Teaching and supporting.
When I started in my role in 2017, I had very little knowledge of theories of teaching and learning and learned techniques from my peers. When I covered the grade 4 teaching and learning position in 2019, I researched into what teaching methods worked best with art students. I read an interesting article about the use of storytelling to help students learn, which really inspired me. Vanessa Boris’ article (2017) explained the many benefits of storytelling while teaching. Building trust, making complex topics manageable and memorable and most importantly this is accessible by different types of learners. I have always been selective about when to incorporate stories into my delivery. I want to make sure they are relevant and inclusive and for a specific reason. To get through a complicated process and make it memorable and keep them engaged. Connecting them to real life scenarios helps them to create a picture of their potential future and fuel their passion for the subject.
My job as a technician is to teach students how to do their practical work. There is also an importance to explain to students why alongside the how. I can tell students that in costume we use bigger seam allowances than fashion and leave it at that, but by adding the why, – because in the industry costumes get sold to hire companies and then get reused for different productions/cast changes. Bigger seam allowances allow costumes to be altered to fit different performers rather than being remade. By referring to the theatre and film industry, it gives students a better understanding about costume construction while giving them insight to industry practises and sustainability in costume. By giving the students details on how the industry currently supports sustainable practice we can also support UAL’s policy of “Embedding social and environmental sustainability into the curriculum” (2023). With the aim to encourage students to be forward thinking about how they could push this further when they graduate and enter industry and “Help Navigate change”. UAL (2023)
After starting on the PGCert course and being exposed to different types of pedagogy and teaching methods, it has made me think about how I teach and how I could improve this going forward. With the focus of many researchers suggesting the best method for student learning is a student centred approach. There is little research on how this applies in terms of a practical skills class. Maclain (2018) explains that “when teaching a new concept or skill to a group of younger learners, the choice might be to adopt a more restrictive and teacher led approach, with questions being used to gauge recall and understanding. This restrictive approach will limit the range (and potentially the creativity) of outcomes, whereas a more expansive approach (where learner potentially make more choices) can result in a broader range of outcome, which might be less skilfully realised if the requisite skills have not already been developed.” With all of my technical workshops frontloaded in the first year, it has made me question if remaining teacher centred for the sake of Y1 students building a solid foundation of practical skills is more beneficial than adopting a new student centred approach and encouraging more experimentation, and a weaker skill base. To explore this issue further, talking to fellow technicians about this may be the key along with a student survey to see their preferences.
References
Boris, V., 2017. What makes storytelling so effective for learning. Harvard Business Learning. Available at https://www.harvardbusiness.org/what-makes-storytelling-so-effective-for-learning/#:~:text=Visual%20learners%20appreciate%20the%20mental,and%20feelings%20from%20the%20story.&text=Storytelling%20also%20helps%20with%20learning%20because%20stories%20are%20easy%20to%20remember. Accessed 10/3/2023
UAL, 2023. Sustainable learning, teaching and research Available at https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/sustainability/sustainable-learning-teaching-and-research (Accessed 10/03/23)
UAL, 2023. Our Strategy 22-33 https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/strategy-and-governance/strategy/guiding-policy-1 Accessed 10/3/23
UAL, 2023 Creative Attributes framework Available at https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/204330/Creative-Attributes-Framework-OVERVIEW-2020-FINAL.pdf
McLain, M. 2018 Emerging perspectives on the demonstration as a signature pedagogy in design and technology education. Int J Technol Des Educ 28, 985–1000.