Performing with an invisible audience
I watched the performing to an invisible audience video, the speaker was talking about her experience as a barrister. I understood the importance of the relationship, and how this relates to teaching within a classroom, how this experience has led her to a transition professionally thus teaching, singers and actors actresses; the importance of relating to the audience within a performative aspect. I felt that within the teaching and learning context to utilise the skills of performance is very beneficial but at the same time it also mitigates from the authenticity of engaging with the students and to view the students as an audience within abstract sense makes sense, but at the same time does not seem, feel realistic. A performance hinges on the repetitive performance with the aim of perfecting the practice. I do not like the idea of being there specifically serving the audience but learning/ teaching it’s quite difficult to the concept, because although you gain more confidence through practice it feels one-sided with performance, almost seeking to gain the approval, love, and admiration of the audience through validation. Teaching for me is not always about the performance aspect but also the learner being able to gain an understanding; sometimes they may not like the approach especially when it comes to “audience participation” but ultimately, it’s a transactional learning process, more so with the learner being behind the screen, backstage to see how everything fits together so that they can perfect their own craft.
https://www.eln.io/blog/giving-constructive-feedback
I found this randomly on a website but in terms of giving and receiving feedback, it feels like a good framework for how we structure formative feedback.
The reflection game: enacting the penitent self Bruce Macfarlane a & Lesley Gourlay b a Department for Curriculum and Quality Enhancement , University of Portsmouth , Portsmouth, UK b Learning Innovation Research Group , Coventry University , Coventry, UK Published online: 10 Jul 2009.
Tips for contestants
Tip 1: eat humble pie
Reflective exercises impose certain expectations. Firstly, they require individuals to open themselves up to an admission of their insecurities and uncertainties paralleling the world of reality TV. In place of the sobbing of the wannabe pop star, reflective assignments encourage novice practitioners to unload painful admissions of personal mistakes and errors in the classroom. Admitting the error or naivety of one’s ways is all part of the ‘journey’. This kind of confession is a means of getting the assessor on-side. It may not ‘prove’ that you can ‘reflect’ yet but shows that you are being ‘open’. Suitable penance has been done.
TAO: I think the idea of a reality show within the context of the text reminds me of a black mirror episode. I do understand the journey aspect and the process of becoming a teacher but the whole idea of being purposefully vulnerable and faultlessly transparent feels really insincere. This places an unfair disadvantage and lends itself to certain personality types. I think that learning occurs at different stages for different individuals. I haven’t started teaching yet but I have seen some personal growth within the tutorials. Being comfortable and confident enough to really contribute to discussions without really being so conscious of the delivery but within actual practical teaching, the delivery is crucial. for students to really invest in your tutorials, there has to be clarity so it feels like the benchmark in terms of personal and professional growth changes each time although just as important, it structures how we are assessed or what type of feedback we are given.
Tip 2: revelation brings conversion
Through penitence comes learning. Salvation comes in the form of a ‘critical incident’ that transforms your whole perspective about what it means to be a lecturer. Inspiration can come from the practice of colleagues (or better still ‘a mentor’ or ‘peer’) or the views of students who have both challenged and changed your original attitude to teaching. Espousing various ‘commitments’ evidences your ideological conversion: to encouraging ‘deep’ as opposed to ‘surface’ learning, to ‘andragogic’ principles, to widen participation, use e-learning in your teaching and, indeed, anything else that might currently be in vogue within your university’s strategic plan (insert flavour of month). Marshalling examples of how your practice supports this eclectic mix of theories and politically motivated policies is a nice way to show you can ‘weave’ theory with practice and is likely to gain you more marks from ‘the judges’.
