Campbell Muir

Talking Art as the Spirit moves us – ( Hooks 1995 )

I read Hooks 1995 paper a few days before reading an article in The Guardian newspaper about the up an upcoming film “Origin”, the dramatisation of Isabel Wilkerson book “Caste”, Wilkerson being the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism.

The term “Caste” had not really struck me as widely applicable outside of India from where its origins come and its connection to racial divide and race being part of a social ladder everywhere and particularly in countries with a colonial or slave trading past.

I started reading the book the same day and her use of the term “Dominant Caste”, for largely describing people of white Anglo Saxon and Celtic origin in the United States chimes very strongly with much of the subject matter of this paper. (Wilkerson 2020)

“Talking Art as the Spirit moves” ( Hook 1995 ) examines the ignorance held by the “Dominant Caste” to quote Isabel Wilkerson, of how art produced by people of Africa-American origin is viewed often as below that in terms of quality and thought than that of White-American artists.

Hook examines the book “Race, Sex, and Gender in Contemporary Art” by Edward Lucie-Smith (1994 ) and in it describes non-white arts as “Minority art”, this separating an entire body of art and work produced by African-Americans be it fine art or literature in American society into a sub-category that should be addressed separately.

Another point that Hook addresses with the Lucie-Smith’s book is that is seems to demonstrate the idea that African-American art that shows any really quality is that which rejects progressive ideas and concepts associated with their cultural background in favour of more conservative or pre-established ideas of Black art.

Hook talks about the American Artist Romare Bearden who was of mixed African-American and white background and how he felt that the art that he produced which often reflected on the African-american experience was viewed as morbid and one that many black Americans wanted to distance themselves with at the time.

Patchwork Quilt, Romare Bearsden 1970, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Wilkerson describes these situations in her book where African-American would often distance themselves from their own cultural heritage to more closely align themselves with the “dominant” group to achieve more social acceptance, this being a sad reality with many minority groups around the world where assimilation comes at the cost of cultural identity.

Hooks paper brings forward many critical points on the identity with African-American art and how it’s perceived in society, Hooks language within the essay is sometimes very strong or misplaced where they describe Lucie-Smiths views as having “white-supremasist patriarchal bias”.

I haven’t read the book of Lucie-Smith but my take is that his views are culturally ignorant and definitely racially biased but the term “white suprematist” should reserved for more right wing ideas.

Lucie-Smith being born and brought up in Kingston Jamaica in the white minority yet “Dominant Caste” his views appear to be firmly moulded by the dominate groups hierarchical view on what makes art any more or less important regardless on who has produced it.

This is still an on going struggle in many areas of the world and I feel Wilkersons book frames it perfectly as a “Caste” system, something that is fabricated for social dominance over others for the benefit of those perceived to be at the top.

Reference 

Hooks 1995 – Talking Art as the Spirit Moves Us

Wilkerson 2020, Isabel. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. New York: Random House, 2020.

Image Patchwork Quilt, Romare Bearsden 1970, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Assessing learning and Exchanging Feedback.

As a Technical specialist in Jewellery design for both the BA & MA level we don’t have the need or the requirement to provide assessment or feedback in a formal sense.

Our role has always been seen as making the provision for Technical instruction and facilities but as any Technician will tell you that is far from the reality where we teach at the same level as our Tutor colleagues and often have greater contact with students on a day to day bases and seeing their work progression at closer lever where we together in it’s production.

Evaluation

The interactions I’ve had with students over the past two decades in higher education have often raised issues of students feeling intimidated by the assessment focused interactions with their year tutors. External feedback from tutors can have both positive and negative influence on students where the students may feel boosted or the need to bend or conform to the ideas put forward in in external feedback. ( Dweck 1999 )

Formative feedbacks purpose is to help generate performance and accelerate learning (Sadler 1998) with the student being proactive in building the framework for their own knowledge and skills rather simply being reactive to assessment focused feedback. 

