PgCert – Page 3 – Sebastian May

Object-based learning: microteach

White mug with gold rim. Image © Sebastian May.

I’m planning a 20-minute teaching session with a focus on object-based learning. Having given space to experiment, I return to think about spaces of play and disruption and how to integrate these two ideas.

I start with the object around which the learning will focus. Because the real hero of the session will be the process or practice, I decided to choose a fairly simple object – one that isn’t specifically aligned to any specific subject area: a white coffee mug.

In this scenario, and as Hardie explains, the idea is to “use objects to develop lively critical discussion, focused critical analysis, reflective thinking and powerful debates” (Hardie, 2015, p.20), which will take place in the second half of the session.

The mug is generic enough for students to apply different practices to it, and use it in different ways. And its simplicity also creates an interesting challenge for students to think creatively. For example, if students were to draw the mug, a completely white mug is fairly difficult to capture on paper. There is also something surprising about the white mug which will hopefully draw students in.

I’m also considering the group of students that will be in the room. They are a small group of teachers from different disciplines and with different levels of experience. Creating an inclusive lesson plan, therefore, becomes integral to the success of the session.

Students will have one overarching task, to interpret the object through an arts practice by making a piece of work about the object. I have come up with the following lesson plan / structure:

(1) Introduction (5 minutes)

As the overall lesson will focus on students’ embodied practice, I will ask students to stand up and connect with their bodies by warming up, lifting their hands in the air and then touching their toes.
I will then outline the task / challenge and structure of the lesson. I will explain that the exercise will be timed and fast-moving, to set expectations.
I will outlined the overarching concept of using chance or choice within the exercise – giving students opportunity to choose how learning will take place.
I will present students with different types of art forms / practices from which to choose:
- Curation
- Collage
- Dance
- Découpage
- Drawing
- Film
- Performance
- Photography
- Storytelling
- Writing
  - Poetry
  - Screenwriting
- …
Students will be able to choose a specific practice, or pick one at random. The latter element relates to the idea of using ‘chance’ as a form of play.
I will explain to students that one person will ‘win’ the learning object.

(2) Exercise (5 minutes)

I will ask students to use one of the art forms / practices to engage with the object in front of them.
They may collaborate with others.
They will need to be mindful that the object will be used by others in the group and mind move or change, so they will need to negotiate the learning space with others.
The exercise will be timed.
I will be on hand to support the exercise.

(3) Show and Tell (5 minutes)

I will ask students to go around the table and show everyone what they have produced, why they chose their specific medium, and explain their process. Each student will have one minute to respond.
Students will be encouraged to write down anything they find meaningful.

(4) Discussion (5 minutes)

I will ask students to discuss as a group the following questions:
- Which project resonated most with you, and why?
- How did you find the process?
- What difference did it make to be able to freely choose an art form, or assign one to you at random?

Rather than regarding the final part of the session as a crit about students work (Blythman, M., Orr, S., & Director, B. B. (2007), I will suggest an interrogation of the process of the session itself, rather than value judgements being made purely on the making of the artwork or even purely the artwork. The discussion will be framed in a positive light, finding ways for the group to connect with each other using the work on the object.

Having students choose another project as the ‘winner’ acts both as the ‘play’ element, but also as the ‘disruptor’, and the learning object disappears at the end of the activity.

Final thoughts

Through this session, I hope to help students develop some of the following skills:

Observational skills
Visual literacy (ability to ‘read’ objects, to find meaning from them)
Team working
Critical analytical skills
Various practice-based skills, e.g. drawing skills
Communication
Aesthetic judgement
Research skills and confidence
Inspiration

Due to the short duration of the session, there will not be time to investigate specific skills more fully.

I am separately investigating small group teaching.

Time permitting, I also hope to check learning objectives against UAL’s Creative Attributes Framework.

Bibliography

Blythman, M., Orr, S., & Director, B. B. (2007). Critiquing the Crit Final report. www.thestudentsurvey.com

Hardie, K. (2015). Innovative pedagogies series: Wow: The power of objects in object-based learning and teaching. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/wow-power-objects-object-based-learning-and-teaching

Students as Co-Creators

Attending last week’s Students as Co-Creators Symposium: Beyond Engagement (1), made for an inspiring day hearing from academics and students about dynamic approaches to teaching and learning.

Professor Catherine Bovill outlined the different relationships that we may engage in with students, from active learning to co-creation and partnerships. She describes the latter as creating the most ‘equal’ playing field. My biggest take-away from the conference was that whatever we can do to work more closely with students (as partners), even small interventions, will immediately improve their experience. This felt encouraging.

Throughout the day, I captured some interesting ideas, for example asking students to bring in localised / personal examples and connect these to their work. This is something I’m beginning to do in my drawing sessions and aligns with the idea of culturally relevant pedagogy described by Maria V. Luna-Thomas and Enilda Romero-Hall (1) and UAL’s online learning framework (2).