TAO: The idea of a “Critical Incident”, feels like a staged performance and at first it sounds ridiculous. Learning comes through practicality and I guess if you’re not learning anything through interactions with peers, mentors or students it counterproductive to teaching. I also feel that for teachers who have been teaching for longer periods of time they may feel less inclined to try new teaching methods which aligns itself with the latest FAD DIETS, if a way of being relatable to students and challenging yourself has proven to be productive why would you want to change anything. I think that this model is more in line with a GENX, millennial teaching staff who may feel that they want to diversify their teaching practice, but old skool teaching methods still has their advantages in some respects so to move away from this to fit a trend does not seem that beneficial. Although an important learning process, being flexible, adaptable to new teaching models may really change how teachers make lessons more accessible.
Tip 3: toe the line or else!
Taking issue with any aspect of this conventional pot-pourri of received wisdom is a dangerous strategy. Saying that you enjoy being didactic and giving long lectures is a fatal error. This shows absolutely no respect for the prevailing orthodoxy of ‘student- centred’ learning and is likely to get you into a lot of trouble. It is fine to say you were originally this way inclined or thought that students were supposed to listen to you. But stubbornly refusing to admit the folly of being ‘teacher-centred’ is simply asking for trouble you may even be voted off the show. You have also demonstrated a personal journey or, better still, evidenced some sort of ‘social transformation’. Finally, remember not to tell anyone that you have applied these tips. Otherwise, you might be accused of using your time too efficiently, what in the jargon is referred to as ‘surface learning’.
TAO: Does this sound how it seems? When I read this segment, it felt like teachers have to tap-dance to the institution. I think that a lack of reflective transparency can actually threaten how a teacher naturally develops, it’s inorganic to the so-called transformation. If a teacher wholeheartedly believes that a particular way of teaching is productive, over time they may or may not change their stance but maybe through peer observations or student feedback they may start utilising different methods to teach. Insomuch as they may not see the “errors of their ways” they may try to challenge themselves as they may come to the realisation that culturally, ethnographically, and socially they are operating within a different educational climate.
climate.
Emotional performativity/enacting the penitent self
But perhaps the most insidious feature of this performance is not that it compels a display of conformity to dominant discourses, this is already routine in education (Ball 2003), and in higher education across a range of text types (Bansel et al. 2008; Ruth 2008). The more troubling aspect of the ‘reflection game’ is that it must appear to be woven from the very fabric of the subjects’ day-to-day embodied practice and emotional subjectivity, brooking no ‘hiding place’ of disagreement or ambivalence. The subject is corralled into an insidious form of performativity wrapped in a therapeutic discourse of self-discovery which requires a ‘textual enactment of academic life’ (Ruth 2008, 99): at best formulaic, at worst amounting to a colonisation of the private self. What is implicitly rewarded is initial fragility, tentativeness and penitence, followed by uncritical adherence to some deeply flawed and outdated rules of thumb. The forced enactment of this can result in a grotesque simalcrum of authenticity in response to a powerful normative regime of surveillance, at root unconcerned with individual or context. The details may vary but the ‘journey’ has to reach the ‘right’ destination, via the correct stages (new lecturer as supplicant/pilgrim?). Only then is the ‘transformation’ complete.
TAO: The Phrase “colonisation of the private self”, sounds as insidious as it seems. Yes !!! the reflection part, we’ve established is paramount but so is a sense of self. If through this reflective process you lose a sense of why, what, where you stand you become a slave to the institution, because where there may be chances to challenge a view, approach to how things are implemented the word colonisation insinuates forceful and passive violence to freedom of self. Reforming ones, beliefs, and values, values hegemonic and regimented structures that don’t value what you as an individual can bring to the table. This brings to the forefront the question of what your role is and how much influence you may or may not have decentres the idea of teaching and teaching development.
Final Thoughts
I guess it’s the act of repetition, performance-wise doing something over and over again so that it feels comfortable. I guess that personally, I will never feel that I will reach that level of comfortability. I feel like there are obstacles to overcome when for e.g., reading I need to consider my speed, taking the time to really understand what I’ve written. These are all things I need to consider so I’ve come to realisation that my way of presenting, communicating will always, never be perfected it will always be a matter of coming to terms with those imperfections and being able to make my style of teaching, presenting comfortable do that I can find value in those differences.