(Nicol & MacFarlane-Dick 2006)

Assessment led fed back from tutors is designed to engage with student in helping them construct parts of their own learning journey but I feel the impartiality of Technical Specialist can create a another safe space to discuss technical challenges and perhaps use these sessions as a sounding board for ideas that they want to approach year tutors with.

Technical tutorials for final year students is something I’ve started this year where I will take each student for a 20-30 minute session in which we discuss their project and find areas where they’re struggling in realising aspects of their design, if needed we can work on a new skill or process in the workshop to get them up and running.

Technicians can enable students to build the practical framework for problem solving their design ideas by sketching out ideas for constructing processes that the students can build on.

Feedback medium may be in the form of written notes and sketches that students can add to their Technical journal or video recordings of the technical process.

I feel that this style of tutorial is a collaborative process and one where the feedback can be acted on in moment by the student and discussed as we work on a project allowing the student to be a driving force in their own learning journey.

Moving Forward

This style of technical formative feedback session prioritises problem-solving over assessment and creates an environment conducive to skill development. 

Final year students have been inspired by DIP’s years in industry where they have found new skills in an environment that was free from assessment, these sessions are an excellent opportunity to carry in exploratory learning and provide formative feedback in a collaborative manner.

I plan to carry these on in the spring term for final year students and perhaps have a group session with students and other technicians to give the students the opportunity to explore how processes that they have connected with in industry can be replicated in the workshop.

References

Nicol, David J. and Macfarlane-Dick, Debra(2006) ‘Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice’, Studies in Higher Education, 31: 2, 199 — 218

Dweck, C. (1999) Self-theories: their role in motivation, personality and development (Philadelphia,

PA, Psychology Press).

(Sadler 1998) Sadler, D. R. (1998) Formative assessment: revisiting the territory, Assessment in Education, 5(1),

77–84.

Contextual Background

I’ve been a Technical specialist in Jewellery design at Central Saint Martins for 20 years. In this case study I’m planning to look at the collecting and dissemination of technical information that often come up within tutorials and in what way could this be collated for others to use.

Evaluation

Throughout the year there is many times where a students question becomes a small journey into dynamic technical areas that are often new practice for us in terms of a processes never encountered or simply one rarely implemented.

These events are often looked at in hindsight as points where capturing the event or documenting it for other staff and students would have been invaluable as a launching point for later projects or a journal into what worked and what didn’t.

There is a definite lack of a collaborative element in the way we still teach and share information on what we’ve found within a process in education and with a cornucopia of information available online and in the way we share through social media we need to tap into this to inform others of our findings.

Students are encouraged to keep a technical journal but I feel this valuable resource is under used and there may be potential for students to contribute to the database by uploading their notes or findings for the process either during or at the end of the academic year.

This would be a great way to encourage the the spirit of community based learning where students learn from each other and reference each others work.

Moving Forward

A multi faceted approach is needed to blend traditional and modern collaborative platforms to produce a depository of information and learning resources that is continuously being added to and moderated by the technical department within the Jewellery Design course.

Perhaps knowledge sharing sessions could be introduced one a month within year groups over a lunch break for students to share a 5-10 minute example of something they’ve worked on or learned from their own experiences.

We already record many of the inductions and technical teaching sessions by using our purpose build recording suit but this needs to be expanded and perhaps have some extra mounting arms in different parts of the studio for students and staff to attach phones to record processes.

A teaching session in the first year and perhaps one per year about methods of recording and documenting. This might involve journal keeping, blog writing in the most common used formats and basic video editing in Adobe as all students have access to the creative suite.

All of this could be tied together with a teaching session on the potential of collaboration and how constructive documenting and sharing of work is to the expansion of knowledge in creative fields. 

‘Padlets’ would provide a user friendly interface where students could post their findings through video, image uploads and observations and possibly share some of their technical journal work and answer each others questions.

The journey of teaching is as much peer to pear as professional to student. Traditional methods now need to be enhanced to benefit the diverse student body and the multifaceted ways that is needed to meet students preferred modes of learning. ( Tomlinson 2003 )

Reference

Tomlinson, C.A. et al. (2003) ‘Differentiating instruction in response to student readiness, interest, and learning profile in academically diverse classrooms: A review of literature’, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 27(2–3), pp. 119–145. doi:10.1177/016235320302700203. 

