additional – PG Cert

Object based learning.

“Objects have the power to inspire, inform, excite and educate; they can be used to acquire subject
specific knowledge as well as more generic transferable skills such as communication and teamwork.” (Chatterjee, 2011)

I have always enjoyed the use of objects and artefacts to engage and inspire students to learn through my teaching. Particularly in my practice, to be able to have costumes to show students a physical example of their learning outcomes. I teach technical workshops on how to create a boned bodice and I am lucky enough to own an original Victorian bodice myself. Every year I bring this into the class and allow students to touch and examine this garment (with gloves) so they can see how it was originally constructed by hand. This is usually the first time these students are exposed to a garment that is 150 years old, and the level of excitement is always high. The gasps and smiles are an indicator of how engaged they are, and a memorable event is made.

“The ‘wow’ of an item can create rich, important and fun learning.” (Hardie, 2015(

I ask students to compare the original garment to a costume remake to see how historically accurate we are, or are not and ask them to discuss why there may be these differences. Creating meaning and context of an original historical garments and that of costume remakes which have a different purpose. The aim of bringing this into my workshop is to create a fun, engaging and memorable event and help students to retain the practical part of the workshop.

“…Our aim was to explore innovative teaching approaches which would provide students with an alternative way of connecting with subject-related material. It was important to create a learning environment that invites participants’ subjectivities and lived experiences, and builds on the latter, helping them navigate the process of enquiry, thus leading to a deeper, meaningful learning experience. We were also keen to use an approach that had potential to ignite participants’ sense of exploration and curiosity, and reinforce the enjoyable nature of critical and creative thinking.” (Kukhareva, Lawrence, and Koulle, 2020)

Due to our location at Lime Grove, having access to the LCF archives and borrowing items for classes can be challenging. With the upcoming move to Stratford, I hope to include more original objects within my sessions. The impact of OBL on the students is clear to see through their engagement, enquiry and joy of seeing original artefacts.

References

Chatterjee, H.J., 2011. Object-based learning in higher education: The pedagogical power of museums. Available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315596471-17/object-based-learning-powerful-pedagogy-higher-education-leonie-hannan-rosalind-duhs-helen-chatterjee [Accessed] 20/03/23

Hardie, K., 2015. Innovative pedagogies series: Wow: The power of objects in object-based learning and teaching. Higher Education Academy, pp.1-24. Available at https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/hea/private/kirsten_hardie_final_1568037367.pdf [Accessed] 20/03/23

Kukhareva, M., Lawrence, A. and Koulle, K., 2020. Layers of interaction: Object-based learning driving individual and collaborative active enquiry. Innovations in Active Learning in Higher Education.

UK Professional Standards Framework and employability blog 3.

Continuation from previous post.

Blog 1. https://sarahmasters.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/03/05/uk-professional-standards-framework-and-employability/

Blog 2. https://sarahmasters.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/03/15/uk-professional-standards-framework-and-employability-blog-2/

It was raised during our discussion on 24^th February 2023, if we
felt that the university were purposely being deceitful to potential students.
My belief is yes, and this is what I’m uncomfortable with. If the framework has
changed, and we are required to give the students the skills they need to pass
the course, rather than getting a job, then why not be more transparent and
open about this? Will students still apply if we focused more on the sense of
creative self-discovery rather than employability, at the cost of
£10,000-£20,000 a year?

Having studied the course I teach on; I can see how it has changed in 15
years. Specific skill-based classes have reduced significantly and been
replaced with units such as Better Lives which is a different subject entirely,
other unrelated workshops implemented only to fulfil unit briefs. Changes should
be made to make the courses better, but this doesn’t need to be at the cost of
employability. Why can we not be a university that promotes creative
exploration and personal growth as well as giving the students the skills
required to increase job certainty after graduation?

I understand we are not a trade school; we are a University, but do students
really know the difference? On the BA costume course, the 2022 NSS scores show
in the free text comments last year that there was a clear expectation to have
more skills by the end of the degree than they did. This was a big contribution
to our very low score and shows that the students have a lack of understanding
about what we deliver in terms of practical employable skills for industry.

References

Advance HE. Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting
learning in higher education 2011 (2023) available at https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/ukpsf-2011-summary-document
(Accessed 5/03/23)

Advance HE. Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting
learning in higher education 2023 (2023) available at https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/teaching-and-learning/psf#psf2023
(Accessed 5/03/23)

Trust for London (2023) available at https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/
(Accessed 5/03/23)

LCF course website (2023) available at https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/performance-and-design-for-theatre-and-screen/undergraduate/ba-hons-hair-make-up-and-prosthetics-for-performance-lcf
(Accessed 05/03/23)

UK Professional Standards Framework and employability blog 2.

Continuation from previous post. https://sarahmasters.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/03/05/uk-professional-standards-framework-and-employability/

A study by Trust for London (2019/2020) shows that Tower Hamlets is the
poorest borough in London, with Newham coming in 3^rd, Hackney and
Waltham Forest only slightly further down the list. Tower Hamlets has 39% of
the residents living in poverty with Newham close behind with 36%, with 49% of
the boroughs children living in these conditions. This has made me question,
why are we trying to recruit disadvantaged poverty-stricken youths to apply for
a course that is not designed to help them gain a career, instead get them into
debt? So they can find themselves? This may be an option for students who have
come from a privileged background but not for many locals in East London. Of
course, it is up to the student to decide why they are applying to study a
degree at university. But I feel it is the universities responsibility to be
transparent about what we are delivering. Browsing through the UAL website for
prospective students, I found no mention of the purpose of studying being to
“find yourself” or “explore your own creative practice”. However, I found
countless references to “employment opportunities” “careers” and “industry” at
every turn. Looking at one course that I work alongside, BA Hair, Make up and
Prosthetics for performance as an example. The webpage for the course states in
the title “BA (Hons) Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics for Performance teaches the
specialist skills to enter the performance industry working as a make-up /
prosthetics artist as well as hair / wig dresser and maker.” This clearly
implies to prospective students that we are giving them the skills for a
career, when in reality we are not. Most of the graduates are struggling to
find work in industry due to skill gaps, skills that were once taught on the
course but were removed.

Screen shot of LCF BA (hons) Hair, Make up and Prosthetics for performance course page.

Real life experience working together in a professional theatre, with a professional cast was removed several years ago and replaced with the Personal Performance Project. A unit where they now have twice as long, to produce half as much.

Continue to Blog 3. https://sarahmasters.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/03/15/uk-professional-standards-framework-and-employability-blog-3/

References.

Trust for London (2023) available at https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/ (Accessed 5/03/23)

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 3^rd 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.

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 18^th 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 Muddier

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.

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 13^th 2020) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcpwEoW1uY8&ab_channel=TeamSatchel [accessed] 5/2/23