Month: February 2023

Microteaching

How to tie a bow tie.

When it came to the microteaching session, I wanted to give my peers some insight into the course I teach on as well as costume for performance and its importance, along with a new skill that is also great conversation starter, “hey, I learned to tie a bow tie!” As a technician, I teach practical skills to my students. This is something I find rewarding and so I wanted to do the same for my microteaching session. This is something that I do with my costume students during open access or supervised studio when I can see students feeling demotivated and starring into space. This usually happens around this time of year with 3rd years who start to get a mental block after working on their projects for several weeks. This is a skill that is incredibly useful for when they graduate and it can be a great stress reliever and a form of compassionate pedagogy. 10 minutes away from their work, learning a new skill, feeling more confident so they can return to their work more productive.

As I would usually teach students in smaller groups than the microteaching session and I had no dress stands for them to practise on, I had to change my usual delivery of this. I demoed with a bright red bow tie so it was easy for everyone to see and provided each peer 1 black bow tie along with a step by step diagram as a hand out. I decided to have my peers practise around their own legs (it is not advised to learn around someone’s neck), sitting either side of me to navigate the issue of line of sight. By sitting in a semi-circle, we could use peer to peer learning to reinforce their skills while creating a relaxed fun environment. I am passionate about inclusive learning and as the steps can be tricky, I asked everyone to follow each step one at a time until the bow tie was complete. By then repeating the process again, those that felt confident that they had remembered the steps could do it themselves, and those that struggled could follow me once again, to reinforce the learning. I did not need to encourage continuing practising while answering questions about the session, as everyone seemed very keen to do this themselves.

I really enjoyed delivering this session and in reflection I have been thinking what I could change to make it run better. I was not expecting an almost full group so I had only prepared for 6 peers, 3 either side to be able to see clearly. It was difficult for those who were seated furthest away to be able to see my demo clearly and relied more on the handout. Ensuring the group was no larger than 6 would prevent this issue from arising again.

I received positive feedback from the group and from the tutors. Many comments about the nature of the delivery being “engaging”, “relaxing” “fun” and “satisfying” and feeling “a sense of accomplishment” from learning a new skill while gaining insight into costume and why details can be important. This feedback is important to me as reinforces exactly why I do this microteach session with my students.

How Students learn

After watching ‘What is pedagogy’ Team Satchel (2020), I wanted to do some further reading on pedagogical approaches. As a novice in this area, I started with reading “how students learn” Brown (2004) which explores different types of pedagogical approaches and their uses based on how students learn. Brown (2004) starts with students own perceptions of how they learn which is a teacher centred perceptions. (p.g 7)

Within my technical workshops, behaviourism has its place. With most of the technical skills having a “right answer” and an industry standard that students need to learn, this method of teaching and learning is essentials. Some practical skills are not available to watch online for students to watch themselves. So by doing small demonstrations and allowing the students to watch, take notes or videos and apply this knowledge by creating their own samples, they can learn these skills through repetition and rote learning.

However, it is important for students to develop their critical thinking and creativity. I encourage students to replicate the skills taught on different materials to see learn for themselves if those methods are appropriate for the fabric they choose. By repeating the skills, this can help confirm their learning while exploring how they can take those skills and apply it in different ways.

For students to learn, on this course, it is important to have a balance and a variety of teaching methods that are relevant for the context of the subject being taught at the time. Design classes should have a student centred approach for students to develop critical thinking and creativity, where as technical workshops will need a teacher centred approach to show students the rules, so they know how they can break the rules.

References

Team Satchel, What is Pedagogy? | 4 Essential Learning Theories | Satchel (February 13th 2020) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcpwEoW1uY8&ab_channel=TeamSatchel [accessed] 5/2/23

Brown, G., 2004. How students learn. London: Routledge Falmer. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/George-Brown-5/publication/299402228_How_do_students_learn/links/56fd510b08aec9f5e7008145/How-do-students-learn.pdf [Accessed] 6/2/23

learning outcomes and assessment.