As a Technical specialist the Learning outcomes set but the university and the course don’t have as great an impact in my teaching of the students as that of the academic core of the course.

I do feel that there is sometimes less of a barrier for students to discuss some issues with me as they know I don’t have to judge or mark their work and I get a feel for the sense of frustration as to why they received a particular grade for a given project.

There has been a growing culture of assigning metrics to education of the decades, these at their roots are well intentioned and often necessary to demonstrate a students grasp and competence of a subject. These only ever likely to increase in their range through education from primary to higher education where if you can apply a scale you can theoretically measure effectiveness. ( Addison 2014 )

The application of Learning outcomes ( LO’s ) in fields of a purely academic environment are easily applied where there is a measurable outcome of right or wrong but within the world of Art & Design these are not easy to apply. ( Davies 2012 )

In the QAA Subject review Process of 1998-2000, ( Davies 2012 ) he states that less than 43% Art schools had suitable arrangements for assessment in a manner that was easily accessible to students.

I believe students rarely ever look to the course literature for reassurance on what LO’s are expected from a body of work but rather rely on the project Briefing and tutorials to garner what’s expected of them.

There must be some level of metric should Art & Design institutions want to give graded degrees but I have felt for a long time that this not as relevant for art & design as many employers simply want to see what the graduate is capable of and very rarely take an interest in the awarded degree level.

In Addisons 2014 paper Doubting Learning Outcomes in Higher Education Contexts: from Performativity towards Emergence and Negotiation, he references information that talks of institutions having specialisms that base their LO’s on a more holistic  sense of transferable skills and competence in discipline professionalism. ( Barnett 2006, Barrie 2007 )

Perhaps a greater focus on the journey of learning should be applied to LO’s and more formative approach where the the outcomes are less rigid and navigated more by the learner and what they want from the project.

This may not be applicable to all disciplines but the more expressive specialisms might benefit from not having LO’s dictated by central and local government and the institutional bias applied via the agenda set out by the college to demonstrate their achievement of attaining prescribed metrics. (Bourdieu & Passerson 1990).

Refrence

Barrie, S. C. (2007) A conceptual framework for the teaching and learning of generic graduate attributes, Studies In Higher Education, Vol. 32

Bourdieu, P. & Passeron, J. C. (1990) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, second edn. London: Sage

Allan Davies (2012) Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and

design. What’s the recurring problem?Issue 18: July 2012 University of Brighton Faculty of Arts

Nicholas Addison (2014) Doubting Learning Outcomes in Higher Education Contexts: from Performativity towards Emergence and Negotiation. 2014 The Author. iJADE © 2014 NSEAD/John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Knowing and meeting the needs of diverse learners 

Contextual Background

Having been a Technical specialist for over 20 years at central Saint martins for both the BA and MA jewellery design courses, I’ve supported student cohorts from diverse backgrounds and with a wide range of needs.

My teaching is workshop based and only in the last 4 years have addition tools been made available for adapting teaching strategies.

Evaluation

Language is often a common obstacle for overseas students and especially niche terms within a specialism. Without a method to recap or have an element of self paced learning this can be compounded over time and students miss out on key components.

Differentiated learning can address some of these issues by offering multiple pathways of learning that may suit a students individual needs and be more inclusive and effective. (Tomlinson 1999)

I often watch a group being given instructions or a demonstration and there will always be a couple of students who can’t see, are distracted or struggle with understanding the exercise. This is made all the harder where we are working on a very small scale with details that can be in the sub-millimetre level of intricacy.

Moving forwards

During the Covid period we produced extra instructional reading material that could be downloaded and this was eventually incorporated into the Technical Moodle site.

When the students returned and distancing had to be maintained we demonstrated with some video cameras connect to large screens which had surprising results in the ability of students paying closer attention to demonstration.

