thinking thoughts academic practice – Page 2 – sam barber

Inclusive Practices | RACE

Hahn Tapper |A pedagogy of social justice education: social identity, theory and intersectionality

Before I read very far, I found myself with many questions:

What types of intergroup?’
Who is writing this?
What is the context?

These questions were stopping me from being able to engage with the resource…so I turned to Google…

Hahn Tapper is the Mae and Benjamin Swig Professor in Jewish Studies and 2003 founded ‘Abraham’s Vision, a conflict transformation organization that ran educational programs within and between the Muslim, Jewish, Palestinian, and Israeli communities’

Having this insight into the author helped me engage with the paper in a different way, understanding his own positionality as the author of this paper helped me read it from a different perspective, this made me reflect on the issue of authorship which is a recurring theme in the inclusive practices unit and also features in the ‘Retention and Attainment in the Disciplines’ resource. Something I want to come back to on my own course in the future.

When there are loose and varying definitions of a term such as social justice, that the impact of the term and its meaning can be diminished.

Tapper suggests that ‘heterogeneity surrounding an idea can add great depth to its meaning’ and if it becomes superficial then it can be difficult to gain traction or adoption as a thought/approach.

I reflected on the exercise in Session 2 when we defined terms with regards to race and how, across our cohort, there had been surety on some terms and vagueness on others, in particular white supremacy, and white fragility – what can we take from the fact that within a predominately white cohort, it was these terms with which we were less clear? This also connects back to Shirley Ann-Tate and the importance of exploring whiteness.

‘It is impossible to think of education without thinking of power… the question … is not to get power but to reinvent power’ (Freire)

Not only do environments convey messages of power but so do teachers’ identities and Tapper refers to Freire who argues that ‘a teacher’s social identity plays as much of a role in the classroom environment as anything else.’ The idea that we are there to ‘deposit’ information is not only an ineffective method of knowledge transfer but brings with it a potential failure to understand how the teacher’s identity can influence classroom learning and our role in encouraging critical reflective communication.

He talks of people being a product of their environment echoed so perfectly in a letter published this week from the old headmaster of Eton where he reflects on the role of his old educational establishment

‘Perhaps its (Eton’s) most important mission will be to ensure that its pupils are saved from the sense of privilege, entitlement, and omniscience that can produce alumni such as Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Kwasi Kwarteng, and Ben Elliot and thereby damage a country’s very fabric. Sadly, I failed in that purpose’ John Claughton

Musa Okwonga attended Eton and wrote about his experiences there reflecting on his positionality, racism and how everything about the environment and ambience supports the notion of power…

‘No one here ever tells us out loud that we Etonians are natural leaders: that is what the architecture is for. In one of the rooms, I find the mounted bust of every boy who has gone on to become the leader of the country. My boarding houses look like government buildings’

My main question about this text would be around the realities of the challenges in making this work in the UAL/university teaching context, the pressures of time to know students, and practicalities of the thinking and learning environment – whilst I would not disagree with the paper it does not really explore how these ideas are taken into a less-than-perfect system.

Terry Finnigan | Retention and Attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design

The implicit ‘pedagogy of ambiguity’ was a new term for me, recognising there is ‘neither one correct end result nor one way to get there’ is so important in the Design Management course on which I teach, yet there exists a tension in that this can create ‘vagueness and insecurity’.

The text refers to first-year students, however, I would suggest this is also true for masters international students who may be older and have more lived experience but who can struggle with their first move away from home, adapting to a new culture and, often, a new educational context.

The text suggests that “feedback is fundamental to providing structure whilst allowing exploration and experimentation”, and this requires trust. I would like to create more safe spaces and interventions that enable students to explore their own identities in relation to the course, their interests, and in relation to one another – on my course this year we have 22 languages spoken and 14 different nationalities! In vulnerability, we can find energy and authenticity which builds stronger relationships and allows for more creative thinking.

Learning 1 – pedagogy of ambiguity

Learning 2 – feedback is fundamental to structure with exploration and experimentation

The SoN on Understanding Safe Spaces and Understanding Exclusionary Practices have been helpful to explore, clear simple language to inform my teaching practice.

Shades of Noir: Peekaboo We See You Whiteness

I feel that one of the most unexpected elements of this inclusive practices’ unit has been my shifting understanding of the concepts of white supremacy and white fragility. Before this unit I would have probably ascribed white fragility/supremacy to many of the stereotypes of more extremist attitudes and behaviour around race. However, my shift in understanding is that it is far more systemic , widespread and close to the surface.

This article on White Fragility talks of ‘white patterns’ which make it difficult for white people to understand racism as a system.

I have witnessed examples of the ‘internalised sense of superiority and privilege’ discussed by Robin Diangelo, by relatives and in social groups, often these behaviours are so ‘micro’ those individuals may not even recognise it as racism.