It was also interesting to see some of these ideas resurface in one of our PgCert sessions later in the week and how they worked in practice. I noticed some of them even neutralised each other. For example, during one session students were asked to create name cards (Teaching Intervention A) to facilitate communication and connectedness across the cohort. Later in the morning, however, students were then asked to rotate around the room (Teaching Intervention B) and I noticed that many lost their name cards along the way. I observed students looking slightly lost in their new groups, looking for each other’s name cards.

I thought one simple solution would have been to provide everyone with sticky tags that stayed with students throughout the day. I also thought there might be more playful ways to create connectedness amongst students, perhaps using association or role-play activities. This is something I hope to test in the future.

Further notes and reflections

I wondered about my own role in the situation above, if I should have pointed this out during the session or have helped the group make introductions.

With an interest in play, I’m also curious to look at some of these approaches in more detail. I wonder which approaches might even be considered or dismissed as play; what does it take for a learning approach to become play? I also wonder if some of these approaches are successful if they take on a disruptive nature. For example, can impromptu games engage or unsettle students? Does it come down to the individual in the room? More on this later.

Additional interventions to engage students referenced at the conference:

Using voting tools to start more personal conversations and creative processes, which I am planning to trial in some of my upcoming online sessions.
Asking students that they’ll be expected to summarise their class at the end of the session, which I believe is something that requires careful planning as putting students on the spot like this could cause unnecessary stress and does not feel inclusive to different abilities.
Explaining the reason behind learning approaches used in the ‘classroom’.
Asking students to use the classroom space different or move through the space during the class / lecture, e.g. one lecturer asked students to highlight traffic circulation patterns by physically moving through the lecture theatre.
Asking students to evaluation sessions, units and courses – and most importantly telling them that this would be expected of them at the start.
Creating safe spaces for discussion, amongst students.
Aligning class work to outside ‘real world’ examples, such as work lead by other institutions, such as the Design Council.

References

Hosted by AdvanceHE in Manchester.
Luna-Thomas, M.V. and Romero-Hall, E. (2023) “Culturally relevant pedagogy in digital praxis fosters an inclusive environment that embraces multiple ways of being and knowing, promotes democratic learning experiences, validates learners’ pre-existing knowledge, is bolstered by empathy and care, and fosters co-creation of knowledge across cultures.”
UAL online learning framework area 5 states: Be proactively inclusive. Take a universally inclusive approach to developing (digital) learning, environments and experiences that are fundamentally welcoming and accessible for everyone. Nurture the student community and celebrate diverse contributions to the curriculum, culture of UAL, and future of the global creative industries. Offer the support students need to succeed throughout their studies.

UAL online learning framework Download

Bibliography

Luna-Thomas, M.V. and Romero-Hall, E. (2023) “La Clave: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Digital Praxis,” in S. Köseoğlu, G. Veletsianos, and C. Rowell (eds) Critical Digital Pedagogy in Higher Education. Athabasca, AB: Athabasca University Press (Issues in Distance Education). Available at: https://read.aupress.ca/read/critical-digital-pedagogy-in-higher-education/section/01b49dc8-5d84-4f6f-a302-41fdc708d47b#cvi (Accessed: March 10, 2023).

Pedagogy for the oppressed?

PgCert sessions bring together dozens of incredible students, with fascinating creative practices, from across UAL. Online, open discussion is encouraged and often smaller groups meet in separate breakout rooms to discuss more specific topics.

In one recent session, a tutor highlighted the opportunities for self-organisation in student breakout rooms, citing Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1). This resonated with me as I’ve been thinking about the friction between structure imposed through power and disruption imposed through play. I decided to observe what happened in two different rooms:

Group A: Structure as the ‘oppressor’

There’s a convivial atmosphere and students are keen to share and discuss, however there is clearly too little time to discuss it all. Without anyone organising the session, one ‘unelected’ member of the group starts to direct others to speak, keeps time, and instructs the group to take breaks. The sudden, imposed organisation reduces spontaneity and limits freedom of speech. In a way, the room replicates – on a smaller scale – the top-down pedagogic approach of the course or even wider institution.

Group B: Silence as the ‘oppressor’

During the second breakout session students kept their cameras and microphones switched off. Only a couple of students speak briefly and reluctantly. The room then falls into complete silence. Without a direct driver to encourage students to speak, students are silenced by their own freedom to self-organise.

In addition to the two scenarios above, I also wonder if the separation of students into groups may also inherently restrict them – dividing opinions and voices. (2) Of course, in this argument we put the onus on the role of the tutor or teacher to act in a way that removes all forms of oppression, be they inherent within the structure or not. This may not be just.

Thinking back at how breakout rooms were offered as an opportunity to students to connect – I wonder if it would have made a difference for students to be able to agree on this approach in advance.

I also think that there may be some playful and collaborative ways to engage students in other ways, for example using specific UAL online platforms such as Padlet. This is something I’m hoping to integrate further within future lesson plans to create flexible structure for students to engage with each other.