As a technician, I am not involved in summative assessments, designing learning outcomes and assessment criteria but I have been speaking to the HPL’s who have marked YR 1 students work in the absence of the year leader. I was surprised to see the grades for Into to costume (Y1 block 1) as I noticed that some students who’s attendance had been very poor had achieved good grades. 2 students in particular had not attended 2 of the 3 technical workshops for this unit, and had not attended the academic sessions either. They did not have EC’s or ISAs and managed to achieve B grades. When I asked the HPLs how this was possible, I was told they’re process logs had fulfilled the learning outcomes and assessment criteria sufficiently. There were students who had attended every class, worked hard and finished all the practical work who then achieved a lower grade. This made me question if the learning outcomes and assessment criteria are critically flawed. I read over the LO’s for this unit which are the following:

LO 1: Demonstrate a foundational competency in a range of subject specialist skills and their application (knowledge, realisation) 

LO 2: Demonstrate the development of your subject specialist skill set (communication) 

LO 3: Research and analyse subject specialist techniques making connections with your own work and the work of other practitioners (enquiry) 

I came to the conclusion that they are.

Practical outcomes for this unit are not assessed, they are not even handed in. We are a design and making course, so why are the practical outcomes not assessed? If students can achieve a high grade without attending my classes, what am I here for? This has also contributed to another issue particularly for our year one students. As most students are new to sewing, every student makes the same items in the same fabric for the first 2 workshops. A half scale petticoat and a corset. We have been made aware that students were photographing others work on different dress stands and claiming it as their own as they had not finished their own work. As they were not being marked on the physical outcomes themselves, they can not be penalised for this. They understood the assessment criteria only required them to demonstrate they understood how these items are constructed within a the process log, something that can easily be fabricated .

I simple solution. We ask students to submit their practical outcomes even if they are not assessed. There has to be an incentive for students to finish practical work in order to retain students in the following years. The skill level expectation for Y2 is much higher and this year we have seen 8 students out of 30 defer in y2 due to the core skills unit being too difficult.

Teaching and Integrity

Briefing seminar 18th January.

Task

What appear to be the richest opportunities for development in Stephanie’s teaching practice? 

Researching and applying different types of pedagogy. It appears that Stephanie is more focused on her research projects than teaching and the students pick up on these things. Using the feedback from the students, she should try different methods to engage the students for example, setting group tasks, object based learning rather than reading tasks. I would also suggest she reads Allan Davis article Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design. What’s the recurring problem? Its dangerous to assume that just because the assessment criteria is written in the course handbook, that students understand what it means.

What tips would you give Stephanie to help her to overcome her defensiveness?

I would tell Stephanie to not take the criticism personally. As teachers, we give constructive feedback every day, and this is not personal. We do this to help the student improve. This is the same as receiving student feedback. We need to extract the constructive elements of the feedback in order to improve and progress.

I also question is Max Schaefer is defensive or not as this is Stephanie’s opinion of him, and she appears to be jealous of his popularity. If this is the case, she has attended his peer observation already biased in the way that he teaches before she has seen it. She should equally focus on the positive and negatives of Max’s teaching, so she could apply the positives to her own teaching methods, and the negatives she can relay to Max so he can also improve.

Allan Davis article Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design. What’s the recurring problem?

http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/networks/issue-18-july-2012/learning-outcomes-and-assessment-criteria-in-art-and-design.-whats-the-recurring-problem

Still Muddy

Cross program event 1th January.

“You walk into a classroom and everything looks the same. All of the furniture — the desks, tables and chairs — is of a uniform style. Maybe there are student desks arranged in neat rows, or maybe there are tables clustered together in groups of four. Regardless of the layout, it doesn’t matter where you plop down: Every seat is exactly alike.

Or, you walk into the room and see a variety of seating types. There are tables arranged in groups of three or four, but also soft seating options. There are traditional plastic chairs, but also stools that swivel or rock.