In terms of my teaching practice this connects me personally to the topics above on power and being intentional about understanding the power dynamic that may be in place as a white female teacher with my students. It has made me question my own white fragility or any internalised sense of superiority, which I hope I don’t have, or may not even recognise … but now it’s named and seen then I hope I can be ready and alert to it! I found this a powerful and well-constructed article and I have referred a few people to it outside of UAL already along with the video by Shirley Anne Tate

Shades of Noir

SoN has such a wealth of content for both teachers and students … in the past, I’ve said to students “Have a look at Shades of Noir”, however, this feels like it does not do justice to the richness of information and support that sits within it. Engaging with the content through this course has helped me understand more about where the value lies.

In terms of content then there are specific articles and case studies that may help students shape research when exploring specific design challenges, for example, I am supervising a student who is looking to design more inclusive recruitment practices in creative agencies. I will also be using it to help students understand the concept of positionality in research which can be a new idea for many of them and is key for their masters studies.

Certainly, we could be using the work that our students do on these topics more explicitly in the classroom; sharing examples of work, using these topics as thought starters for students choosing new design projects.

Additionally, I have a deeper understanding of how SoN might also help students find their own voices when issues may arise, the case studies illustrate and explore ideas of power in the education setting which they may find hard to articulate or recognise but the SoN terms of reference and case studies wonderfully explore real-life examples.

From my own perspective, I am more familiar with content such as ‘Creating Safe Spaces in creative education” and will be using this in my artefact reflection.

Josephine Khwali | Witness Unconscious Bias Video

What strikes me in this video is the conversation around the lack of pace and progress despite the significant amount of work that has been done. How can racism still be unconscious? It connects to the ideas raised by Tapper about white patterns and the inability to recognise racism as part of a system and recognising the racist microaggressions that we discussed earlier in this unit.

I reflect on my earlier career (many years ago) and incidents of misogyny and sexism in the workplace which I have only come to recognise as I have got older. As systemic changes have taken place, as the macro context changes, we can reflect differently on our own behaviours and experiences through a different lens. But as Kwhali reflects, many of the changes have benefitted middle-class white women but not working-class, or black and minority women.

Note: This video did not appear to be the whole TED talk as it was only a couple of minutes long, and I couldn’t find any link to any other TED talk by Josephine Kwhali

In addition to my blogging group, please find my comments on other posts here:

https://tillypgcert.myblog.arts.ac.uk/

References

Shades of Noir

Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design Terry Finnigan

Hahn Tapper (2013) A pedagogy of social justice education: social identity, theory and intersectionality

Shades of Noir, We See You Whiteness

Josephine Kwhali Unconscious Bias UCU Rising (2016) Available at Unconscious Bias Josephine Khwali

Additional references

Hamish Morrison (2023) Ex-Eton Headmaster savages Boris Johnson, The National, 13^th June 2023. Available at:https://www.thenational.scot/news/23586810.ex-eton-headmaster-savages-boris-johnsons-entitlement/

Musa Okwonga, (2021), Eton showed me how privilege is nurtured and how the UK’s power structures – and systemic racism – were forged, iNews, 12^th April 2021. Available at https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/eton-privilege-nurtured-uk-power-structures-systemic-racism-forged-952620

https://usfca.edu/faculty/aaron-hahn-tapper

Inclusive Practices | FAITH

Shades of Noir
Interview with William Whitcombe:
The chaplain and interfaith advisor for LCF & LCC

I chose this article as I wanted a perspective that was not a student or teaching staff and it was interesting to hear his views that ‘faith, religion and spirituality’ can increase creativity and I would like to have seen this part expanded.

From my teaching practice perspective, we don’t currently specifically discuss faith and design however we do have students for whom their faith is the starting point for their design thinking and the projects chosen for their final projects. Religion and faith could be integrated as a part of ‘the human experience’ discussions and within the context of human-centered design which we cover in Global Design Futures or the Design Management and Innovation unit.

This would support William’s suggestion that arts educators can show ‘interest and a willingness to engage with the stories that students of faith want to have’, in response to this unit I have chosen to supervise two students next term who are specifically considering design projects connected to their faith and the Shades of Noir case study detailed below has contributed to both my confidence and interest in these projects and working with the students to understand how they see the connections between their faith and design practice.

Kwame Anthony Appiah – Mistaken Identities

This resource gave me some of the most interesting and useful insights however I was a little less clear on how it could inform my teaching practice, but it offered an alternative and previously unconsidered view on the value of faith

As an atheist, I sometimes find discussions around faith a little tricky to navigate at times. Key areas which resonated and gave me pause for thought were the idea that doctrine means little without practice and that increasingly doctrine is being driven by practice. In some ways this has parallels with creative, design, and arts studies, that it is through practice that we change, learn, and reinterpret. This could be an interesting discussion point, how does practice manifest in both faith and in creative studies, can they inform one another in any way? This could be a more ‘comfortable’ way for students to discuss their own and one another’s definitions of faith.