Further notes and reflections

I continue to enjoy the variety of backgrounds and opinions in the room, as well as some of the debates ranging from discussions on gender to conversations about spaces of support

A form of oppression from one student to another may take place in the micro-verse of the breakout room. However, we should also consider students who do not want to contribute through dialogue, as there is a freedom in silence as well as in speech.

Otherwise, there isn’t a driver for students to speak. Without anyone guiding the session, this constructed space seems to have silenced students once more. In this scenario, the absence of someone who connects and introduces students, someone who can establish dialogue, leads to a form of oppression.

In the scenarios above, students may have also not yet built-up sufficient trust to open up to each other. (3)

Is it really the tutor’s responsibility to create a space without oppression or should it suffice for them to provide the information and tools for students to establish their own learning spaces, structures and dynamics?

In the end, as breakout rooms empty and students return to their larger group, voices are reunited, and moments of oppression, whatever their cause, are lifted again.

Rather than being obliged to occupy these spaces, would having a say help students occupy spaces more effectively? Does self-organisation require more of the self?

References

Freire says one “cannot impose oneself, nor even merely co-exist with one’s students” (Freire, 2018, p.68). Self-organisation, therefore, seems to be a valid approach to engaging students in a very open way.
“As the oppressor minority subordinates and dominates the majority, it must divide it and keep it divided in order to remain in power” (Freire, 2018, p.120).
“Founding itself upon love, humility, and faith, dialogue becomes a horizontal relationship of which mutual trust between the dialoguers is the logical consequence (Freire, 2018, p.79).

Bibliography

Freire, P. et al. (2018) Pedagogy of the oppressed: 50th anniversary edition. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

Outcomes, assessment, and ‘not knowing’

Artist drawing black and white mural — Photo by Marty O’Neill on Unsplash

There are several things that resonate with me as I read through Davies’ position on learning outcomes in art and design, particular his points on considering the wider student experience (1). It feels crucial to me to understand how students move through their course, how units connect with each other, how their personal practices and discipline affect practice, conduct and output. It is a complex system that deserves unpicking. UAL’s Student Experience Framework feels like a move into the right direction, but its implementation and delivery at times feel fragmented.

As a creative practitioner, I also relate with students’ needs to invent, imagine, risk-take, and generally inhibit a creative space in which they can be more experimental. This includes spaces of play. I can see how the specificity of learning outcomes that Davies raises in his text could restrict some of the learning that takes place in these creative spaces (2).

I think for creative practitioners specifically it is worth exploring the concept of ‘not knowing’ – a process that may act as an important conduit within the making process, and within learning (3). It is something I’m curious to explore when drawing together learning outcomes for some of my own sessions.

Davies also speaks about the idea of visualising and how there is a clash between this integral artist practice and learning outcomes (4). In my own academic practice, I apply drawing activities to support students conceptual thinking as well as practical approaches to their wider work across other units. Here, visualising ideas is a crucial to the work students undertake in the classroom.

Further notes and reflections

In my own work, I often collaborate with learning designers who have a holistic view of all learning activities and can support the construct of clear narratives across a specific subject area. Where Davies stops in his exploration, is the wider student experience in terms of how students’ backgrounds, learning preferences and abilities, and their own creative practices may impact engagement with learning objectives – but perhaps this would create a scenario too complex or workable to consider here.

The judgement of the quality of the practice itself – if one requires it – includes several modes of assessment, peer reviews being just one example. These can be linked to learning objectives and learning outcomes.

It is unfortunate that Davies does not go into depth about why he feels visualising cannot easily be captured within learning outcomes. As an embodied practice with direct outputs – whatever it is that students choose to visualise – I wonder why he believes this cannot be clearly embedded within these.

Ultimately though I would argue the simple process of visualising – possibly alongside students’ process narratives – can be as invaluable as judging the outcome, and can be embedded as part of a wider range of learning outcomes.

References

For example, he states that key words should be derived from the actual student experience of the subject and “generated from observations of the structure of the learning outcomes of the discipline in context” (Davies, 2012).
“For artists it is crucial, as the making process often balances a strong sense of direction with a more playful or meditative state of exploration and experimentation” (Davies, 2012).
Speaking on the idea of artists ‘not knowing’ and how this drives artists practices, Fisher states that in “creative processes, and the statements that emerge from them, there is a productive to-ing and fro-ing between the known and the unknown and it is important to keep mindful of their provisional nature” (Fisher and Fortnum, 2013, pp. 84-85).
He states that “this concept is not easily captured in learning outcome form. It’s not the kind of thing that can be measured easily. It is, in fact, developed within the whole complex process of the practice and over time” (Davies, 2012).

Bibliography

Davies, A. (2012) “Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design. What’s the recurring problem?,” Networks [Preprint], (18). 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 (Accessed: January 20, 2023).

Fisher, E. and Fisher, E. (2013) “Creative Accounting: Not Knowing in Talking and Making,” in R. Fortnum (ed.) On not knowing: How artists think. Cambridge: Kettle’s Yard, pp. 70–87. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337331636 (Accessed: January 20,
2023).