In-Class Observation

Name of Observed: Stephanie Celaya Serventi

Date: April 9, 2018
Class: MPA Leadership & Ethics
Time: 5:30-6:45 PM
Location: Social Sciences Room 311
Type of classroom: Modular furniture organized into a large square
# of Students present ~20
Name of Observer: Ellen Santos

April 14, 2018

Dear Stephanie Celaya Serventi,

Thank you for allowing me to observe your guest lecture for the graduate course, Leadership and
Ethics, as part of the MPA program. I had the pleasure of not only observing excellent teaching
strategies, but I also learned interesting content around ethical styles and how they may be
applied in leadership scenarios.

Lesson Overview
You arrived well in advance of the class start time to ensure the necessary technology was
functioning properly. Most students arrived early, and they seemed to know each other well as
there was a great deal of conversation among students before class began. You started the class
with a warm-up exercise in which you presented a moral dilemma and asked students to move
to a particular side of the room depending on the stance they chose based on the dilemma. I
noticed a great deal of participation and engagement from all students with this activity, and it
was well suited for the content of the class. You then introduced yourself to the class before
breaking the class into three groups for discussions and review of the assigned readings for the
day. Groups discussed and summarized key points of the readings, after which you facilitated a
large group discussion regarding the readings with the full class. While I as your peer observer
attended only the first half of the class, I understand you presented and discussed a case study
with the class and ended the evening with a chance for students to reflect and provide feedback.

Strengths
The greatest teaching strengths I observed were your ability to facilitate discussion and your
ability to prompt students to critically think. I would describe your teaching of this lesson as a
“Guest Facilitator” as your ability to lead meaningful discussions with a class as a guest was
rather impressive. Specifically, as students discussed and presented their stances regarding the
moral dilemma, you prompted students to think and respond to the dilemma in a variety of ways
by playing ‘devil’s advocate’ and proposing varied ethical questions. It was also clear that you
were invested in getting to know each student, as you were intentional in asking for their names
and chatting with students as you moved around the room to facilitate small-group discussions
of the day’s readings. Students appeared to be receptive to your teaching and facilitation style,
as evidenced by high student engagement throughout the time that I observed your teaching.

Considerations
It appeared that the small group reading discussions took more time than you had anticipated in
your lesson plan. While students remained engaged in the assigned activity to review and
summarize the key points of the readings, perhaps providing more pointed and direct questions
for them to answer could help shorten the time needed for the activity. Requesting that each
group choose 2-3 most important key points to share out with the whole class rather than
groups summarizing everything they discussed could help with timing as well. However, your
strategy to have small groups focus on one reading for the day rather than reviewing all readings
as a full group was effective for your learning goals, and students were actively engaged in the
activity.

Closing Remarks
Thank you again for allowing me to observe your teaching. I learned valuable facilitation skills
from you that I plan to implement in my own teaching. As a guest instructor, you effectively lead
the class, facilitated meaningful discussion with high student engagement, and created a
comfortable learning environment through getting to know the students. It is clear you are
passionate not only about your content area, but also about teaching. Your love of learning has
made you an effective instructor, and I have no doubt that you will continue to learn and
develop effective teaching strategies. It was a pleasure to observe your teaching, and please let
me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Ellen Santos
ellenshelly@email.arizona.edu