Kwame says that if ‘scripture can’t be reinterpreted then it cannot survive’ and that the idea of ‘one true way’ is used to both strengthen and defend doctrine whilst at the same time it is the basis of a critique of faith. That identity is constantly changing and being redefined is key to the survival of faith.

The concept of religion as a ‘verb, not a noun’ has given me an alternative way to understand other’s faiths and the value of faith beyond that which it gives the individual, the importance of faith in the community, and the positive impact it can have if practiced as Kwame Appiah describes.

Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education (Modood & Calhoun, 2015)
– Secular states and public regions
– Western European moderate secularism
– The ‘vaguely Christian’ UK

The two articles on secularism explored the unseen matrix of religion behind our public institutions and making the hidden visible, arguments such as organised religion ‘builds social capital and production of attitudes’ resonated with me. There is a possibility that in a secular society, we assume religion has less influence on society and sits in the individual domain.

The funding of ‘religious schools or religious education’ by the state in all EU countries was new to me, however, I would question whether religious education and religious schools are so easily connected in this way. I personally feel the teaching of religious education is important, it encourages students to understand the ways in which organised religion connects with the fabric of the state and the public good or bad that can emerge from such a relationship. I feel this is an important educational principle and encourages critical thinking in a way that perhaps religious schools may not, where doctrine is taught and religious practice observed. In this sense, I would agree that RE should be included in curriculums of state education and therefore funded by the state.

This is further supported in the article ‘The Vaguely Christian UK’, where it is argued that there is a ‘thin grasp’ of religion’s place in British history and that religion is unevenly taught and disconnected from other important fields such as politics, and sociology.

Calhoun’s discussion around multiculturalism helped me think again about how race, religion, and ethnicity are often conflated, and how this might present itself in my teaching practice and my understanding of the students on the course (MA Design Mgt) where we have students from over 10 different regions of the world.

Key learnings/reminders

The way in which religion presents itself in the UK – ‘elite led official religiosity’ (think Coronation!) or debates around multiculturalism

The conflation of race, religion, and ethnicity

Extended reading:
Shades of Noir Case Study | Faith

I found the focus on the role that teachers have in facilitating fair and equitable discussions, important and personally relevant. If a student does not feel safe or have confidence that the teaching staff can effectively facilitate in-class conversations around faith and how faith might influence their design or creative work this will both stifle debate, lead to a lack of confidence in the student, and impact on their learning outcomes.

It is interesting that the staff member felt the need to disclose that she was an atheist – the article does not give any context for the discussion that took place – was this in the context of an overall discussion about faith to which the staff member was contributing or simply an ‘announcement’ to the tutor group? Should this disclosure have not been made at all or, if it was in the context of everyone sharing, then perhaps a caveat, such as… “I am an atheist however I recognise and support your own personal faiths”. So far, I have never made any disclosure of my own personal faith or absence of faith

I am supervising two students whose final major projects are focused on Muslim fashion and the design of prayer mats, this article felt like a useful reminder for my discussions with those particular students, how to ensure they feel comfortable openly discussing their faith and the impact it has on all elements of their lives from fashion choices through to prayer rituals. I could use this resource as part of our opening discussions around their projects.

References

BBC (2016) Mistaken Identities, Kwame Appiah, 22nd October, (online video). Available from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z43ds

Terms of Reference Journal from Shades of Noir (SoN) Faith

Modood & Calhoun, 2015 Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education

Inclusive Practices | DISABILITY

One key takeout for me in our opening session was how do we support students to feel they have agency? Agency is the “sense of having control over the action and outcomes of one’s life” and this was the core reflection for me as I navigated these resources….

Film by Christine Kum

Agency was evident in Film by Christine Kum and I can imagine using this resource to discuss how students can bring their own unique perspectives, talents and interests to their work. I think this is an inspiring resource to encourage boldness and also to find your own intepretation

Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from touring Eve and Mary are having coffee

This triggered a reflection that whilst we encourage students on my course to consider their own positionality, we don’t necessarily get them to consider the intersectionality of participants in their own research, particularly for final major projects. We often have students researching and designing for issues such as women’s health and I’m now conscious that we could do more to help them reflect on their research participants, who they wish to speak to and more thoughtful consideration of the research findings in relation to that intersectionality.

UAL Disability Services Web page

Reviewing this content highlighted to me that I personally have very little insight into any disabilities the students on my course have. The line between student confidentiality and understanding the disabilities in the cohort is unclear for me.

Does it matter that I don’t know? If my starting point is inclusivity is that enough to ensure my teaching practice will cover any ‘gaps’ in my knowledge of students lives and intersectionality?

I had recent experience with a student who was quite emotional after a teaching session, I had shared my own experience of working with a colleague with ADHD and how challenging both of us had found some of our interactions. The student had ADHD and some of the discussion had been quite triggering for her. In hindsight I could have highlighted this content more effectively even though her reaction was how positive she had found the discussion, it had still been an emotional situation for her.

