Category: teaching & learning

Today was our teaching observation workshop.

My own blunders aside it was a really enjoyable session.  The teaching experiences within the group was varied which meant there was something to learn from everyone.  We listened to music to inspire creativity, were taken into a virtual online space and encouraged to consider how colour impacts on our daily lives.

Most but not all of the group teach design or something relating to that subject and I was one of two people that are not part of that discipline.

The fact that we had to use an object in the workshop made it interesting for me to think about how I might run the session.

By using a 50 year old camera my aim was to have the group think about value.  I created a 1 minute video of the object, a Polaroid SX-70 camera doing two revolutions on a lazy Susan.  Unfortunately I was beset by technical problems so I couldn’t share the video and ended up showing the video page in which the object was visible.  In retrospect I should have dropped the video link in the chat and allowed everyone to watch independently.  As a result of this I lost my focus a bit.

I had a few backup versions including a PDF of the slideshow so I upload that was able to share and carry on.

On March 3rd I had attended an Academic Support workshop called Working Through Projects Using Sensory Mediation run by Jhinuk Sarkar.  It was fun but also really useful to see how an experienced practitioner would run a workshop and how I could apply what I learned to my session.  The pace of the workshop was not at all rushed and this made me want to keep things as uncluttered as possible for mine as we only had 20 minutes to ‘present’ and then 10 minutes for feedback.

I wanted it to be an enjoyable experience for the ‘students’ but I think technical mishaps put paid to the fun element I was also hoping to achieve.

Ultimately the aim was to have them working as a group and creating a story around value from their individual responses to seeing the object.  I created a Padlet page for them to use but in hindsight and after a discussion during the feedback it was suggested that the whiteboard would have been a better way to link their ideas together.  As they would be writing into one space and  this would probably have given a more cohesive feel to the group plus it would also have been easier for me to read.  A suggestion was splitting the board so that top half of the whiteboard was for the keywords (exercise 1) and the bottom half for the story (exercise 2). 

I ended cutting their 6 minute story construction time down to 3 minutes which put the pressure on and definitely took the fun element out of the exercise.  In the feedback it was mentioned that although everyone is familiar with members of the cohort it still takes a while for a group to warm up to a task and to gain the confidence to speak.

Also from the feedback more guidance could have been given on how to work together as a group.  During the exercise one of the cohort suggested each taking a part of the story and writing that.  This was good and what I was hoping for but of course younger students might not have a courage to do this so the guidance would be needed.  And as Kirsten Hardie states she advises learners ‘regarding the requirements of discussions as I recognise that student-led unstructured discussion of objects, where teacher instruction and intervention/interjection is not involved, may be considered as a higher risk activity for a teacher (according to Bonwell’s ‘classification of instructional strategies by levels of instructor risk’ (n.d., p. 7). 

Lynda reminded us that we needed to bear in mind that if one is giving them a task centred around writing then our students may include those with dyslexia.  Managing that might mean briefing a student the day before or enabling them to contribute in another way such as a doodle or illustration.

Making sure that the group has enough time to read one another’s padlet contributions would have been helpful as well.  I realise now I was really focused on them creating something together but didn’t factor in time for them to read and process.

For the course overall, I’m still struggling with reading enough but I did particularly enjoy the Wow: the power of objects in object—based learning and teaching by Dr Kirsten Hardie.  

I was looking for the ‘wow’ effect that she spoke of and I suspect if the group had been able to see a 360 revolution of the object then this might have been achieved.  She states the ‘Students are encouraged to think creatively; to explore their own experiences and responses to the object;’ and those latter two were some of my aims in choosing this particular camera.

Openness to experience is necessary for learners to have the evidence upon which to reflect. It is therefore crucial to establish an appropriate emotional tone for learners: one which is safe and supportive, and which encourages learners to value their own experience and to trust themselves to draw conclusions from it. (Gibbs 2008, p.19).  (ref K. Hardie).

The above quote really struck a cord with me and although I was less successful in applying it today, it is something I definitely encourage amongst the photography 1st year students that I teach. 

As I am writing this I’m excited by the possibly that I could take this object into the classroom when face to face teaching commences, but then it occurs to me that passing the object around a room might not be an option for sometime due concerns about spreading the Covid-19 virus.

Update: I have the opportunity to run the session again next Tuesday, so I’ll be using the feedback from last week to make some improvements.

The first article we are asked to read made me laugh.  In fact thus far both pieces allude to the mischievous sense of humour of our course leader.

The fictitious tutor in Teaching Evaluation Study (MacFarlane) might need to reconsider her position in the profession.  At least that was my initial assessment.  One wonders if she cares about changing the educational experience for the students or if the job is just part of her portfolio.

There are various small ways she could change their experience and her own without ‘spoon feeding’ them, the term in this context laden with negative connotation.  Supplying the lecture notes after a class is acceptable and also helpful for students not able to attend (some for very genuine reasons).

She could have the period of a class where the students are allowed to ask questions and raise concerns about the assessment.

