Thank you very much for your comment and sharing you personal experience in industry – really interesting to read thank you! How do you feel your education in art school compares to students […]

Kuldeep is response to your question – ‘From your experience of working with students what types of groups do you think work the best, random, by ability/interest or by […]

Thank you for you posts – both great comments. We do have off-cut bins for the foam and wood so other students can use pieces other would have thrown away … With regards to the foam – […]

Thank you again for your posts. I believe you both to be right about the lack of Facebook comments being down to the students not knowing what LOs are or not feeling confident enough to […]

Thank you both very much for your comments.

Elisa it sounds like you really made some progress with inclusivity in your area – I also think the cultural differences among the […]

I read the Introduction of Grace, S. & Gravestock, P. (2008) Inclusion and Diversity: Meet the Needs of All Students. Routledge. I also had a look at Equality and Diversity for Academics: Inclusive Practice Factsheet and Equality and Diversity for Academics: Promoting Good Relations from Equality Challenge Unit as further reading.

The Introduction of Grace, S. & Gravestock, P. (2008) Inclusion and Diversity: Meet the Needs of All Students I found interesting. It discusses how the volume is to encourage members of staff that are new to Higher Education to think about their teaching and minimise the risk of any students being disadvantaged. I would consider myself to be early in my teaching career and having only worked in HE for a year (on Monday! :0) ) I think it would be useful to read the rest of the book.

What makes students feel included and excluded in your teaching? Share your experience. & How are student able to bring their own life experiences and gained knowledge into their learning on you course/workshop?

These questions made me think of the topic of Inclusivity in relation to experience I have had taking part in a Teaching Intern Scheme while doing my MA. I went to Glasgow School of Art for a 6 day, self-run and initiated project as a lecturer. I had about 25  2nd years BA Jewellery and Silversmithing students to run my project with, ‘Powers of Objects’. The aim of the project was for the students to research, design and make prototypes of a ‘Modern Day Amulet’ for themselves. It was to get them to think more conceptually and create objects with meaning by putting a bit more of themselves into the work – bringing their own life experiences and acquired knowledge to their learning. To make sure all students were comfortable with the project and it didn’t conflict with any personal beliefs, the students could take it as literally or as far as they wished.

It was a fantastic experience and a learning curve that really made me want to teach in HE. However, while one student started to explain her idea in the seminar (it had changed from the previous tutorial) she began to cry.  She was a foreign student from China and explained that she was homesick, missing friends and family and how she felt she didn’t have close friends in Glasgow. It was a really sad situation, she had spent the last year and a half had been really lonely in the UK and I don’t think anyone was really aware of it. She was exceedingly shy and I think even if support was available I’m not sure she would have known about it or approached anyone about it. From experience I also believe such things are not normally openly talked about in her culture. I found this a difficult situation as I felt an enormous amount of guilt for initiating the situation by means of the project. I think it was something she was already upset about and announcing to the class that she didn’t have any friends actually made them instantly act differently towards her –  they became much friendlier. I think the rest of the group who had grown into friend groups or pairs realised her loneliness had gone unnoticed. By the end of the project she seemed much more part of the group as a whole. It could have ended differently but was a positive outcome in this situation.

I also notice a lot of segregation in the workshop space currently at CSM, especially in the general workshop area where we have woodwork, metal and air benches. The benches are spaced apart to maximise use and availability for students but this also encourages grouping and cliques of students. I have noticed and thought about it more since the ‘Inclusivity’ talk and the groups often seem to be of the same ethnicities or from the same country. I was surprised the other day when there was a group of 2nd year students on one bench from one country and a student on the other bench from another country and they didn’t talk. The individual needed to borrow some equipment so I suggested she asked the group and she didn’t know any of their names. When I went to the group, they didn’t know her name either – after a whole year of being on the same course. After a bit of me going back and forth and feeling like I was in the school playground, the equipment was lent and a conversation was had. However I think this is an issue of cliques forming, (encouraged by the dynamic of the room) when people take comfort in association and what they are used to eg languages, common interests and backgrounds rather than being a discriminatory issue. Although unfortunately I’m sure discrimination is present in some cases. Dynamics and inclusivity seem to be working better on a long new table we have had put in which sits about 30 students at one time. It eliminates cliques forming as easily because students are sat in a continuous circle so it is more open and students face each other rather than just facing inwards in their small group as is the case on the other benches. However this is a problem of inclusivity vs practicality and health and safety and for now the latter wins – the woodwork, metal and air benches must stay separate to be able to accommodate the ever growing number of students.

