MICRO TEACH - What is the importance of a slogan?

EDU110 PGCHE Assignment 3 by Darren Whittington 01/15

The aim of this micro teach is to introduce the idea of a slogan as the vehicle to communicate a
brands message, values and benefit and how in a few words you can capture a personality, tone of
voice and position for the brand in its market place amoungst competitors.
In my own teaching communicating your message is one of the fundamental building blocks in
brand but also one of the most difficult to communicate in a teaching environment with so many
aspects to a brands existance communicated in a concise way. When taught in the context of design
or advertising there is normally an existing brand involved and the student can objectively look at a
brands benefit, its audience and try and find a connection with an audience and why it adds value to
that persons life. The results from this process can be quite mechanical and often miss the emotive
connection in the day to day context.
Brands are evolving in the way they communicate, audience has moved beyond a brand that just
has a window display and see brands as personalities they can converse with and ask questions of,
a world where brands play out their existence online and their messaging transcends all converging
media to engage in what Professor Henry Jenkins describes in his book Convergence Culture as
participatory culture with an always-on audience. 1
In this converging world a brand needs to be very clear what and who it is, why it exists and how it
will engage with its audience and when to do it. In this world brands have become personalities and
their slogan the first words in a conversation, a connection, an understanding of what the consumer
and brand have in common and how they can help one another.
With this in mind I wanted to move from a primarily brand benefit based system of learning that
looks outwardly at a brands existence and make the process more reflective in its approach by asking
the students to consider a brands values and beliefs, treating it as an individual with a personality
and by doing so discover a better way of communicating the value of a brand to its audience.
In order to achieve this I decided to reflect 3 core steps to dissecting a brand onto the student and
ask them to consider; their own values(1. A brands beliefs and way of doing), what motivates them
(2. A brands aims and objectives), and what makes them unique(3. A brands point of difference and
key reason for being). By paralleling these steps I hope to open their thinking in a more emotive way
that would go beyond a focus on themselves as a packaged product and get an honest response that
could, once condensed become a motto for living/doing.
Because this process is quite personal I needed to be clear with my own objectives and make the
session relaxed, formative, inviting and make the learning journey very clear in its approach using
Biggs constructive alignment 2 as a basis for achieving the learning outcomes set out in the lesson
plan(Appendix 1):
Part 1. What do we want the learners to know(Learning outcomes)
Introducing the objective and task within the micro teach up-front so that the students could reflect
on the following slides and conversations, confirm their own understanding of the task ahead and
feel comfortable that they could see the context of why they were doing it(Appendix 2. Slide 2-5).
Part 2. How will the learners learn (Learning activities)

a) By gauging the students understanding of the relationship of a slogan with a brand by creating
a process of discovery using well known brand marques and guessing the slogans based on their
knowledge of the brand and discussion of the perceived message, personality and audience of each
brand revealed(Appendix 2. Slide 6-16).
b) Continue the discovery process by introducing the slogan in the first instance to demonstrate how
a slogan positions a brand and can actually be recognisable without its logo and how in a few words
you can communicate your message(Appendix 2. Slide 17-19).
c) Armed with an understanding and context of a slogan introduce the task to create your own
slogan in 10 words or less. This is simplified and broken down into 3 main areas to help create a
starting point to their slogan(Appendix 2. Slide 20-24):
- What do you value?(Whats important to you)
- What motivates/excites you?(What gets you out of bed in the morning)
- What makes you unique?(Why should people take notice of you)
d) Whilst c) is underway introduce the notion of a slogan as a way of living or being and think of it as
a motto in order to channel their responses in a more emotive way and enforce the reflective process
away from the boundaries of a packaged brand(Appendix 2. Slide 25-28).
e) The students are then asked to combine the 3 areas into a concise sentence of 10 words or less,
and put upon the wall for discussion(Appendix 3).
Part 3. How will we know the learners have learnt?(Assessment approaches)
The session requires the teacher to interact with the students throughout the learning activities and
open the floor to discussion with examples of what we mean by values, motivations and uniqueness,
this allows the student to test their thinking and give the teacher an opportunity to contextualise the
students thinking and help condense it into 10 words or less.
Once the slogans/motto are completed and placed on the wall the teacher discusses each written
piece and their initial meaning upon first reflection to show how each slogan could be interpreted or
tweaked to give new emphasis on the desired tone or personality.
This process along with ongoing Q&A will keep the session supportive and formative in its
assessment, allowing the student multiple opportunities to engage and reflect on their journey in the
context of brand and understand the multiple outputs for their new thinking:
- Understanding the importance of a brand message
- Understanding of the broader context of brand
- A new approach to dissecting a brands unique selling point
- A new focus on brands as personalities
- A knowledge of the communication relationship between brand and audience
The creation and planning of the lesson was a personal challenge to try something new and test the
thinking learnt throughout the first semester of the PGCHE against a difficult subject matter with the
knowledge I would get honest feedback to reflect upon. Through notes and scribbles I condensed my
thinking(Appendix 4)and followed Biggs constructive alignment 2 to keep my mind focussed on the