Having a meeting with an administrator after they have both read the students’ responses would facilitate an exchange of ideas on how to progress.

Having watched the video….. I’m realising that at the start of the academic year and being completely new to online teaching I was completely second guessing myself.  The need for parity was clouding my judgment on delivery as I trying to ensure that the students got the ‘same’ as their cohorts were with other tutors.  Or to put it another way, that I was teaching in the same way as my colleagues.  

More practice preparation with the topic would definitely have been useful as I wouldn’t normally deliver the whole session.  However, there had been a increase in student numbers this year so for some elements we each had our own group (20 students) that we were responsible for disseminating the information to.  That has since been changed as it was too labour intensive and so we now only manage our groups for their tutorials.

We were a small number in yesterday’s Tutor Group meeting.  Around 12 people.

It was a really interesting and again enjoyable session.   The discussion centred around the reading material the subject of which was Love, Care and Belonging.  It was recommended that we read at least two of the listed articles.

I chose hooks, b. 2000. All About Love and Patience, A. (2008) The Art of Loving in the Classroom: A Defence of Affective Pedagogy.

As I commenced reading the article several things came to mind.  The first being the song How We Love by Beth Nielsen Chapman.

And as bell hooks asks if the young can understand love outside of romance and outside of their own personal circle.  The second thing that came to mind was about how we centre young children lavishing much love and attention on babies and toddlers.  Then as their social world starts to expand we then have to reconfigure that attention and manage their expectations so as to ensure they don’t become narcissistic. 

One of my takeaways mentioned in the bell hooks article was the idea of love and self worth and how you cannot have the former without the latter. 

Students’ confidence in their work can ebb and flow throughout their time at university.  It is important to build but also help them to retain that confidence in their ideas and what they produce.

In yesterday’s conversation we also discussed language.  The use of the word ‘love’ and how that is open to misinterpretation in an educational context and what might be a better substitute.  bell hooks says that some people are more comfortable with the word ‘compassion’ although this too still come from a place of love.  Love of humanity as a whole.  To not be selective about that love.  To regard everyone as worthy and equal.

Also with regards to language Allan Patience suggests, in an educational context, replacing the word ‘relationship’ with ‘relatings’ to avoid any negative connotations.  And he affirms that healthy teacher – student relationships are about nurturing the student and recognising and affirming their value and self knowledge.

He also discusses relating whole heartedly to another person and my interpretation of this comes through my own mediation practice whereby one engages with an open heart and mind and does not sit in judgement of another human being.  I guess I fall into the affective pedagogy camp rather than the utilitarian pedagogy.

It was interesting to note that men are the bigger producers of romantic writings on love and women are the main consumers.  Suggesting that understanding love is defined by gender which is probably defined by conditioning.

We discussed how we might develop a frame work for creating a nurturing and caring environment for the students.  Time is a factor, with each tutorial (non pastoral) being around 15 minutes.  Language, class and culture are also factors to consider along with perhaps being new to the country or the city.   

Perhaps at the beginning of the second semester of the first year students could be asked about their own expectations for their future.  This topic could be revisited at the same point in their second year to assess how much it might have changed and what they need to consider when preparing to graduate.  Some of the international students don’t have industries to go home to and some might lack parental support for their career choice.  Others might wish to pursue a more theoretical, rather than creative, path.

This information would help the tutors to offer a more focused support for each student.

PS.  I’m a slow reader and although having not come through a traditional BA route, and despite doing an MA, I sometimes have to labour over the text.   I’ve signed up for a couple of courses via the Academic Support.

20 January 2021

This is a post about the group session on Wednesday 20th January 2021.

I’m aware that we are discouraged from posting retrospectively and this is particularly late but January was a challenging month and by the end of the session I had already clocked up significant screen time for the week so I closed my laptop after the class was over.

However, what I did manage to do the following morning, despite the fact that it’s hard to listen to my own voice, was to record my thoughts and it is to those that I am referring now.

Firstly I really enjoyed the session, not that I didn’t think I would, but our tutor was welcoming and shared some personal experiences which created a safe and open environment, which in turn enabled members of the cohort to open up to the group in terms of their personal challenges.

We discussed the reading material (Vilhauer, Understanding Art: The Play of Work) which I personally found engaging and no where near as dry as I thought it might be!  There was an honesty from the cohort about their understanding and the likes and dislikes of the text.

I ran over time with my presentation (as usual) and I’m hoping the course will help me develop my time management skills in terms of delivery of a teaching session.  Trying to find the right balance between too much and too little material is always a challenge.  That slightly panicky realisation, in the middle of a session, that one is going too fast or two thirds of the way through that one still has a lot to deliver. 

It felt good to be able to contribute and take away suggestions from the session.  We recognised that we are all facing similar concerns around online teaching especially around language, intonation and silences and the use of the latter in trying to create a comfortable space for the students to speak.  Also we were encouraged to be explicit in our expectations as as teachers.

Fast forward to today, I am now trying to catch up with my reading.  Personally I like to print reading material as it is more portable and I like to mark the paper, so my recent investment in a laser printer is about to pay off.