We have now moved onto to several large wall mounted screens and integrated audio system that can have live demos relayed from both the main workshops and a separate one that has a fully setup camera, mic and recording system.

This has allowed us to recored live demos that students could go back to in their own time and rewatch the original demo and not just one that is similar to their problem.

This visual and auditory method of relaying these fine detailed exercises has been received well by students and we are gradually building a database of processes and techniques that students can view in their own time an pace of learning.

Some of these have accompanying documentation but this is something I would like build on to make a more comprehensive package.

I hope to make the system “plug-n-play” whereby other staff members needed limited instruction to use the system and individual sessions with a students making problem can be recorded for their own reference and be added to our database for others to view the solution that may be of similar help.

Students are comfortable with the wide use of social media and perhaps a similar style of recording instructional content would work well as many craft and design professionals now use this method to develop interest in their skills and product.

References

Differentiating Instruction in Response to Student Readiness, Interest, and Learning Profile in Academically Diverse Classrooms: A Review of Literature

Carol Ann Tomlinson, Catherine Brighton, Holly Hertberg, Carolyn M. Callahan, Tonya R. Moon, Kay Brimijoin, Lynda A. Conover, & Timothy Reynolds

(Tomlinson 1999) https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ787917.pdf

As part of the PG cert Academic practices programme the peer observation what a task that I completed early on with my pairing, Ravin Raori, a Lecturer in Narrative Media Design on BA Graphic and Media Design at LCC.

This really is a great opportunity to experience another professionals style and manner of teaching and it’s oddly made better by in a completely different field of study to that of my own.

The session I stayed for was an experimental one of Ravins and not a cohort that he’d taught before in spacial practices but was engaging from the start. It was interesting to see exercises from another field and one that the students themselves weren’t accustomed to play out of the ninety minutes I was there.

Observation plan & Feedback

Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice   

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: Prototyping Part 2 (Prototyping Spaces) 

Size of student Group: 15-20 

Observer: Campbell Muir 

Observee: Ravin Raori 

Part One 
Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review: 

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum? 

This is a session on making physical prototypes for the final year students on BA Design for Branded Spaces. I am teaching this session as a one-off to bring my experience in the area (as an Architect and Space Maker) to the students on this course. The students are currently focussing on creating a design experience across several scales ranging from pop-up stores to entire buildings. During the session, we will be focus on the relevance of making physical prototypes in the design process. We will use the 9-square grid exercise by John Hedjuk as a starting point for thinking about spatial experience, including layout and sequencing. I have created a version of this exercise for the students that they will undertake, followed by personal tutorial time, and finally some discussion as a group towards the end of the session. 

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity? 

This is my first time teaching this group.  

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes? 

The importance or rather the subtle qualities of design that can only be engaged with through physical making. Also, the tangible aspect of a physical prototype and how that informs design decisions is an important learning that I hope the students can take away. Finally, the use of prototyping or rather physical prototyping as a tool to be critical about your own design process. 

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)? 

The students will be making 3 physical models of spatial explorations referring to their own design projects. We will also be producing a Padlet as a record of the students’ work, and a place for comments, reflection and feedback as a group. 

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern? 

I’ve never taught on this course before, so I’m worried about my assumed biases when it comes to fluency with spatial explorations. It also involves the students engaging with materials and physical processes which needs a certain amount of energy and interest. I’m worried whether the material presented will create enough enthusiasm around the task, but I’m hopeful that it will. 

How will students be informed of the observation/review? 

I will inform them at the beginning of the session. 

What would you particularly like feedback on? 

Since this is a purely experimental session, it would be great to generally hear from Campbell on how things went in terms of delivery and clarity of content. I’d love to know more about the experience of someone sitting in the room – in terms of whether the content was engaging and informative. Most importantly, it would be great to hear about my content and delivery from an inclusivity and accessibility standpoint as this is something I am trying to actively work on as part of my teaching practice. 

How will feedback be exchanged? 

Campbell and I will arrange to meet in the coming week, to exchange feedback and notes. 

Part Two 

Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions: 

Ravin Raori’s presentation of the 9 square grid exercise. 