I also think this is a problem with growing course sizes (due to government cuts). A certain course we supply technical support to has grown this year from 90 to 120 students and I think there is bound to be more groups forming and less inclusion in a course as a whole – which is sad. Therefore more effort is needed from staff to counter act the effect, which was also discussed in the Introduction, Grace, S. & Gravestock, P. (2008) Inclusion and Diversity: Meet the Needs of All Student. Routledge.

Picture of a Induction in the workbench area.

I found this a very interesting article and it got me thinking. Having studied a whole 7 years (Fnd, BA, BDes, MA) in higher education, I feel I have had the most experience in group situations as a student. My previous  student-self groaned internally at the idea of group work – the awkwardness, frustration, over politeness as not wanting to seem overbearing or bossy, with the inner you feeling other people aren’t pulling their weight or are working at a slower pace or even worse – the fear that you might be the one that gets left behind on the wave of knowledge and experience and therefore become shy and stay quiet as not to embarrass yourself.

The article by Sober is about ‘Team-working’-  a group project he runs with 45 2nd year Architecture and Interior Design students. It has given me hope towards group work. I already knew there can be significant benefits of group work of sharing workloads, experience, ideas, etc – but this article address a few of the concerns I would have of group work and puts steps in place to minimise negative outcomes, such as having roles for each student to take part in, minimising some students being too passive or not pulling their weight and adds more of a team emphasis. The peer and self-assessment also seems to give students a deeper understanding of learning outcomes and marking criteria which is a benefit. It is a model I would like to use if I was in the position in the future to write a project brief.

In my current role as a workshop Technician we have less/if any involvement in the dynamics of the students’ working behaviour, such as setting group project briefs. Last year we had a 1st year technical induction to the workshops project  with BA Architecture which was initiated, run and assessed by the Technical staff. The students were put into random groups of about 10 to make individual architecture models of London – ‘My Metropolis’. The groups were created in order to ease and manage the technical inductions for safety and practical reasons.

However, the students automatically used this group situation as a benefit. They might not have been with their friends, but over the two weeks  you could see friendships and working relationships form, despite only being a month or so into the course . They worked well ; encouraged each other and were answering questions if technical staff weren’t available. It added a healthy amount of competition and if their group became intolerable they could get breathing space by working in another part of the workshop – they weren’t tied to the group the whole time.

Our workshops supplying over 8 primary courses, equaling over 1000 students, the space is very dynamic with a flux of students coming and going. Therefore, I could not say that group work is essential in my discipline as a lot of the time students are working on their own individual work. But a variety of groups do come in; from self-formed friend groups wanting to do a project together, more rigid groups set by briefs, experienced groups like courses and the natural formation of a group all working in the same space. Although not essential, I believe  working in groups can provide students with valuable experience and give a more realistic idea of external working practices.

and

Davies, A’s (2012) learning outcomes and assessment criteria on 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

When considering students’ reactions and understanding of Learning Outcomes, where else is better to start than asking the students? So I set out to ask students about their response to learning outcomes and asked roughly 70 2nd and 3rd year BA Jewellery Design students about their use/understanding of learning outcomes. After making some enquiries, I was kindly invited by the head of the course to join the private Facebook group of the 2nd year students to post the question, ‘How do you as a student use/understand the learning outcomes listed in their course and unit handbooks?’ I gave the options for them to post a public reply or privately via email. After being introduced in a post by the head of the course saying I wanted to ask them a question as part of a PGCert assignment, there were two replies enthusiastically within minutes of her post, ‘I would like to volunteer to help!’ and ‘Me!’ – I then posted my question, after 3 days I have still had no response – and my post to date has been ‘seen’ by 24 students.

I could conclude several things from this:

That maybe the students did not know me well enough to divulge their deepest and darkest thoughts regarding LO’s.
Maybe there was suspicion – eg they thought a negative response could impact their relationship with tutors/marking of their work.
They didn’t have the time.
It was too short notice.
They weren’t really getting anything in return for their time (it didn’t count towards assessment).
They were enjoying the last few days of holiday before term started.
They didn’t understand my question.
Or they didn’t really know what learning outcomes were or what they thought of them.

And of course there could be, unknown to me, other reasons.

The later point/suggestion, ‘they didn’t really know what learning outcomes were or what they thought of them.’ is interesting and possibly a good argument that the learning outcomes are too confusing for the students to understand, hence a lack of reply – these are 1st year students going into 2nd year.  However you would hope they knew what learning outcomes had been introduced to them in their 1st year Unit 1; Introduction to study in Higher Education and marked using them since. I have not had the chance/nor do I want to delve further into asking why they haven’t replied – especially as I was asking a favour. I would appear a bit intense! So I may never know the reason why.