Shades of Noir

On reviewing the terms of reference for Disability in SoN I discovered the Evolution of Disability models based on posts by Drake Music, it was a revelation that there are so many interpretations of disability from political, social and personal perspectives. I followed the link through to Drake Music where again the issue of language and terminology emerged,

“One of the biggest hurdles to achieving this is that, in talking about disability, people often get stuck on finding the “right language”. However, there isn’t 100% fixed, agreed or rubber-stamped good language”.

In terms of my practice, I have never really discussed with my colleagues how we reflect on our individual cohort and the needs they may have to ensure we give a cohesive and intentionally designed approach to develop our teaching practices around unseen and seen disability. It would be fascinating for us to discuss these models as a teaching group, what do we feel is most pertinent, how would we want to integrate these models into both our approach to students and in supporting student projects when they are exploring issues of design related to disability.

https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia
https://vimeo.com/31083172
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/confronting-the-whitewash_b_10574994?guccounter=1
https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people
https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people/18

surprisingly interesting

‘I’m not sure it’s holiday reading’ was my comment to our group having spent 30 minutes reading and processing the reading in our group session called Academic Attribution by Ken Hyland. I chose to read this one as it felt as thought it might offer a bit of a challenge, however I wasn’t expecting to find it so interesting and engaging.

I feel like there were a number of key takeouts for me:

The idea that the construction of academic facts is a ’social’ activity
That citation places your work in a ’body of knowledge’
The discussion around reporting forms in citations
The different use of reporting verbs depend on how, as the writer, you relate to the texts and authors
the message presented is always embedded in earlier messages

This was helpful to my practice in a number of ways, I think it helps my articulation of the importance of referencing, literature review, and support to students through their FMPs. Students from design backgrounds or different educational contexts may not have engaged with academic writing in the way we explain it in our course and I think helping them understand that their work does not sit alone but within a body or community of knowledge is an interesting way to explain this.

We also reviewed the Creative Attributes framework, which I was not familiar with, and found it a really useful tool for articulating the skills and capabilities that our students develop throughout their learning journey, I was particularly interested in the ideas of connectivity and curiosity. I sometimes explain to the students that approaching literature reviews through a lens of curiosity and exploration rather than as a reading list may help them engage more with their topics.

I also feel that some students do not really understand what we mean by literature review, it feels like a very academic term (and perhaps constraining, as literature leads to assumptions of books and texts – which is not really how the world operates now) and I think the idea of a contextual review better explains what is required.

Connectivity: the ability to… contribute to communities of practice

Curiosity: the enthusiasm to seek out new perspectives, to create and build on existing knowledge

I have not been exposed to the Creative Attributes framework before and actually feel it would be interesting to use this more explicitly in the course. If this is the language and framework to aid employability then perhaps having interim sessions with students to help them see how their learning fits within this and align their learning to the framework may help at the end of the course. An iterative ‘CV’ – so much is forgotten by the end of the course that capturing learning and experiences ‘as you go’ could be a really beneficial output for students.

I feel the language is more accessible, the definitions more clearly articulated and it is generally more inspirational than the current assessment criteria with which we are working – but that may be because it aligns more closely with the language of my practice.

I would like to understand more about the framing of the current assessment criteria and how this connects to the creative attributes framework and also how we measure students learning journeys at the end of the course.

/https://chead.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/CAF_Presentation_CHEAD_SANT.pdf

The hidden curriculum

When I very first started teaching (not at UAL) I was completely taken by surprise at the lack of joined-up thinking across the unit on which I was teaching. I couldn’t make sense of what the course roadmap looked like, how all the units fitted together and how my teaching needed to connect.

My very first contract was to undertake some marking with very little guidance or understanding of the course. I took the work on more out of curiosity and because I was interested in moving into higher education. When exploring the apparent disconnect with the course leader, I was told that it was for the students to piece together the learning, to connect the dots across various content. At the time I didn’t question or challenge this as I was new to education but felt uncomfortable about the quality of the teaching and learning that this approach created. I did not really know how to articulate this.

In preparing my planning and design case study, this topic came up again and I tried to find reading around the topic of disconnected curriculums (my own words for how it felt) this quote from Faculty Focus seemed to support what was an intuitive feeling for me.

Another reason why learning doesn’t seem to last long for many students is because they don’t see how each “part” of the instruction fits into the “big picture.” Teachers often choose to teach their material in discrete units for ease of course organization. This often leads students to compartmentalize, cram, and then forget as they turn their attention to the next unit.

Using Context to Deepen and Lengthen Learning Tyler Griffin is an assistant professor at Brigham Young University

The idea that this is for ease of course organisation does not seem to support a student-focused learning environment. My experience at UAL is that this is less of an issue, however, I have only taught on one course and have a long and positive relationship with the course leader who is very inclusive with our team and encourages all of us to input to unit and course design and ensures we have a clear understanding of the ‘shape’ of the course.