Ravin’s session was an introduction on the 25th of January at LCC to a project called the “9 square grid Exercise”. The aim of the exercise was to break down a known space or architectural site into a grid and working on up to three of the squares individually to explore the section without the context of the rest of the space this was to encourage students work more freely and playfully with the project.  

The students were to eventually work with model making materials in creating 3d representations of what the grid squares could be, gradually expanding into other grids and changing through iterations. 

Ravin introduced himself by showing some of his work, one of which was a fantastic project working around the area of algorithmic bias in AI, an interesting subject that the students seemed engaged with, he seemed at ease with group delivery.  

Planning & Organisation 

Ravin used a clear keynote presentation with video examples and links to further information for the session. He gave context as to where the original concept came from and the purpose for which it was designed to achieve. 

Plenty of model making resources were laid out for use, the group was small at about 14 students with approximately 50% being international students.  

Presentation and methods  

Ravin’s presentation was clear and concise, he was aware of the international background of the students regularly pausing to check that they understood what was expected of them during the exercise. 

The exercise was to encourage a light studio mood, a playful way of reimagining the students’ current project and looking at how to examine one small area without the greater context of the space.  

Ravin moves about in the studio engaging with the students individually, giving a positive attitude and support to the students’ enquiries. 

Student interactions  

One of the students was unclear about the large-scale of his project and how to fit it into the project. It was clear that the student wanted to fit his pre-developed idea into the current exercise which is expected when a student is engaged and excited by their concept. 

Ravin encouraged him to expand in the nine square idea by exploring a larger area and deal with the units individually, the student seemed satisfied that he could explore the concept more in this manner. 

The students seemed at ease with Ravin and the engaging way he discussed their individual projects despite this being the first time he had tutored this group.  

Potential improvements  

I observed for 1hr 45mins and Ravin’s students seemed to slow down, to get the most of this as single session time constraints for what should be achieved could be used to keep it moving freely as often students get too focused with fitting the exercise into a pre-existing project.  

Mobile devices are a distraction for everyone so putting phones away off the desks may help keeping a concentrated pace, I could see phones being used a lot not necessarily for the project and an exercise that needs quick moving ideas can suffer from these distractions.  

Ravin is a natural teacher, he’s comfortable in engaging with people, has a strong positive attitude to the learning environment and the students were keen to listen to his presentation. 

Part Three 

Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged: 

I firstly want to thank Campbell for the generosity with his time and care. It’s quite validating to read Campbell mentioning the period of an energy drop-off in my session, as this is something I have been thinking about for some time now. He also mentioned re-iterating the outcomes/deliverables as a possible way forward, to help alleviate some of that drop-off. 

To provide some context here, my teaching sessions typically tend to last around 4 hours and are usually co-taught. I’ve been noticing that around the second and third hour, there is usually a bit of a dip in energy. It naturally depends on the day, time of the year and other things like where we are in the unit. But it has happened often enough for me to take notice. I think I’m good at setting an overall task for the students to do, but perhaps what I could be doing better is breaking down a task into a series of tasks. Maybe this way, things would feel more achievable and there’s a better reward mechanism built into the workflow. In response to that drop off, I’ve also been thinking about how I could gamify the workshop experience more, perhaps in a peer-to-peer sense or even individually. I think overall, just building in more checkpoints that allow a student to feel a sense of accomplishment might help alleviate some of the drop off I’ve been facing in energy levels. I will work on this moving forward, through my workshop planning and time management. I think Campbell’s suggestion around reminding the students of deliverables and outcomes perhaps also alludes to this in some way. Maybe the students need a way to achieve that sense of ownership over material and time. I’m going to try and design the framework for future sessions to allow for this. 

I also liked Campbell’s suggestion around putting phones away. This is another thing I’ve been wanting to do but never quite articulated as a session requirement. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that we often do have students use their phones as a tool during workshops. In a course that concerns Graphic and Media Design, this is sometimes unavoidable. However, that said, I agree it’s important for me to become more intentional as an educator; that the phone can be used in certain contexts and needs to be put way for others. This is a great bit of feedback that I can put into action quite immediately. 