I did have one response from a 3rd year student, who kindly replied with…

‘How do you as a student use/understand the learning outcomes listed in your course and unit handbook?’

‘The learning outcomes listed for us are something I use as a check list, a list I go through when I reach the end of a project to gage whether I have considered everything, whether I have asked myself the right questions. From this I tend to write an evaluation with my own questions, whether I researched thoroughly enough, what I could have done differently, what materials I could have used instead, how I structured my time, and this is something I can of course refer back to as a record. I guess you could say the learning outcomes encourage me to analyse my work, force me to look back over a project in stages and pinpoint where I went wrong. From this, those mistakes can be avoided in future work.’ BAJD 3rd year student – I should also point out the student contacted me as she had heard that I needed a response to a PGCert question.

This student seems articulate and proactive and maybe that is a factor to take into consideration when reacting to students’ awareness of and responses to Learning Outcomes. So this is where equality might come into it – LO seems to give an equality across the board so that there is an equal footing with marking for all students. However not all students are as well organised or articulate and individuality must be recognised when it comes to discussing understanding LOs, for example dyslexia or English not being their first language. Although there is support in place to help and encourage such students, I believe it is part of the course tutors responsibility to ensure they receive/know where to find the right help – such things are built into the BAJD Unit 1 LOs.

Organisational skills or understanding of LOs are something that can be improved and worked on over the 3 years. I think this reply from a 3rd year student and the lack of replies from 2nd year students may indicate a development in maturity/knowledge and the repetitiveness of using LO adding to the understanding of LOs and recognition of the importance and use of them.  Therefore, there is possibly a later realisation of how much they are used/understood/appreciated and how they will inevitably have an effect on how a student’s work is marked and consequently what their final degree qualification is.

However, in the article by Davies, A. (2012) ‘Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design.  What’s the recurring problem?’  (a paper on the critical reflection on the development of learning outcomes specifically in art and design) Figure 1 is a thought-provoking table that examines students’ understanding vs. whether LO’s are ambiguous or not and it concludes that students can still achieve and perform well if they do not understand the LOs  as long as they do have an understanding of what is expected of them on the course. Davies also comments how there is ‘no substitute for established learner support systems and other frameworks that help students understand what they have to do in order to successfully complete a programme of work.’[1] I strongly agree with this statement; LOs are useful in the teaching discipline as long as they are used correctly. The student should not be left to fend for themselves after being given the LOs, it should be a culmination of learning support and learning outlines that together give the student the guidance to head in the right direction with their own personal development and body of work to achieve a successful degree.

I asked for the LOs of BAJD and was thankfully sent Unit 1 and Unit 8. Unit 8 LOs are quite specific and are what the 3rd year student who responded would have just completed. Unit 1’s learning outcomes are more generic for the whole of the undergraduates of UAL which is what the 2nd year students who didn’t reply would have completed last Autumn Term. I could see similarities in the BAJD LOs layout to what was written in Carrol, J’s (2001) Writing Learning Outcomes: some suggestions, including the Learning Outcomes not just coming from the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (i.e. knowledge and understanding) but also verbs like analyse, evaluate, demonstrate, that you would expect to see in higher education.

While talking to a Senior Lecturer on the course about the learning outcomes, he commented that they try to link the learning outcome closely with the marking criteria so it is easy to understand the marking and feedback. When I had a look at the learning outcomes myself I found them easy to understand, very clear and well laid out. The LOs aren’t isolated on their own as they are often talked about – but in the setting of a Unit, sandwiched between an Overview of the specific unit and Study Programme which outlines specific requirements from the students eg tutorials, seminars, presentations etc. and added information including Essential and Recommended Study Materials, and what is required for Assessment Evidence. Before seeing the learning outcomes I was expecting to have to decipher a LO secret code and lots of academic speak when actually it was quite straight forward to understand.

In conclusion, I believe LO are essential for some learning. Not no learning as learning happens through using them as a guideline and not all learning as a majority is learnt is through doing/making, researching, creating, listening, experimenting.  It cannot possibility all be learnt from reading and abiding by Learning Outcomes. In contrast, I believe they are vital as a universal guideline for assessing learning, as long as they are used by the tutors and students as guidelines, and the tutors help the students to understand the LO and give them a framework and support system that develops and encourages the students understanding of what is expected of them to successfully complete the course.

[1] Davies, A’s (2012) learning outcomes and assessment criteria on art and design. What’s the recurring problem? [online] Available at:http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/networks/issue-18-july-2012/learning-outcomes-and-assessment-criteria-in-art-and-design.-whats-the-recurring-problem%5BAccessed 25th September 2014].