structure of the session together with a constant replay of Prof. Sally Brown on YouTube discussing
learning assessment 3 and developed the lesson into an interactive learning journey with a clear and
concise goal.
The feedback for the session was given through written responses detailing strengths of the session,
areas that could be developed and also see if the learning outcomes were achieved(Appendix 5).
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, it identified that even with a peer group from a diverse
background with little or no prior subject knowledge could engage with the session but also
surprisingly it was seen as a new skill which some hoped to use in their own teaching practice.
For myself the initial delivery was nerve-racking; testing a new approach on your peers, but the
session plan actually helped with that initial bout of nerves by using strategically placed slides as
prompts to keep my delivery focussed and on track.
I spent quite a bit of time designing and positioning the slide stack following Biggs constructivist
model 2 to create a smooth knowledge transfer that was focussed on outcome which forced me to
add space in the presentation to prompt questions that would enforce the reflective approach, gauge
the students knowledge of the subject, change the language appropriately and formatively assess
their understanding as the lesson unfolded(Appendix 2).
After watching the film of my micro-teach not everything went well, I didn't introduce myself and
the context of the lesson within my teaching practice(the one prompt I didnt add but discuss in my
self-assessment form Appendix 6) which would have helped set the scene for a group from such a
diverse background, but the fact it was a topic that was simplified and started with the introduction of
everyday brands neutralised any heir-achy of understanding and gave a level playing field for everyone
to engage with, an indirect result of nerves but certainly a consideration I will engage with for future
lesson plans that will help address differentiation within the group.
With a longer session the feedback to the students towards the end would have been more
productive and given time to offer the group the opportunity to interpret each others slogans which
would have helped give the student directed peer group assessment following principle 8 of the NUS
feedback charter 4 and an opportunity to rewrite their slogans by repeating the process as described
in Kolbs cycle of experiential learning 5 promoting even deeper learning and understanding with
multiple solutions possible through continued experimentation.
I introduced this session as a personal challenge because Ive never started a lecture with the
introduction of the desired outcome so openly, using a cognitive approach to create a lesson which
behind the scenes builds-in steps to allow the students to discover their own deeper understanding
and way of thinking. This in a creative context helps students become more expressive through
reflection and as such is a powerful tool to build their confidence.
Delivering the lesson was like having Professor Sally Brown as an angel sitting on your shoulder
quoting the fit for purpose assessment mantra for learning not just of learning6, a now constant
reminder that learning needs to be experiential. From the feedback it was clear that the learning
outcomes were achieved and more importantly the process was engaged with whole heartedly to the
point that some of the peer group asked if they could integrate it into their own modules to help
students understand audience, brand and use the structure for various student reflective projects.
The micro-teach activity opened my eyes to the learning journey for the student and educator, its
helped me become a more reflective practitioner, helped structure my lessons in a more experiential
way that encourages learning through interaction but also to dissect what I teach, reconsider what
the desired outcomes should be and rewrite the learning journeys accordingly.

REFERENCES:
1 Jenkins. Henry. 2006. Convergence Culture. New York: New York University Press
2 Biggs, J.B. 2003. Teaching for quality learning at university. Buckingham: Open University Press
3 Brown, Sally. 2006. Assessment is the most important thing we do for HE students. Available
at: http://stadium.open.ac.uk/stadia/preview.php?s=39&whichevent=740
4 NUS. 2014. Charter on Feedback & Assessment. Available at: http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/
asset/news/6010/FeedbackCharter-toview.pdf
5 Kolb, D. A. 1984. Experiential Learning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
6 Brown, Sally. 2011. Fit for Purpose assessment in the university environment. Available
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OIL0mkHd2Q

APPENDIX:
Appendix 1. Micro-Teach Lesson Plan
Appendix 2. Micro-Teach Presentation
Appendix 3. Straplines created in Micro-teach 14/01/15
Appendix 4. Notes
Appendix 5. Micro-Teach Written Feedback Forms
Appendix 6. Micro-Teach Self-Evaluation Form