John Briggs and Catherine Tang (Fourth Edition).
Activities within the book:
‘Effective teaching and learning for today’s universities
Task 1.1 The changing scene at your own institution
Reflect on your own institution, identify any changes that you are aware
of which have affected your decision made or actions taken related to
teaching and learning as a teacher/staff developer/administrator.
Changes at your institution:
Covid has changed the way we teach, it became a blended learning environment of using both online and in-person teaching scenarios. Many educators have had to learn to teach in a digital realm and then switch back to physical when the day changes. Resulting in a new formation of course structures, timetabling, and also relying on personal technology, the internet, and teaching to blank screens.
Your decisions/actions related to teaching and learning based on the
changes:
My actions have been to keep up, to teach myself skills not needed before, to transform all physical teaching methods into low residency-based video teaching with zero interaction but not as teaching, more of a support structure to in taught sessions. Also in the line of teaching accessibility, having to learn and train about digital documentation and learning difficulties. Video editing builds reliable and knowledge-worthy information that can be fully embedded into teaching in the asynchronous model. With a leveling system that creatively challenges the beginner to more advanced.
When you have finished this book, revisit these decisions/actions and
see if you would have acted differently.
Task 2.1 What are your theories of teaching and learning?
Learning is:
A two-way street, while a student walks down and is greeted by a series of ‘teachers’ who influence a student’s journey, it’s also the student’s responsibility to question, to build dialogue, and to be adventurous in participating in what else is on the street. It’s about spending time, understanding, reflecting, and using what one has learned in their life.
Teaching is:
Is a human right, it can be a silent gift or a rigorous momentum-building gift. We are taught at every level of our lives, to walk, talk, read and write, it’s very much an invisible barrier until we sit at a table in front of a ‘teacher’ educating us about human society or the world we live in.
It is also passion, its the beauty of seeing something click when a student understands, its the passing down of taught heirlooms or craft-based skills, its understanding that to teach we must also be assured by questions, it is also a moment in time, as teaching like everything else is evolving every day and what was taught before won’t be taught the same next time.
Task 2.2 Does your teaching encourage surface or deep approaches to learning?
Good teaching encourages a deep approach, and discourages a surface
approach, to learning.
Reflect on your teaching so far. Identify aspects of your teaching that
have (maybe unintentionally)
A. encouraged a surface approach to learning:
Moments in my teaching are when a fundamental portion of class has been changed from practical-based learning to theory-based. This unintentionally changed my attitude when I perform these tasks, as it becomes stiff and too classroom based. How do you squeeze a full 6-hour workshop into a 1-hour lesson and expect students to be encouraged to perform such tasks! (which are needed to build/design garments).
B. encouraged a deep approach to learning:
I think my understanding is that the majority of my teaching is level 3-based. I co-partner the teaching in a peer-led study, especially with BA2 and BA3. I seek out the steps from students to move forward in the learning or actively ask students to perform the next steps. Reciting sequences or procedures for completing. This is explained in why, this is done and how it can benefit design in levels of capitalism/markets, eg. Labour equals more expensive clothing. With this, my technical teaching is predominantly backed up by samples or garments that reflect finished textiles or garments using said skills. This allows student interaction that co-exists as a dialogue for me to challenge and participate in, the sessions end with student reflection, using their notes taken during the session, I ask that take 5 minutes or so, to collect their thoughts and think/sketch a design or plan that uses this technique but is different from the one demonstrated.
What future actions would you take to encourage a deep approach to
learning in your students?
This year, I started to change the way I discuss what is being taught, in the areas of BA2 onwards. BA1 is all about learning new stuff, it’s a full continuation of learning, each week a new technique, etc. So instead of carrying learning into the second year, I wanted to challenge myself on how I wanted these sessions to be perceived, my new broad topics are as follows;
BA1 – LEARN
BA2 – STUDY
BA3 – CREATE
MA1- EXPLORE (theoretical)
MA2- REFINE (theoretical)
So with leaving BA1 behind, you are still learning new techniques but more in the areas of control, development, and quality. We dissect and challenge pre-existing taught sessions with add-ons or advanced onsets, this allows the students to openly discuss their weaknesses as they see and begin a peer-to-peer dialogue on shared learning. An example of this would be, if a student had a poor or unstable cast-on, they could vocally verbalize another they admire and work together to see how each other works the technique.
Announcing this is a study session relaxes the student and allows room for mistakes to happen, which is the beauty of being creative, as the fear of failing is eliminated from one’s mind and a sense of urgency to make is slowed and reflection comes in the student’s observation of their practice. What I am trying to do, is build confidence in practice, encouragement in failing, and strength in perseverance. 3 years is a very short short short time to master a craft like knitwear, let alone 2 machine types, hand skills, finishing techniques, construction, and digital software.
From reading this book, I will try and deliver better vocabulary in my dialogues that enhance a deep learning practice and reflect on how students engage with me the practitioner, and the learning outcome.
Task 2.3 Follow up to Task 2.1
In Task 2.1, you stated your theories of teaching and learning. Now that
you have finished this chapter, we ask you to review those theories and
answer the following question.
Have your theories of teaching and learning changed now that you
have seen others’ views? If yes, what is(are) the change(s) and why?
I don’t think that they have changed all that much, I still believe what I wrote falls into level 3 of teaching and learning, I just didn’t have the right terminology or descriptions in place. I think now that I could describe what I expect learning is, and what I expect teaching to be. My answers seem extremely rudimentary or fantasy-based, but beliefs that I stand by.
If not, what sort of teaching/learning context would best help them?
How can I know that they have achieved the intended outcomes satisfactorily?
Personally, I think as a technical staff member, I see the achievement in those who continue to explore their practice regularly and show engagement in creative dialogue with myself and my peers. I check over their note-taking and see if they understand, I allow international students to write in their own language first, before translating to English for their technical file. It is also reflected in their communication with 1-2-1 tutorials or crits with the academics. Asynchronously we have back-dated all our teaching to online for both pre and post-sessions, for students to recall, these are sometimes more in-depth as the online class has no student participation which allows for a more technical explanation.
To be continued.