However, this seems to happen by default due to personality and leadership rather than being systemised as part of ‘how we work’ at UAL. I am aware of teaching staff who have moved to other courses who still feel this sense of disconnect and lack of joined-up thinking regarding learning outcomes and teaching inputs.

On discussing my case study topic with Lindsay she mentioned the concept of a ‘hidden curriculum’ which is a new phrase for me. We also discussed the idea that this creates a sink or swim situation for many students, which has implications for inclusivity – some students may be capable of making those connections enabled by factors such as previous educational context or language, for others it will be much more challenging and may reinforce and exacerbate inequalities. I was interested in this idea of a hidden curriculum so read further about it.

I found Unpacking the Hidden Curriculum published by the Quality Assurance Agency and downloaded the guide for educators and will discuss with our course lead whether this is currently part of our planning, it may be covered in sessions in which I am not involved. I also feel it connects to ideas around cognitive load – if international students are navigating so many mentally competing situations and environments when they first arrive in the UK and at UAL, we could aim to reduce some of that through extra support on the hidden curriculum. I intuitively feel that this issue is probably the most difficult for them to navigate as it is, by definition, opaque and hidden!

The ‘hidden curriculum’ of higher education refers to certain unspoken ‘rules of the game’ about the norms, processes, and language of higher education that students are implicitly assumed to have but are not explicitly taught or explained (Hubbard et al, 2020; Semper and Blasco, 2018).

https://www.qaa.ac.uk/news-events/news/unpacking-the-hidden-curriculum-for-students-new-guidance-launched-for-staff

Unpacking the Hidden Curriculum – a guide for teaching staff

I followed up by listening to a podcast from the developers and authors of the guide, Pam Birtill, and Richard Harris, amongst the points made, were the ideas of confidence and cultural capital bringing advantage to some students. They discuss the idea that some students are ‘just surviving’ their university experience and that even by the final year of a degree some topics are unclear. This ‘survival’ mode can deeply affect stress levels and a sense of belonging which in turn can impact learning and outcomes.

Reflections: I am currently unclear how much of the hidden curriculum thinking is explicitly covered in the Design Management course, and even if work has been done to address this, my own experience of dealing with students on a one-to-one basis in workshops and FMP tutorials would indicate there is more that could be done. On the DM course, 100% of our students are international, many of whom are living away from home for the first time and whilst they all have previous experience of university it will often have been totally different in the cultural norms and rituals that exist vs UAL / studying in the UK. Birtill and Harris discuss the differences between universities in terms of language, terminology and rituals and that applying a local context for their hidden curriculum guide is critical – at a university level but also at a course level.

Additionally, I feel I could integrate some of the principles of the hidden curriculum into how I design my topics or units, for example, checking understanding of terminology using padlet or whiteboards (for anonymity if students don’t feel confident speaking up) at the start of a teaching session

I would like to run a more explicit session on elements of the hidden curriculum with students at the start of my FMP supervision process. I usually ask/check if there are any questions but I think I could do a deeper dive to assess levels of understanding and make it a much more interactive session – again using padlet, asking them to work in groups to identify areas that are unclear or confusing.

‘good’ learning

I was finally able to attend an in-person session, despite the challenges of landslips on the train line and a 2.5-hour commute rather than 55 mins!

notions of criticality

In preparation for this session I read Macfarlane, Teaching with Integrity and was immediately surprised by the comment that ‘the notion of criticality has rarely been systematically and rigorously applied to teaching practice in university education’, – the idea of criticality is an integral part of what we expect our students to demonstrate on the MA in Design Management and I was surprised to read that, in his opinion, this has not been brought to reflective academic practice systemically.

As someone whose undergraduate degree was in Politics and History (admittedly many moons ago) the notion of criticality is so embedded in my thinking it is more about who I am not what I do! I’m not sure I can think in any other way…

evaluating learning

Further, into the text Macfarlane discusses that ‘lecturer performance and student performance are not necessarily synonymous’. I found this a thought-provoking concept and I am unsure how you start to disentangle the two and note that Macfarlane doesn’t really expand upon this either.

Throughout most of 2022 I was fortunate enough to have a student from the MA DM course, work with me as an intern on a challenging consultancy project around redesigning work for a large global publishing group, I had mentored her through her thesis and was aware that her skill set and personal attributes could add value to the work. It was a great learning experience for both of us. For me, I could see the value of the studies she had undertaken in a ‘real world’ context, and also identify where the gaps may have been in her learning and understanding which could inform my curriculum design.

It enabled me to see where the student had internalised concepts and was easily integrating this into how we practiced and where there were gaps in understanding and/or application of knowledge. In this respect, I was looking at ‘student performance’ in a different context which was illuminating.