If you’re a student, which scenario would get you more fired up to learn? Which classroom environment is more likely to unleash students’ creativity and individualism? Which one sends a subtle message that independent thought and activity are discouraged?” Lock 2020

I had never given much thought to the furniture within a classroom, and how this can impact a students learning. During James Corazzo’s talk about pedagogic research, I did think back to a former MA costume student who looked at why people choose the sofa’s they do. She pointed out that so many TV sitcoms have a sofa as a major focus within the shows. Friends, The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons, Fraser, How I met your Mother, the list goes on. Why is the sofa so important? This is the focus of comfort within your home that you share with the family and people who come to visit. Th choice of the sofa we choose inside our homes reflect who we are, what our personality is. We make this decision, not only for ourselves, but also based on how we also want to be perceived by guests that visit us. This is not a private piece of furniture, but one that we invite others to sit on and feel comfortable within our homes. This is what gives us insight to characters in all these T.V shows, its where the most important dialogue takes place. This subconscious association with comfort is what allows students and staff to feel more relaxed whilst on a sofa within a learning environment.

‘At the risk of sounding sedentary, I spend most of my teaching day in this zone [sofa]. I’ve never in any previous studio had “official sofas” … There’s something where its therapeutic and that whole language of couch. People seem to talk easier, they come over, they sit down, the feel comfortable. Things are passed between, laptops are passed across, student might show you something and you put it on your knee.’ Tutor 2

Couch by Madeline Malenfant 2020 LCF Costume MA

It makes me wonder why I have not seen more comfortable learning spaces within the site I work at? (LCF Lime Grove)

References

Lock, D. 2020. 4 Reasons to Build Choice into Classroom Design — and How to Make It Work for Students Available at https://spaces4learning.com/articles/2020/04/01/4-reasons-to-build-choice-into-classroom-design-and-how-to-make-it-work-for-students.aspx Accessed 5/2/23.

Tutor 2. 2023. Part of the Furniture UAL available at https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1494137/mod_label/intro/PRES_Part%20of%20the%20Furniture%20UAL.pdf Accessed 5/2/23

Malenfant, M 2020. Couch available at https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/london-college-of-fashion/stories/lcfma19-costume-design-for-performance-part-one Accessed 5/2/23.

What is Pedagogy?

I joined LCF in 2017 as a support technician having previously worked in film and television. I was lucky enough to see first hand the senior costume technicians at work, delivering technical workshops to the BA and MA students. When I took over as the grade 4 technician in 2019, my teaching methods were based on what I had seen work for the previous technicians, and applied my own techniques for those things I felt did not work as well. I had no knowledge of teaching theories until I started this PG Cert, and felt as though I needed more background knowledge of pedagogy to help understand some of the topics that were raised in the online sessions.

Being short of time due to compact timetables,  I looked for videos that I could watch to learn some of the basic theories applied in classrooms. I found an interesting video by Team Satchel on YouTube that explained 4 pedagogical theories, Behaviourism, Liberationism, Social constructivism and Connectivism. I was surprised to find out that I have applied all of these theories to my teaching practise within technical workshops on site and online without even realising it.  

Power point presentation

The theory that really got me thinking was Connectivism. This is a new theory in which the students use technology to further their learning, with the teacher as a facilitator. I am interesting in looking into this further as I have witnessed first hand the pros and cons of this. During the pandemic, I had to deliver a corset workshop online, and used LCF technical resources to create pages with instructional videos on how to make their corsets from home. It has been a valuable resource since returning to the classroom for students who miss a class, however there has been a noticeable change in how students have struggled to retain the information from the online classes. There has also been a decline in students taking notes in this same workshop this year, despite my encouragement to do so. I have also had to adapt my delivery and demo only 2-3 steps at a time as students were unable to remember more than this. This makes me question if the access to technology is so easy and at the tip of a finger, do students not even try to remember what they have been taught 10 minutes ago. They know they can find the information they need within seconds, why take notes? Why try to remember processes? How much has the student actually learned?

“Connectivism allows students to incorporate electronic devices for the “off-site” storage of information, treating the role of memory differently than prior learning theories.  With connectivism, technology is permitted to become part of the student’s internal learning process.” Fiore, A (2018)

References

Fiore, A (2018) Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. available at https://focusedusolutions.com/2018/12/22/connectivism/#:~:text=Connectivism%20allows%20students%20to%20incorporate,the%20student’s%20internal%20learning%20process. [accessed] 5/2/23

Team Satchel, What is Pedagogy? | 4 Essential Learning Theories | Satchel (February 13th 2020) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcpwEoW1uY8&ab_channel=TeamSatchel [accessed] 5/2/23