Overall, the process of giving and receiving feedback has been very rewarding in ways that I did not expect. I found myself often having to confront my own bias and I think that’s the best part about being paired with someone who’s from a different background and specialism to your own. I also gained a lot from observing Campbell teach his students. At LCC, there is a very clear separation of studio and workshop spaces for my course, which has its advantages but can also end up with the two feeling quite alienated from each other. The set up for Campbell’s course has an integrated studio and workshop space that allows for a co-habitation of thinking and making, something that is not always possible for all courses. It’s not to say that one is better than the other, but simply to pick up on where things are missing and how we as educators should find other ways (that are more under our control) to improve our delivery. It was great to see how Campbell integrated himself within the space for the course and how that integration also extends into his delivery. The space allows for this as the machines, studio tables and tutorial areas are all in one big area. I want my students to feel a deeper sense of comfort and connection with workshop spaces. I plan to include more technical delivery, workshop touchpoints, inductions and technical resources into the planning of my content moving forward to respond to this. 

Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice   

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: Final Year Technical Tutorials BA Jewellery Design at CSM L114 

Size of student group: Individual Tutorials 

Observer: Ravin Raori 

Observee: Campbell Muir 

Part One 
Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review: 

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum? 

As specialist technicians we regularly give informal tutorials throughout the working day but recently I felt we should initiate bookable sit-downs with the final year students to get a broader picture of what we might anticipate is needed. Technical processes might be identified to realise final year students’ work and make sure none of them fall under the radar due to not knowing what to ask for in terms of technical solutions, processes, materials or examples. 

During these 15-20 minute discussions we can possibly identify areas and have the booked freedom to introduce a student to techniques there and then whilst going over their designs. 

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity? 

I have been working on this course for 20 years as a Technical specialist and have known this group since the start of their course. 

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes? 

To identify weak areas of understanding on technical processes and where we might need to bring in new processes to find solutions to producing final works. 

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)? 

Each student will have different outcomes but help them understand processes to finishing their jewellery pieces. 

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern? 

Language can be a barrier especially with niche technical terms not used in everyday language and sometimes students anxieties with working with some machinery. 

How will students be informed of the observation/review? 

They will be informed in person before it takes place and introduced to Ravin in person at the start of their session 

What would you particularly like feedback on? 

My clarity of instruction and pace at which I demonstrate a process, I would like to see if there’s suggestions on how I could improve delivery and if there’s ways I could record feedback. 

How will feedback be exchanged? 

Ravin and I will meet up to discuss the events. 

Part Two 

Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions: 

Campbell’s 1:1 Tutorials 

Campbell invite me to observe a series of 1:1 tutorials at Central St Martins. These tutorials were all with his final year students. The tutorials were aimed at giving the students design and technical support in their projects. The projects ranged from earrings and bracelets to tin boxes and other kinds of jewellry and artefacts that the students had been working on. 

It was clear to me from the onset of the tutorials that Campbell has a warm and friendly approach to his teaching. You can tell that the students have a level of trust and comfort around him. Campbell presents his advice in a non-confrontational manner, offering students suggestions and alternative viewpoints as opposed to telling them what to do. It is evident that his years of experience working as a specialist technician in this area have put him at the forefront of jewellry design and jewellry design education. 

Process: 

At the Desk: 

Campbell uses a combination of visual cues and sketches as he explains his feedback and further advice. This works really well as design students are often visual learners and a combination of written and oral feedback would help them take something back to their desks. They can then refer to these sketches as they develop their projects. Some of the students also brought their physical prototypes with them. This further added to the tactile nature of the tutorial, allowing the students to really see and understand how Campbell’s advice would be applied to their next steps. The whole tutorial feels like a collective brainstorm, which is nice to see. Campbell provides plenty of opportunities for the students to ask follow-up questions. In case a student does not understand something, he makes sure to repeat himself as well. Campbell consistently gives the students the pros and cons of different approaches for their projects, including a combination of design advice and practical advice (on things like material costs), which is great to see. 

