Optimax 2016 : peer observation of facilitation

Robinson, L; Coward, J; De Labouchere, S; Lowe, J; Mercer, CE; Palmqvist, C; Takavol, P

Abstract

In August 2016, a 3-week research Summer School
was delivered at University of Salford. The Summer
School, known as ‘OPTIMAX’ was in its fourth year
of delivery. Previous iterations were held in the
Netherlands (2015), Portugal (2014) and Salford (2013).
The purpose of OPTIMAX is to facilitate collaborative
international and interdisciplinary research between
university academics and students. This offers an
exceptional opportunity not only for students, but also
for tutors who want to develop their facilitation skills.
The project reported here used tutor observers
(i.e. tutors who attend the summer school, in an
observational capacity only, to develop their own
skills as teachers) to observe, identify and reflect on a
range of facilitation practices for managing the diverse
OPTIMAX research groups. The project presents
a description of the peer-observation method we
used and highlights a number of findings related
to facilitator strategies that appeared to influence
group dynamics and learning. These observations
are then used to make recommendations about how
OPTIMAX tutors can be prepared for their facilitation
experience.

• Report Type: Project Report
• Publication Date: Feb 16, 2017
• Deposit Date: Apr 24, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 24, 2017
• Pages: 117-132
• ISBN: 9781907842931