET – Subject Specialist Mentor Observation Form
How has the trainee planned effectively to deliver the subject specialism?
(Consider how planning take into account curriculum and learner needs, while remaining flexible?)
There was far too much time taken on the recap element of the lesson. 50 mins of your lesson
was taken up with basically just repeating last weeks lesson which meant that the students who
attended last week were disengaged and it largely felt like a waste of their time. If you have to do
a lengthy recap activity then you need to engage the students that were present and encourage
peer learning; get them to teach the students who were absent the content as this will then
reinforce the learning for them from last week. There were two occasions in which you seemed to
notice how disengaged the students who attended last week had become (Nick was reading his
payslips) and you did challenge them and get them involved in the lesson but the opportunity for
such distraction needs to be avoided in future.
It felt like there was a need to get through the content and this was being done at the sacrifice of
an engaging lesson which would have encouraged the students to retain the information.
At the beginning the exercise you used was a repeat of the exercise you did last week, instead of
giving Brandon (who was in the previous week) an activity to stretch and challenge him you just
told him he could sit out of the task. This then had a knock on effect of Brandon being largely
disengaged for the next hour and doodling in his book.
How effective are the resources in supporting learning in the subject?
(Consider how they made links between specialist area and its wider context (e.g. work, legislation, current issues)
and helped learners identify transferable skills?)
The diagnostic activity was good but it alienated some students, at one point one student sat
down and you didn’t question why she had taken herself away from the task even though it wasn’t
finished.
You really need to think of ways to make the lesson more engaging and motivating and I believe
this could be done through better preparation of resources. The lesson would have definitely
benefitted from visual clips to emphasise the points you were making.
The session didn’t really allow for transferrable skills but you did display good subject knowledge.
Describe the range, and quality, of teaching techniques used in the subject and how the
trainee established a purposeful and motivating environment?
(Consider how the trainee used a range of appropriate, flexible and varied teaching and learning techniques, and
motivated all learners?)
The opening diagnostic activity was good; it appealed to kinaesthetic learners and got the
majority of students engaged from the start. After that though there were no further activities to
engage or motivate the students in the hour that I saw. The rest of the session was purely
PowerPoint led accompanied with question and answer. As I say above, you need to make this
session more engaging. It takes place on a Friday morning in a warm, dark room so an hour of
you talking at them leads to a very flat atmosphere. Even the students that were engaged in most
of the Q&A were flagging when I left the session. There was plenty of opportunity, especially
when you moved on to film, to include activities and links to the texts you were talking about. This
would have also separated the two formats up more. Your lesson plan stated that you had a quiz
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Issue 2.0
School of teaching, Health and Care
PCET – Subject Specialist Mentor Observation Form
planned but I was surprised to see that you finished the session early especially with it starting 7
mins late. This time maybe could have been used on this activity.
How did the trainee use formative assessment to check all learners’ progress and was this
assessment accessible?
(Are the assessment records are accurate, standardised and relevant to awarding bodies?)
Although some direct questioning was used I felt like you weren’t consistently checking their
progression throughout the session. In general you have made assessment records accessible to
me but I am still concerned with the lack of work you’ve had in from the students at this time in
the course.
How were questioning and answering used effectively, and describe how the trainee gave
constructive feedback?
(How has the trainee encouraged reflection amongst learners, supported and promoted inclusivity and diversity?)
You led with open questions but did use more direct questioning as the lesson continued. I felt
you differentiated well in areas with your questioning, asking lower achievers the easier
questions. The direct questioning seemed to disappear half way through the session with one
student only speaking once which considering there were only 6 of them she could have been
brought in to the lesson more. Jack and Saoirse tended to dominate the Q&A process and I felt
as though you could have tried to bring the rest of the group in to the process more.
I spoke to you regarding what you call a ‘tick’ of responding with ‘pretty much’ when the students
provide an answer. I felt like this led to the process being very vague; I wasn’t clear which bits of
the answers they were providing were pretty much right or pretty much wrong. If I was taking
notes I would have struggled to have known which answers to note down. When they do get the
answer right and it is something worth noting try to make sure you reinforce it either verbally or on
the board; Jack was mumbling quite a bit so most of the class were not benefitting from his
responses.
You don’t use a lot of praise when responding to answers which I felt would have benefitted the
session, tending to respond with ‘yeah’ or ‘pretty much’. At one point Brandon gave a spot on
answer and you responded with ‘yeah’. Brandon as an individual really responds to praise and I
felt it was definitely deserved in this instance.
I felt like overall there was an improvement in your Q&A process as you weren’t answering the
questions for them and you were enabling them to develop their answers but this is still an area
that requires further development.
How has the trainee managed the classroom to support the learning of the subject?
(Consider how they managed behaviour and challenged discriminatory attitudes, while ensuring professional
boundaries are maintained?)
No register was taken yet again which is a legal requirement. This needs to be observed in your
next session.
As a whole I felt like you managed the behaviour well. One area I would say requires
development is the beginning of the session. You need to tell them to put all food and drinks
(other than water) away and get their notepads out. A lot of the students were eating throughout
the session; some sharing sweets whilst you were talking. Jack spent 25mins of the lesson
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Issue 2.0
School of teaching, Health and Care
PCET – Subject Specialist Mentor Observation Form
without a notepad or pen out. You did pick up on this but if you try and encourage this from the
beginning they are likely to take the lesson more seriously and retain more information through
note taking.
You seemed to notice when students became distracted, pulling a couple of them up when they
began to talk or start riffling through their bags. A few of them were doodling quite a bit but I felt
like this was due to the nature of the lesson. The length of the recap activity and the lack of clarity
and direction to it led to the students stopping taking notes and unfortunately this is when
doodling can occur. I think the direction of the lesson could have been established more through
having the learning outcomes on the board. You did quickly verbalise them but if you have clearly
covered them in your PowerPoint the students might have had more of an idea about what they
were expected to achieve.
Circle as many of the following that best describes the trainee during this
observation:
Fluent
Articulate
Creative
Effective
Sound
Innovative
Secure
Original
Dynamic
Re-observation
needed
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