At the Machines/In the workshop: 
I also observed Campbell take students to different machines, to demonstrate how to use them from the specific contexts of their projects. It felt like these were more specialist machines that perhaps the students hadn’t used before. Campbell’s demonstrations were very clear. He spent a lot of time walking the students through the steps. These steps ranged from turning on the machine to health and safety to eventually turning it off as well. He also allowed the students to try the machines, once he had completed showing them to make sure that they had understood how to use them. 

Potential Improvements (Moving Forward): 

• In ref. to Student 1: Perhaps another way to help the student learn how to use the machine could be the “see one, do one, teach one” method (see reference), where you do a live demonstration, followed by the student doing one and then have them teach it back to another person such as another student in the workshop. The act of teaching can often be an act of learning, and I have found this method useful. Perhaps, slowing down the pace could be another way forward – I have noticed that students can tend to get a bit overwhelmed when given too much information, so to make sure we do the ‘Are we on the same page’ check every so often. Perhaps this could also be achieved by giving the student more opportunities within the task to try their hand at something, as opposed to showing them the whole thing once and then giving it to them to try. I also want to state here that there are several assumptions that I’m making as it’s not my area – so do pardon me if I missed something. Finally, it was nice to see you point out resources to the students in case they needed to come back to use it again. I think incorporating more of that self-support structure for them would be great. 
• In ref. to tutorials at the desk: I think the idea of sketching for the students is wonderful, and incredibly useful for them. I wonder if you could add to it by potentially encouraging the students to bring more of their own sketches. This would help eliminate any visual bias they may gain from the ideas we give them. I’ve noticed in my experience; students can often bias themselves by agreeing with everything we as their tutors will tell them. Often, this does end up working out as everyone’s intentions are pure, however sometimes I’ve found it useful to push back on that and ask the students – “do you actually agree with what I’m saying?” I think it just gives them some of the agency back. Finally, keeping a record or potentially asking the students to keep a record of your last conversation could be a useful way to start every tutorial, just to make sure everyone’s on the same page and has been recapped adequately. It also helps the students be accountable to us and themselves, if we have a record of things that were agreed as next steps.  

Closing Comments: 

It has been an immense pleasure to conduct Campbell’s teaching observation. Aside from observing his teaching practice, I also learned a lot. Besides his high level of expertise in his subject area, his calm demeanour, positive attitude and warmth are all reasons why his students are so fond of him. I would really like to incorporate more of his hands-on techniques into my own teaching practice. It’s clear that he’s really in it with the students, in the making and the doing – unafraid to be wrong and commit mistakes. We are all human ultimately and trying our best to help the students. It’s important to show them that we are also capable of error. Making mistakes is a great way to learn. Campbell embodies all the hallmarks of a wonderful educator with characteristics that I aspire to have one day as well. 

Reference: 

https://www.positivegroup.org/loop/articles/what-is-the-watch-one-do-one-teach-one-method

Part Three 

Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged: 

It was an enjoyable afternoon having Ravin observe my technical tutorials with the students and getting feedback as we have quite similar outlooks and approaches in ways in which we teach. 

Regarding moving forward, I have always been quite keen on the concept of “see one, do one, teach one.” This is a method I first came across with my wife’s medical studies and I found it novel then with the teaching environment of a hospital. 

Over the years I have discussed this method with fellow staff members of the department, but it quite often falls fowl of health and safety issues particularly with the workshop environment in which we work. 

We lecture at the beginning of the 1^st year course what is expected of the students regarding health and safety and tell them never to instruct someone else into a process as this may invalidate any sign-off process we have and disrupt the continuity of what we inform them is the correct process. 

Also finding a moment where a student does not mind being pulled away from their work to teach a method to another student can be difficult. 

This said it could be implemented in low-risk processes where I find several students using the same technique such as stone setting process. 

This method of teaching has lots of potential and this needs to be built deliberately into a teaching session to make it work rather than trying to tag it on to existing ones. 