Therefore, when Macfarlane discusses SEQs and the need for a variety of tools to evaluate the quality of teaching this really resonated with me. I strongly feel that the real value from the MADM course evolves and emerges as students gain professional/practice experience post-graduation – clearly this will depend on which role, sector, and tasks they undertake.

Whilst LCC may do evaluations post-graduation, as a lecturer on the course I have never had sight of any of this feedback and/or understand how it feeds into curriculum design and iterating our teaching and student needs. This is further supported when Macfarlane comments that higher education is a complex service, moving away from it being a ‘consumer-based service and one that you can only evaluate the value and experience some years after graduation’.

‘We are not transmitting knowledge, we are supporting learning’ writes Gill Aitken, director of post-graduate education at Edinburgh University. This aligns with Macfarlane’s comments that we should ‘challenge students to re-examine their own knowledge base rather than simply transferring information uncritically’

Graham Barton and Judy Wilkins state that ‘one of the central assumptions of learning development is that learning is often more than the simple acquisition of new knowledge and skills, with the potential for transformations in perceptions, values and beliefs’. Whilst we do undertake assessment of learning in the short term via a range of methods such as assignments, I do feel that assessing whether a ‘transformation’ has taken place may require distance and space from the actual learning process. Which led me to think about where does the value sit in the course and learning for my students? I feel like I make assumptions about this without real insight…

The UK Framework for Programme Reviews (2022) sets out to give some definition around quality and value in response to the OfS focus on courses deemed ‘low quality’ and recognise the risk that ‘regulation and funding decisions based only on narrow graduate outcome measures will harm courses that support levelling up, improve social mobility and deliver student choice’

I would be interested in exploring this further with students who are alumni of the course, or exploring with my course leader how we assess value on our course, how we are measuring and understanding value.

My thoughts are unclear on this at the moment however in terms of input to curriculum design it feels important to understand where the ‘value’ sits for our students in our course. Moreover, it could assist me when I am interviewing prospective students, I don’t really have a clear view on how I can discuss this topic with them when asked that question. I can talk about student progression in a functional way i.e. job roles, which organisations they may be working in, but not really communicate where the real value has come in the course which I would hope is wider than job role or earnings.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/designing-postgraduate-education-means-sharing-and-developing-academic-and-professional

https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/75/129

https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/sites/default/files/field/downloads/2022-01/uuk-framework-for-programme-reviews.pdf

thinking through drawing

Thinking through drawing….

I’m a big fan of visual frameworks for aligning, problem-solving, and enabling different points of view, `I use them all the time in my practice workshops and designing consultancy projects

In a deliberate attempt to develop new skills, I attended the Thinking through Drawing workshop with Ilga Leimanis FHEA . From a teaching point of view I wanted to attend a workshop that is totally different to anything I currently teach myself to see what learnings I may have for my own practice.

Ilga’s view is that too often we think of an idea and try to draw it, this keeps our thinking in the rational side of our brains. To unlock alternative thinking she advised we need to try not to think.. just do (it all sounds very Jedi) and see what emerges

As you can see I’ll never have a career in illustration (!) but accessing a different part of my brain around one of my work topics on the future of work design was enlightening and indeed gave me alternative thoughts on how to talk about tackling it.

the workshop

The workshop was online with approx 12 attendees. The steps that Ilga took us through reduced my worries about being able to draw, she made it very clear that the workshop was not about drawing ‘skills’ but about thinking and unlocking thinking. We worked individually for an hour or so as she guided us through various stages which involved inputs of words to help us iterate and develop our thinking, laddering through ideas.

We then moved to Padlet where we shared content, talked through our work and how we found the experience, Ilga then offered ideas and thoughts on how to develop the work further, in my case that meant not using so many words but perhaps using shapes in their place.

reflections

Ilga’s tone was measured, thoughtful and encouraging. This encouraged a relaxed learning environment where I felt confident to explore and less worried about comparing my output to the other attendees (all of whom seemed to be from either illustration or fine art courses!). I hope I deliver an encouraging learning context for my students but I do feel I sometimes rush through content, I would like to bring more ‘breathing space’ into the teaching I do, more reflection, and ‘ease’. This relates also to my other blog post on learning environments and time to think.
Ilga runs this workshop often and her use of the technology and smoothness with which that worked was evident, this in turn ensured she was relaxed. Her expertise in this topic was clear – a reminder of the benefit of testing tech and smooth transitions between tools used
At the end was a link to a very simple questionnaire to understand what value we had taken from the workshop – I would like to test using a simple Typeform survey at the end of some of my teaching sessions or perhaps a more engaging, playful way of getting feedback.

I’m keen to encourage my students to attend this workshop or perhaps use this technique when planning teaching to see what options it unlocks

Micro-teaching reflection

“Object-based learning (OBL) is an experiential pedagogy concerned with the close and tactile study of material things, such as artworks, specimens, texts and artifacts… Like its historical antecedents, object lessons and object teaching, contemporary OBL practice draws its strength from the power of sensory experience.”(Barlow, 2017, p.27)
Barlow, 2017, p.27

first thoughts

On reading the Moodle brief for this exercise I had three immediate questions

1. what is object-based learning and why have I never heard of it before?
2. what constitutes an object in this context?
3. how could this be relevant to the course I work on?

As someone who feels the need to ‘ground’ concepts and make them relevant and meaningful, I needed to clearly understand in my head what a potential outcome might be from an object-based teaching session and I was struggling to see an outcome. In my professional practice, I work with organisations where the workshops I run are very outcome oriented and I’m learning that there is a mindset shift for me to make with regard to the difference between commercial facilitation and higher education teaching.

unlocking an approach

I read an article by Dr Francesca Baseby on Edinburgh Universities ‘Teaching Matters’ blog that offered a moment of clarity on how to structure the session and how an object could be used. Dr Baseby comments that ‘it is about looking beyond the object as a container of information (whether textual or graphic) and considering what its physicality can tell us about the context in which it was created, consumed and preserved’.

I decided to structure the micro-teaching as if the audience were students on my course. The idea was to teach how objects can be another way of helping them think differently about inquiry and design insights, this would be as part of the Design Management Research and Critical Practice unit.

Approaching it in this way meant that the object did not need to be connected to any particular topic – it needed to pique curiosity, prompt questions and then help the students stretch their considerations of what ‘research’ may consist of and encourage them to think about how to use objects in their own contextual research or as inspiration starting points.

The core thought: when we do research, we often have a linear process, starting with data gathering through to insight, inspiration and leading to a designed outcome, I wanted to explore ‘if we start with the designed outcome and think backward, what different conversations or insights might we open’?

My intention was for the students to learn one way of using an object in their research approach, to reflect on the usefulness of this technique, and to stretch their perceptions of what research might be.

designing the teaching session

My core design principles were as follows:

have clear learning objectives
give context
assess the learning from the group
choose an object to pique curiosity and create conversation to give a sense of fun and energy in the room.
I am interested in the idea of playfulness in higher education as based on Lisa Forbes’s work and her findings that ‘play is under-utilised and devalued in higher education, and the idea of play seems to intuitively connect to object-based learning
https://jtl.uwindsor.ca/index.php/jtl/article/view/6515/5264
keep the content simple.
I watched the UAL Thinking Learning video on Sweller’s work on cognitive load and whilst I always aim to keep content simple I sometimes feel I overload with detail
https://ual.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=e61926f0-70e7-489a-a4da-af960124573e

the object

the object

clarity and direction

I created a short PowerPoint deck to support the session as I wanted to be clear on the learning objectives, to ensure students understood what we were planning to do, and to give some context around how we do research and where this exercise might fit in that process.

I gave the session the name ‘Thinking Backwards’. Naming something can give identity, indicate purpose, and give meaning from the start, so I wanted to test if that was the case for this session.

To give some context I created one slide to demonstrate how we often approach research in a linear way, explaining we were going to use an object to reverse that process and think from the outcome backward.

I then placed the object on the table. Without touching it I asked the students a simple open question “what do you think this is”?.

I was interested to see how the conversation progressed from only being able to view the object through to touch and a more sensorial engagement. So, I then invited the students to pick up the item, touch, feel, and build on their initial assessments, this created a different relationship with the object and we started to discuss what its purpose might be and what design inspiration may sit behind it

At this point I told them that the object was a product called The Ostrich Pillow, one student knew the object, but the others did not.

I then posed the following question to the group:

This opened up discussion around insights and human needs, and indeed expanded out into more considerations about work & society, and I captured the discussion using a mindmap technique

To assess learning I had a separate question, in all honesty, this felt like a slightly loose and unstructured way to assess learning or value. I felt I had rushed my thinking on how to assess the learning – I was so relieved to think of a way to use an object that I didn’t give the assessment process the attention deserved.

reflections / what I feel took place

I had some very insightful and useful feedback from my group, which was positively delivered and constructive, this feedback combined with my own reflections is synthesised below.

Overall the feedback indicated it was an immersive experience, partly from ‘teasing’ the item first, creating a lower-risk situation for exploration and conversation, and having a playful structure to the session. There was a sense of relaxation as no one knew what the object was and this seemed to have an equalising effect as the students built on each other’s guesses and suggestions and it seemed there was no risk in speaking up or participating. Additionally starting with an open question seemed to bring immediate contributions – the question was not based on students’ knowledge, simply a point of view.

I felt that starting with the learning objectives should help the group understand the purpose of the session and this clarity of aims and objectives was appreciated.

My concerns about assessing learning were realised, in that we ran out of time to address the final question, and feedback from the group indicated bringing this question forward would have been helpful. Finishing with a summary or key takeaways would have rounded off the learning effectively in place of exploring the final question.

Additionally, clarification on some terminology would have been helpful, I had felt this might be a concern and had included an image to help with the understanding of the research process which the group felt had been useful.