Recording of tutorials 

Using carbon pads for tutorials has been widespread practice for some time for tutors but not something that has been given to technicians but Ravin mentioning this has brought it to mind that technicians should be using these pads as method of recording not just tutorials but some of the more informal interactions and questions we get. 

A method for having a digital depository for each student could be good also so students could add these to online technical journals. 

Thanks again to Ravin for working with me on a highly informative process. 

The paper of free choice was ” How do art & design technicians conceive their role in higher education”.

The paper was a relatively simple look at how data was obtained through staff surveys and “Photovoice” techniques to find how Technicians view their position in the university environment.

The paper looks at the data and views generally finding that technicians perceived their roles to support staff and students in the workshop environment both traditional and virtually using the skills they have obtained through a career in education as well as practicing professionals in their field as designers and artist practitioners.

The paper also finds that as much as 40% find themselves to feel undervalued and that their roles as practising artists outwith university were not valued.

A project called “Photovoice” by Wang (1999 ) where participants worked with the researchers to create photo images of their working life that were almost meme like to open a dialogue on aspects of their working life that were shared in a technical role, this was also accompanied with a set of questions about the image and role.

Again this is a simple look at the use of images and set questions to create a discussion about the role of Technician and their place. I myself have been a Jewellery technician for 20 years and fully appreciate the sentiments stated in the paper such as my own practice not being viewed the same as my academic peers, the lack of progression in the role and having been told in the pass that I “don’t teach” in my role where in reality that’s core of our work.

Reference

Sams 2016 UAL – Technicians’ conceptions of their role.pdf ” How do art & design technicians conceive their role in higher education”

Photovoice” by Wang (1999 )

The Reading material I was allocated was “The potential of online object-based learning activities to support the teaching of intersectional environmentalism in art & design higher education” ( Willcocks & Mahon 2023 ), despite it’s daunting and verbose title it was a very interesting read.

The article explores the use of objects to encourage thought and discussion into how to explore a subject further, in this case it was on colonialisms effect on climate change, the environment and societies. The use of 19th century botanical illustrations were used and in particular the plants most favoured by European colonists of the West Indies and Asia such as Tea, Rubber and tobacco. The images provided were used to encourage students explore the way in which they were painted, devoid of environmental context such as local flora and fauna and geographical position and displayed in scientific starkness yet these were the plants that pushed out sustainable local farming changed landscapes forever and encouraged slavery.

Public domain tobacco plant drawing from 1779

The students were graphics and product design students but I find this a very useful technique for encouraging any students to open up and think about how design can inform us more about society in the wider lens and the implications their own designs will have.

For my own field in Jewellery design possibly looking at the use of large pearls in Jewellery of the aristocracy that came to colonise overseas areas, this a material that is not readily found in cold Norther European waters but that of warm Asian and Pacific seas. These becoming desired by the varying tiers of society to create a demand that would push out native industries like sustainable fishing fleets of the south sea island and replaced by early over fishing for oysters and damaging of reefs and then large scale pearl farms.

Possibly by getting students to find examples of their own that can demonstrate topics like these we can encourage more detailed examination of design practices. It can be difficult sometimes to get students to appreciate design impact and simply just delivery lecture o the facts can be dull and often be missed.

Working online in this method with students could provide a welcome rest from screen fatigue where they can be tasked with finding similar objects in their own locale in museums or surroundings that will demonstrate the topics being investigated in their briefs.

Reference

( Willcocks & Mahon 2023 ) The potential of online object-based learning activities to support the teaching of intersectional environmentalism in art & design higher education

I’ve been a Technical specialist in jewellery design for both the BA & MA at Central Saint Martins for 20 years and have been lucky to have worked with a diverse group of people from around the world.

By taking part in The PGCert in Academic practices I want to learn new ways to foster an inclusive learning environment with these diverse student groups and find new ways to create adaptable teaching methods that accommodate different abilities, cultural differences  and gender to bring a greater focus on equality and inclusivity.

I want students to feel a greater sense of community in knowing that their identities are considered and incorporated into the workshop learning environment.