The object analysis did seem to open up both specific design considerations with regards to what human needs may have led to its creation, and also a more wide-ranging discussion on societal expectations of the culture of work, why a product such as this may be needed, and what that means for society?

what to do with this learning?

My key takeouts would be

building on the idea of play to de-risk learning, and to encourage more equal participation
continuing to simplify using visual language for concepts in line with theories on cognitive load
always include learning objectives at the start of each teaching session
further consideration on how to build assessment of the learning objectives a session into the design of the learning activity
with more time I would ask students to capture their own thoughts but in the interests of time I participated as a facilitator of the discussion as shown below.

mountains and new beginnings

16^th January

Attended my first PGCert intro session whilst sitting in the French Alps on a family holiday, not for the first time I reflected on the impact of the seismic shift to remote working and learning, how it has both enabled balance of life and work and simultaneously brought other challenges around setting boundaries and not being constantly available.

It felt almost luxurious to have 3 hours of reflective practice, and my first thought at the end of the workshop, as I looked out at the snow and my different surroundings, was how had this different environment influenced my ability to process, learn and engage with the content of the session. I had felt relaxed, engaged and open to listening and learning from others.

We know that the digital / metaverse / phygital world provides many options for new blended learning experiences, however the reality is that I teach again in an uninspiring room, in a building not fit for purpose, and with the physical restrictions of tables, room layouts, etc.

How can this type of space stretch thinking, and inspire creativity and reflection?

Having recently visited my son’s new university with a £25m investment in a new engineering building, all the staff enthusiastically and excitedly talked about the design thinking behind the new building, the labs and how the lecture rooms have been designed to encourage group work, focus and healthy learning environments.

I have worked in the design of retail space and am a co-founder of a creative co-working space outside of London where we took inspiration from the writing of Nancy Kline in Time to Think and the Ten Components of a Thinking Environment to create an effective working environment.

With reference to Place, Nancy Kline says

Producing a physical environment – the room, the listener, your body – that says, ‘You matter’. When the physical environment affirms our importance, we think more clearly and boldly. When our bodies are cared for and respected, our thinking improves.

Thinking Environments are places that say back to people, ‘You matter.’ People think at their best when they notice that the place reflects their value to the people there and to the event. And because the first place of thinking is the body, it needs to be in a condition that says to us as thinkers, ‘You matter’.

In these ways, Place is a silent form of appreciation.

The question of how does the space at LCC say to our students ‘you matter’ is an interesting one. In the meantime how am I managing the space we have and myself within it to reinforce a message that my students ‘matter’? What can I do with the space that I have and the restrictions of that …

Shelia Ball takes Kline’s ideas and questions ‘in what ways does Kline’s Thinking Environment create the conditions for developing equity? What are the implications for education policy and practice?’ This got me thinking about power structures and the development of teaching spaces.

Further explorations around this topic in connection with academic environments brough up a Spark Journal article ‘A journey around my classroom: the psychogeography of learning spaces’ – the term psychogeography was new to me and the focus of one of the presentations in the workshop this morning. In this article the writers pose the following question

‘If it is common practice in art and design subjects to create a non-hierarchical relationship between students and staff, why are we still looking for the educator who supposedly holds all the knowledge and stands at the front of the room?’

I’m interested to think about this further, how in my own practice I can think about both the use of space in terms of a learning environment and connected with that how the use of space can contribute to a non-hierarchical relationship between myself and students. This is particularly interesting for me in my role as an AL – I often feel that as an AL I am engaged with the university for my content knowledge and less for my teaching and learning expertise. Therefore students do not tend to challenge or perhaps I am too directional in the way I approach topics.

Further exploration of this topic led me to a book called Bernstein, B. (2000) Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research and critique (Rev. ed). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, it appears this is available in the LCC library so note to self to pop in next time I’m at LCC and take a look

So.. in my efforts to bring small changes, this week I used music, playing the song Lovely Day by Bill Withers as the students entered the room – I could sense a slight surprise and a lightness in the room and environment as students filed in and connected differently with both myself and one another. It helped that the sun was out and the sky was blue! Reminiscent of my week in the Mountains before.

Definition of Psychogeography

Psychogeography is the study of specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals. (Debord, 1955

The Ten Components

https://www.timetothink.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/literature-review-s-ball.pdf

https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/10341/1/25-178-1-PB.pdf

Debord, G. (1955) ‘Introduction to a critique of urban geography’, in Knabb, K. (ed.) (1981) Situationist International Anthology. Oakland: Bureau of Public Secrets

Induction – hello blog

Well, this is new.

A good thing to be ‘forced’ into doing a blog. Have thought about it in the past but like many things has been pushed down that list of life things, curious to see what value I find personally as I espouse the benefits of reflection in many conversations with clients and students.

Let’s see.

Sam Barber, teaching on MA Design Management at LCC
Curious to learn, worried about time, constantly reframing